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AUGUSTUS FREDERIC III. 



AUMALE, DUC D 1 . 



80,000 men. the country was left in peace, but it was the peaoe of 

 iatotio. and death. 



The interval between 1718, the year of Charles XHth's death, and 

 thit of Augustus, which took place in 1738, passed away without 

 being marked by any remarkable incident*. .The unsuccessful effort 

 of Augustus to secure the duchy of Courland for his son Maurice, 

 was almost the only attempt at active policy. A marriage between 

 the king's eldest aon and an archduchess of Austria was an opportunity 

 for Augustus to display all his magnificence. The procession waa 

 such a* no court in Europe could rival ; diamond* and embroidery 

 had never been seen in greater profusion. But the people of Dresden 

 could only look with discontented eyes on a scene of magnificence, 

 cruelly contrasted with their own recent and present misery. In 

 addition to thia, the recantation of the young prince, and the favour 

 nhown by the king to the Jesuit* and high Catholic party in Poland, 

 filled the Lutheran population of Saxony with nnxious fear* for their 

 religious liberties. 



Augustus wa* not beloved by hi) subject* in either of hi* king- 

 doms ; each complained that they were sacrificed to the other, while, 

 in reality, both were sacrificed to the vain-glory, luxury, lioentiouv 

 nea, and prodigious extravagance of the prince. In Saxony hi* prodi- 

 gality wa* favourable to the arts ; the fine buildings of Dresden were 

 mostly erected by him ; and the porcelain manufacture of Saxony 

 (the rage with the princes of that day) may be said to have been 

 founded in his reign. Poland had not even this trifling recompense : 

 to that unfortunate country hi* election was an unalleviated mil- 

 fortune. 



AI-'M'STi's FREDERIC III, son of Auguttu* II, elector of 

 Saxony and king of Poland, was born at Dresden, October 7, 1696. 

 Hi* father, wishing to give him the, same accomplishments that had 

 distinguished himself, sent him in 1711 to visit the different court* of 

 Europe ; but the young prince gained from his travels only the love 

 of idleness and pleasure. The death of his father in 1733 made 

 Augu'tut elector of Saxony, and left him at the same time the 

 strongest pretensions to the throne of Poland. His indolent nature 

 shrunk, it is said, from struggling to attain this uneasy eminence ; 

 but his wife, a daughter of Austria, urged Augustus to become a candi- 

 date. He was supported by th court* of Vienna and St Petersburg, 

 both anxious that Poland should have fnr a monarch a prince of easy 

 disposition, possessed of foreign and distant dominions. France how- 

 ever favoured his father's old competitor Staninlaus, whose daughter 

 had become the wife of Louis XV., and the Polish nation eagerly 

 embraced the occasion to elect a native prince. But a Russian army 

 advanced to enforce the pretensions of Augustus HI.; the Pole* dis- 

 puted gallantly but unsuccessfully the passage of the Vistula ; and 

 under Russian auspices a few of the Saxon partisans in Poland, meeting 

 in the village of Katnien, proceeded to the counter-election of Augustus. 

 Hi* competitor Stanislaus was obliged to take refuge in Danzig, which 

 he was compelled eventually to abandon, along with his pretensions to 

 the throne of Poland. Augustus did not become undisputed monarch 

 of Poland till after the Diet of Pacification, held at Warsaw in 1736. 

 Though oppressed by foreign troop*, the Pole* showed themselves 

 jealous of their independence. They stipulated for the dismissal of 

 foreigner*, and for the maintenance of only 1200 Saxon guards within 

 the kingdom. 



