Personal union of Poland and Saxony

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Poland–Saxony Unia polsko-saska (Polish) Sachsen-Polen (German)
1697–1763
Royal Banner Coat of Arms of Wettin kings of Poland
Status	Personal union
Capital	Warsaw (de facto)/Kraków (de jure) and Dresden[a]
King
• 1697–1733	Augustus II the Strong
• 1733–1763	Augustus III of Poland
Historical era	Early modern period
• Established	1697
• Disestablished	1763
Preceded by Succeeded by Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Electorate of Saxony Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Electorate of Saxony
a. ^ The king resided alternately in Warsaw and Dresden, whereas Kraków remained the officially designated capital of Poland. The kings also often stopped and hosted meetings with foreign delegations and sessions of the Senate in Wschowa, which was dubbed the "unofficial capital of Poland".

The personal union of Poland and Saxony, or Saxony-Poland, was the

This period was the first since Bolesław I the Brave that Poland and Meissen/Saxony were politically connected.

Due to the exhausting

One driving force behind the attainment of royal dignity was the desire for political sovereignty, which

After the usual bribes, Elector Augustus the Strong was able to return on 26/27 July. Contrary to all initial expectations, he was elected on the electoral field in Wola in June. On 15 September 1697 he was crowned as Augustus II in Kraków.

After the coronation, advantageous opportunities arose for both sides. Both sides felt threatened by

Despite the advantages, such as additional dynastic inheritance claims and greater weight in peace negotiations, Saxony was not satisfied with winning the Polish royal crown. Instead, Poland's potential should be made financially and militarily available to the court in Dresden.^[3] This was contradicted by the limited powers that a Polish elective king possessed. The Electorate of Saxony could only hope to benefit from the connection with Poland if it managed to acquire a land bridge between the two countries. This hope was dashed with the Prussian annexation of Silesia after 1740. As long as communication, goods traffic and troop movements depended on the good will of Habsburg or Brandenburg-Prussia, Saxony-Poland could not be considered a great power.^[4] The idea of a real union between these opposing territories as such was certainly utopian, but the actors still considered a certain unification of the two countries in the areas of administration, military, economics and finance, similar to the core countries in the Habsburg Empire, possible. Points of connection, for example, were Poland's wealth of raw materials and Saxony's manufacturing economy.

After the

After 1716, there were signs of a certain stabilization of Augustus II's government in Poland, which made some reforms possible - but there was no prospect of reforms in the spirit of absolutism. Several Imperial Diets collapsed, and King Augustus II tried unsuccessfully to secure the succession of the Electoral Prince as the next Polish king. At least Poland recovered economically from the effects of the Great Northern War in the 1920s. The feudal nobility could produce intensively, and the exchange of goods between Poland and Saxony, promoted by the Leipzig Trade Fair and facilitated by customs agreements, increased. The raw materials preferably came from Poland and finished products from Saxony. Palaces, parks and numerous new churches showed that Poland still had resources. But the aristocratic republic, which was constantly in internal blockage and power struggles, lacked the will and coherence to make something of it. A central economic and financial policy could not be implemented in Poland, a large part of the taxes (up to 20%) were stuck in the collection system and mercantilist thinking was limited to the self-interest of the magnate families.

Permanent postal routes from Dresden to Poznań, Toruń and Warsaw were established under Augustus II the Strong.^[5]

In addition to the lengthy and frustrating reform work in Poland, the permanent securing of Wettin rule in Poland played an important role in the politics of Augustus II. A first step in this direction was taken in 1733 when Elector Frederick Augustus II, the son of Augustus II, with the support of Austria and Russia and the usual bribes against the candidate of Sweden and France, Stanisław Leszczyński, was elected King of Poland. This triggered the War of the Polish Succession. Frederick Augustus II was crowned King of Poland as Augustus III of Poland on 17 January 1734 and claimed the crown in the Peace of Vienna (1738). Given this situation, the king and his prime minister Heinrich von Brühl hoped to control Poland with the “ministerial system” of magnates loyal to Saxony (who were placed in key positions) and tried to politically connect the two countries. During the Seven Years' War they even obtained the consent of their three allies for a renewed Polish crown candidacy for the Saxons, but the successes did not last.

In Saxony, after the fall of Aleksander Józef Sułkowski, Heinrich von Brühl led the government from 1738 to 1756, and in 1746 he formally became prime minister. He was a successful diplomat and consolidated the administration, but was sharply attacked in the state parliament in 1749 because of his financial policies. Despite Brühl's ruthless financial measures, the Electorate of Saxony was heading into crisis. The economy was damaged, the Saxon army, which was already too small, had to be disarmed and a significant portion of the taxes had to be pledged. There was also pressure from outside, as Saxon exports were severely hindered by the Prussian (customs) policy of the time.

