Prince Augustus the Strong of Saxony seeks to reassure his subjects
Like several other late-17th-century German princes, Frederick Augustus I, Elector of Saxony, really wanted to be a king. When the Polish king died, Frederick Augustus entered into secret negotiations with the Polish nobility to be elected to the Polish throne. As the price of the move would be a change of confession to Roman Catholicism, the Saxon Elector would have to reassure his subjects in the “motherland of the Reformation” that they would be able to retain their Lutheranism. After a clandestine conversion, Frederick Augustus was crowned King of Poland in mid-September 1697. When the news broke, many of his Saxon subjects were horrified and feared forcible re-Catholicization.
Seeking to allay fears, Frederick issued a decree of “religious assurance” on 29 September 1697, in which he characterized his change in faith as a personal matter and assured his subjects that they would be allowed to retain their religion. Later, “August the Strong”, as he soon became known, also acted as patron for the construction of the magnificent protestant Frauenkirche in Dresden in order to show that Saxons would be able to keep their Lutheran faith. This Baroque masterpiece made an important contribution to earning Dresden the nickname “Florence on the Elbe”. However, as Saxon taxpayers were required to foot the bill – and this after their taxes had been used as a bribe to win the new throne – many doubtless had mixed feelings about the growing importance of their country and its capital.
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