The favourite adviser of Augustus had up to this time been the old 

 companion of his travels, Sulkowiki ; but he was now superseded by 

 Count Bruhl, who henceforth monopolised all authority in Saxony and 

 Poland. In view of a probable dispute a* to the succession to the 

 throne of Austria on the death of Charles VI, it was Sulkowski's 

 project to conquer Bohemia for Saxony. Bruhl at first abandoned 

 this scheme, and leagued with Austria to support the succession of 

 Maria There**. In a little time however he was tempted to throw 

 Saxony into the opposite party, and to resume the scheme of appro- 

 priating Bohemia, while Frederic was to have Silesia. Augustus 

 anqiiiesoert. The Saxon and Prussian troops fought in alliance, but 

 bad not been long in the field when Augustus learned to hi* astonish- 

 ment that hi* minuter had again deserted Frederic. Soon after, in 

 1743, an alliance was concluded at Warsaw between England, Saxony, 

 sad Austria, for the defence of the house of Hapsburg. The king of 



instantly marched 100,000 men into Saxony, routed all that 

 opposed him, and made himself master of Dresden, December 1745 ; 

 whilst Augustus, with bis minister, took refuge in Poland. The truce 

 of 1746 however restored to him the electorate ; and at the same period 

 took place the marriage of Augustus's daughter, Maria Josephs, with 

 the dauphin of France a marriage from which sprung Louis XVI, 

 Louis XVIII, and Charles X. 



In consequence of a freah plot in conjunction with Russia against 

 Prussia, Frederic invaded Saxony in 1766, and succeeded in taking 

 captire the entire Saxon army in it* entrenched camp at Pirna. 

 Augustus again fled to Poland. His reign in this latter country was 

 a* pernicious a* in Saxony. If Saxony wa* humble 1 in it* pride, 

 tripped of it* resources, an I ravaged by invading armies, Poland suf- 

 fered equal injury, though lea* violence. It was allowed to sink into 

 what Rulhieres ca!U ' a tranquil anarchy.' It* diet*, which were seldom 

 held, were n.rer allowed to come to a resolution or pass a law. It had 

 no court or king : Augustus, who was passionately fond of the chacc, 

 - well-stocked forest* of Saxony to the plains of Poland. 



Saxony itaelf having fallen into iniignificance, its monarch* tunk 

 into a ttate of dependence upon Russia, and St Petersburg became the 

 capital to which the Poles retorted, rather than to Dresden. Thus 

 the supremacy of Russia wat allowed ailently to establish itself in 

 Poland under the empty government of Augustus. Pictures, porcelain, 

 fete*, and music, were the only care* of this weak and foolish prince, 

 who wa* to his father what Louis XV. wa* to Louis XIV., except that 

 Augustus III, though prodigal and luxurious, waa no sensualist. 

 Rulhicrea even reproaches him for his stupid constancy to hi* queen 

 a singular specimen of the French historian's own ideas of morality. 

 Augustus III. expired at Dresden in October 170:l. 



AUGUSTUS FREDERICK. Prince of Great Britain and Ireland 

 and Duke of Sussex, the sixth ton and ninth child of George HI, 

 wa* born at Buckingham Palace on the 27th of January 1773. After 

 having made some progress in hit studies under private tuition, he 

 went to the University of Oiittingen, and subsequently travelled in 

 Italy. During this tour, and while still under age, he contracted at 

 Rome a marriage with Lady Augusta Murray, second daughter of the 

 Earl of Dunmore in Scotland. The marriage ceremony wat performed 

 at Rome by a clergyman of the English Church, in April 1793, and in 

 consequence of doubts having arisen whether a marriage performed by 

 a Protestant clergyman in Rome, where there is no British representa- 

 tive, could be valid, the ceremony wa* repeated at St. George's, Han- 

 over-square, London, on the 5th of December 1793. At the instance 

 of the crown, this marriage wa", in 1794, declared in the Prerogative 

 Court of Canterbury to be null and void, by the terms of the act 

 12 George III, cap. Ill, called the Royal Marriage Act It is the 

 opinion of eminent lawyers that several important point* in the ques- 

 tion involved were left untouched by the decision iu thit case. But 

 the decision was in effect affirmed, by the rejection of the House of 

 Lord* of the claim of Sir Augustus D'Este to take his seat a* a peer 

 of the realm. The duke was for some years separated from Lady 

 Augusta, who died on the 5th of March 1834, and the fruit of the 

 union was a son, Colonel Sir Augustus Frederick D'Ette, born 13th of 

 January 1794, and a daughter, Ellen Augusta D'Este, born llth of 

 Augunt 1801, who both survived their parent*. Prince Augustus was 

 raised to the peerage on the 27th of November 1801, when he r 

 patent* a* Baron Arklow, Earl of Inverness, and Duke of Sussex. 

