King of Poland (1696–1733). He was Elector of Saxony from 1694 and succeeded John III (John Sobieski) as King of Poland in 1696. He joined Russia and Denmark against Charles XII of Sweden without Polish support but was defeated. Charles had him banished and Stanislaus Leszczynski elected king in his place. Augustus recovered his position after Charles’s defeat at Poltava (1709) and for the rest of his reign brought some economic prosperity to Saxony and Poland, although renewed war with Sweden lasted until 1718. A ruler of considerable extravagance, supposed to be the most dissolute monarch in Europe, he was a patron of the arts and gave special support to the Dresden and Meissen china factories.