Monarch Profile: King Augustus III of Poland
The history of the last of the Polish monarchs is generally a tragic one
and the reign of Augustus III, the penultimate King of Poland, was an
example of this. He, like others of this period, often comes under
considerable criticism and yet, there should be room to have some
sympathy for these monarchs in the last years of life of the old Kingdom
of Poland. They were given a heavy responsibility, ruling a fractious
country with no defensible borders surrounded by three powerful
monarchies, Romanov Russia, Hohenzollern Prussia and Habsburg Austria,
which all sought the elimination of Poland as an unnecessary
complication to their ambitions. Yet, the Polish kings were given no
tools with which to deal with this dangerous state of affairs, occupying
a position in which they had no incentive to make long-term plans since
the kings of Poland were elected and someone of another house would
likely succeed them, their powers were curtailed and their populace was
extremely divided.