 Parliament voted him nn income of 12,0002. a year, which was after- 

 wards increased to 18,0001. The Duke of Sussex early adopt, 

 was to the last days of his life a steady and persevering advocate of 

 the liberal side in politics. In his votes and speeches, at various times, 

 he supported the abolition of the slave-trade and of slavery, anil tlie 

 removal of the Roman Catholic and Jewish disabilities. He was a 

 friend to religious toleration in its widest sense. He took a w.irm 

 and active interest in the progress of the Reform Bill, and gave his 

 support to the principles of free trade. He was also connected with 

 many public and benevolent institutions. On hi* eldest broth r 

 becoming Prince Regent in 1810, the Duke of Sussex became Grand 

 Master of the United Order of Free Masons of England and Wales. 

 In 1816 he became President of the Society of Art*. On the 30th of 

 November 1830 he became President of the Royal Society, which 

 office he relinquished in 1839. Some years before his death be con- 

 tracted a second marriage, without acceding to the terms of th 

 Marriage Act, with the Lady Cecilia Letitia Itug^in (widow of Sir 

 George Buggin), who, on the 30th of March 1840 was raised to the 

 dignity of Duchess of Inverness. His Royal Highness died at K< n 

 sington Palacs on the 21st of April 1S43. The event* of his life 

 portray hi* character. He wa* a man of most kindly disposition, and 

 singularly free from ostentation. He was bountiful to many institu- 

 tion* for purpose* of charity and social improvement; and, notwith- 

 standing this drain on his comparatively limited means, he left behind 

 him one of the most magnificent private, libraries in Britain, consisting 

 of upwards of 60,000 volumes, 12,000 of which were theological. An 

 elaborate catalogue of a portion of it, entitled ' Bibliotheca Sussex iana,' 

 wat prepared by Dr. Pettigre w. The first volume, relating to theological 

 and biblical manuscripts, appeared in 1827 ; the second volume, relat- 

 ing solely to thu unrivalled collection of printed bibles and portions 

 of bibles, was printed in 1839. (Abridged from thu Biographical 

 Dictionary of the Society for Hie Diffiuton of 1'itful Knowledge.) 



AUMALK, CHARLES UK LOItKAINE, DUC D', sprung from 

 a branch of the ducal house of Lorraine, which hod settled in Franco 

 about the beginning of the 16th century, wheu it was possessed of tlm 

 fief of Aumale. His father, Claude d Aumale, wa* governor of I'.ur- 

 gundy, and uncle to Henry, duke of Quiae, the head of the League. 

 [GuisE, DUKKS or.] Charles d' Aumale entered into the party of the 

 League, which, under pretence of suppressing the Huguenot-*, :i 

 to the supreme power. After the assassination of the Duke of Guise, 

 in December 1588, D' Aumale and the Duke of Mayenne became the 

 heads of their party. D'Aumale in 15S9 took possession of Paris, 

 from which King Henry III. had been obliged to retire, when he 

 dissolved the parliament by force, and sent its members to tbo Bastille. 

 Shortly afterwards he marched from 1'arix with 1(1,000 men to attack 

 the town of Seulis, but was defeated by La Noue. For a short time 

 he defended Paris against the forces of Henri IV, who, after the 

 assassination of Henri HI., succeeded to the crown. After tho sur- 

 render of Paris to Henri IV, D'Aumalo joined the Spaniards, who 

 had invaded the province of Picardy, for which he was declared guilty 



