2020-07-31 Fri

Augustus was the Elector of Saxony from 1553 to 1586. He was born on 31st July 1526, in Freiberg, the youngest child and third (but second surviving) son of Henry IV, Duke of Saxony, and Catherine of Mecklenburg. He consequently belonged to the Albertine branch of the House of Wettin. Brought up as a Lutheran, he received a good education and studied at the University of Leipzig.

Augustus succeeded to the electorate of Saxony and the leadership of Germany’s Protestant princes on the death of his brother Maurice in 1553. Augustus originally followed the religious doctrines of the Lutheran reformer Philipp Melanchthon. Under his administration Saxony enjoyed economic and commercial prosperity at a time when commerce in Germany as a whole was decaying.

Depicted here is a silver Thaler issued under his reign from Dresden in 1582.

Image Source: Wikipedia.org