page_title: Electorate of Saxony
section_title: Saxony-Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania
hierarchical_section_title: Electorate of Saxony / Saxony-Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania
context_page_description: The Electorate of Saxony was a state of the Holy Roman Empire established when Emperor Charles IV raised the Ascanian duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg to the status of an Electorate by the Golden Bull of 1356. Upon the extinction of the House of Ascania, it was feoffed to the Margraves of Meissen from the Wettin dynasty in 1423, who moved the ducal residence up the river Elbe to Dresden. After the Empire's dissolution in 1806, the Wettin Electors raised Saxony to a territorially reduced kingdom.
context_section_description: On 1 June 1697, Elector Frederick Augustus I, "the Strong" (1694–1733) converted to Catholicism and was subsequently elected King of Poland and Grand duke of Lithuania. This marked a personal union between Saxony and the Commonwealth of Two Nations that lasted almost 70 years with interruptions (see Stanislaw Leszczynski). Meanwhile, in Saxony the formation of a Catholic parish and private observance of the Catholic faith was permitted at least in Dresden. The conversion of the Elector raised fears among many Lutherans that Catholicism would now be re-established in Saxony. In response, the Elector transferred his authority over Lutheran institutions (which, until then, had been exercised by the sovereign) to a government board, the Privy Council. The Privy Council was composed exclusively of Protestants. Even after his conversion, the Elector remained the head of the Protestant body in the Reichstag, despite an unsuccessful attempt by Brandenburg-Prussia and Hanover to take over the position in 1717–1720.
  His son, Elector Frederick Augustus II (1733–63), was received into the Catholic Church, while still heir-apparent, on 28 November 1712, in Bologna, Italy. With this conversion, which on account of the excitable sentiment of the Lutheran population, had to be kept secret for five years, the ruling family of Saxony once more became Catholic. He too was controversially "elected King of Poland and Grand duke of Lithuania", that is monarch of the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania against the French candidate, Louis François, Prince of Conti, who, on learning the result, attempted to claim the throne arriving by sea at the port of Gdańsk. His attempt was repulsed. Frederick Augustus reigned as Augustus III of Poland 1734–1763.
caption: August III of Poland as Crown Prince
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