But it was the Seven Years' War that brought Saxony's collapse in 1756. The Saxon army, which was too small, surrendered without a fight at Lilienstein under

Saxon rule over Poland remained loose, so that the separation of Poland from Saxony in 1706 and 1763 did not tear apart any structures that had grown together. There were attempts to expand the Saxony-Poland personal union into a real state union. There were plans in Poland to establish a Saxon succession. However, these efforts did not lead anywhere. The Electorate of Saxony had clearly overextended itself despite the additional reputation that the Polish crown brought. The economy, administration and army stagnated due to the additional burdens caused by the enormous additional expenditure on art and representation. There was a lack of a consistent economic policy towards manufacturers in Saxony. Regional planning and improvement of agriculture were also neglected in Saxony. Saxony also lagged behind the neighboring powers in the further development of its military.

With Augustus' conversion to

In Poland, this period, in which the Wettin dynasty ruled for 66 years, is also known as the Saxon period. The majority sees this time as negative for Poles. The decadent mood of that time was remembered, which became a symbol of the late Sarmatian aristocratic culture with its lavish celebrations and the lack of sense of responsibility among the majority of the magnates towards their own state. The names of the Saxon Garden and Saxon Palace in Warsaw refer to the period. Due to the weakening of the Rzeczpospolita, the partitions of Poland occurred a few decades later.

In Saxony, however, people speak of the Augustan age.^[6] At this time, Saxony was one of the more important powers in Europe. The Dresden Baroque reached its peak in the residential city of Dresden, and the Dresden art collections achieved European-wide importance. The end of the Augustan Age is considered to be the conclusion of the Treaty of Dresden in 1745 or the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763, which almost coincided with the death of King Augustus II and thus the end of the Saxon-Polish personal union.

The union resulted in increased contacts between Poles and

Numerous landmarks in Saxony, including the Zwinger, Dresden Cathedral, Japanisches Palais, Moritzburg Castle and Königstein Fortress are decorated with reliefs containing the coat of arms of Poland-Saxony. A distinct remnant of the union are the 18th-century mileposts decorated with the coats of arms of Poland and Saxony and Polish royal cyphers, located in various towns in present-day eastern Germany and south-western Poland.

The Constitution of 3 May 1791, passed by the Sejm as a result of the First Partition of Poland, stipulated that the respective “ruling Elector of Saxony should rule as king in Poland”. Elector Frederick Augustus III, however, due to the political situation, renounced the Polish crown.

In 1793, preparations for the Polish Kościuszko Uprising were initiated by Tadeusz Kościuszko in Dresden in response to the Second Partition of Poland.^[10]

Through

After the failed November Uprising in 1830, many Polish refugees and emigrants came to Saxony, whose graves can still be found, for example, in the Old Catholic Cemetery in Dresden, founded by Augustus II the Strong. Saxony willingly accepted the refugees. Polish refugees included the artistic and political elite, such as composer Frédéric Chopin, war hero Józef Bem and writer Adam Mickiewicz.^[11] Mickiewicz wrote one of his greatest works, Dziady, Part III, there.^[11] Poet and activist Wawrzyniec Benzelstjerna Engeström founded the Notatki Drezdeńskie Polish newspaper in Dresden.^[12] During the Polish uprisings against Russian, Prussian and Austrian rule between 1830 and 1863, prayers were publicly held in Dresden for a Polish victory.

The Polish communities of Dresden and Leipzig remained active until the 1930s. Polish-language church services in Dresden were cancelled only in 1932.

• Hans-Jürgen Bömelburg: Die Wettiner und die sächsischen Eliten in Polen-Litauen. In: Ronald G. Asch (publ.): Hannover, Großbritannien und Europa. Erfahrungsraum Personalunion 1714–1837 (= Veröffentlichungen der Historischen Kommission für Niedersachsen und Bremen 277). Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-8353-1584-6, p. 118–145.
• Norman Davies: God's Playground: The Origins to 1795 – A History of Poland. Oxford University Press, New York 2005, ISBN 0-19-925339-0.
• René Hanke: Brühl und das Renversement des alliances. Die antipreußische Außenpolitik des Dresdener Hofes 1744–1756. Lit, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9455-X.
• Frank-Lothar Kroll, Hendrik Thoß (publ.): Zwei Staaten, eine Krone. Die polnisch-sächsische Union 1697-1763. be.bra wissenschaft verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 3-95410-057-6.
• Rex Rexheuser (publ.): Die Personalunionen von Sachsen-Polen 1697-1763 und Hannover-England 1714-1837. Ein Vergleich. Harrassowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005 (online).