The following text was written in June 2013 by Volker Preuß, the author of the website 'flaggenlexikon.de'. This text was published in July 2013 in the DGF's "Flaggenkurier".
The flag of Saxony-Poland
During a stay in Kraków (Cracow, Krakau) at Easter 2013, I visited, amongst other things, Wawel Cathedral, the city’s castle and royal residence. I had actually intended to visit the tomb of Augustus the Strong, the former King of Poland, who is buried at Wawel. Only his heart rests in Dresden; his entrails are in Warsaw.
Burial chamber at Wawel in Kraków, the cathedral; at the very back is the tomb of Frederick Augustus I (the Strong)
Whilst I was there, I also visited the Wawel Treasury, a collection of precious weapons, jewellery and valuables. Right at the start, my eye was caught by a glass display case in a corner which unmistakably displayed a hand-painted Polish flag. I saw red and white (red over white!) and an eagle. On closer inspection, I became puzzled, for I saw the insignia of royal power – a sword and sceptre – and the eagle was wearing a crown, as well as a breast shield; and I was all the more surprised when I recognised the breast shield as the Saxon electoral coat of arms. So this was the flag of Poland, under the Saxon Electors as Kings of Poland! A whiff of history wafted towards me, and it is worth taking a brief look at this historical period:
Frederick Augustus I of Saxony of the House of Wettin (August the Strong, 1670–1733) was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1697 by the Polish nobility as Augustus II, not without his own rather adventurous efforts. Three years after his death, this title passed to his son Frederick Augustus II (1696–1763), who reigned as Augustus III, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, until his own death. Between 1733 and 1735, Stanisław Leszczyński was King of Poland.
The Seven Years’ War had been raging since 1756 and ended disastrously for Saxony; the Saxon troops surrendered that very same year, and the Elector and King withdrew to Warsaw. Saxony came under Prussian administration. The Peace of Hubertusburg (1763) sealed the country’s ruin, as it was forced to bear almost the entirety of Prussia’s war costs. In October, Frederick Augustus II died, and the weakened Saxon dynasty no longer had any influence over the succession to the Polish throne. His son, Frederick Christian (1722–1763), reigned for only a few months as Elector of Saxony. He was succeeded by Frederick Augustus I (1750–1827), who became Elector of Saxony as Frederick Augustus III from 1763 and the first King of Saxony from 1806.
In 1764, Stanisław August Poniatowski was elected King of Poland – not least due to the strong influence of the Russian Tsarina – and went on to play an inglorious role in Polish history, as he allowed the partitions of Poland to take place (in 1772, 1793 and 1795) and ultimately surrendered the country to Russia.
On 3 May 1791, the Sejm adopted a constitution intended to save Poland, which had been weakened by internal strife and threatened by its neighbours’ territorial claims. The constitution revived the Saxon-Polish monarchy, and Poniatowski succeeded in ensuring that, following his death, the Saxon Electors would rule the Polish state within the framework of a hereditary monarchy. However, Frederick Augustus declined this honour because he foresaw problems with Austria, Prussia and Russia, which had set their sights on Poland; in the conflicts to come, this would have jeopardised the survival of his own monarchy, and in France, too, the impending disaster for Europe was already looming. Just four years later, the Polish state ceased to exist.
Napoleon pushed through the creation of a Polish state, and Austria, Prussia and Russia were forced to cede parts of their spoils from 1795 to the Duchy of Warsaw, which was ruled from 1807 to 1815 by Frederick Augustus III – King of Saxony by the grace of Napoleon from 1806 – as Duke of Warsaw. Following the Congress of Vienna, which from 1815 onwards reorganised Europe after the Napoleonic era, the Duchy of Warsaw was dissolved (most of it falling to Russia), and the Kingdom of Saxony was considerably reduced in size (with territories ceded to Prussia).
The Wettin dynasty’s involvement as kings of Poland proved to be a financial disaster for Saxony. The bribes paid to the Polish nobility and the Church alone ultimately amounted to 39 million Reichstaler, which led to the introduction of value-added tax and even to the sale of Saxon lands, privileges and rights. The money did not benefit the Polish state, but rather the Polish magnates.
In Poland, the Saxon-Polish period was viewed with scepticism, and all manner of nonsense was – and continues to be – peddled, such as the plundering of Poland by the Wettins (the opposite is in fact the case) and the alleged weakening of the Polish army, whilst overlooking the fact that there were no standing armies at that time; the nobility was responsible for conscription, equipment and command; the nobility, who in Poland could not complain of a lack of support, were responsible for this, and even the Saxon contingent was very small and ultimately suffered a miserable defeat in 1756. In more recent times, however, it has been widely recognised in Poland that the Wettins did indeed rein in the immense centrifugal forces of the powerful magnates, thereby securing the continued existence of the Polish state.
Let’s get back to the flag at Wawel: there is a strict ban on photography in the Treasury, which is enforced by guards. In an unguarded moment, I nevertheless managed to snap a quick photo, and I decided to analyse the picture later.
The original flag of Saxony-Poland
When looking at the flag, the first thing that strikes one is that, although it features two horizontal stripes, they are red over white. This design is not entirely unfamiliar, however, as the Grand Duchy of Posen – created at the Congress of Vienna, which, as a former Polish Crown Land and former part of the Duchy of Warsaw, was ceded to Prussia – also featured two stripes, red over white. However, in light of heraldic rules, this flag design seems somewhat out of place, whether for Posen or for Saxony-Poland. The coat of arms of Poland depicts a silver eagle on a red field, from which one might actually deduce a white-on-red flag, i.e. white over red. Older Polish (Polish-Lithuanian) flags, however, displayed three horizontal stripes in red, white and red, and this continued until at least 1648, when the rule of the Vasa dynasty in Poland came to an end. The Saxon-Polish flag is therefore probably Poland’s first two-striped flag, which – although heraldically correct – was not introduced in its present form until 1918.
On closer inspection of the eagle, the following is noticeable: the eagle’s armour is depicted in gold, although its tongue is, unusually, rendered in silver. The depiction of the plumage is highly detailed, showing not only the feather shafts but also the barbs.
On examining the escutcheon, the following is noticeable: the heraldic left-hand side of the electoral coat of arms is not, as is customary, divided ten times between black and gold, but eight times between silver and black, beginning with silver at the top(!). The electoral swords on the heraldic right-hand side appear in silver rather than red, and the diamond wreath is also depicted in gold on the flag, instead of the green that has been customary since 1180.
If one accepts the above as an inaccurate and flawed depiction, a correct reconstruction of the Saxon-Polish flag is clearly called for:
The reconstructed flag of Saxony-Poland
Volker Preuß
Sources:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feder
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachsen-Polen
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_II._(Polen)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_III._(Polen)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Christian_(Sachsen)
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_August_I._(Sachsen)
"Atlas zur Geschichte", Bd. 1, VEB Hermann Haack Gotha, Leipzig 1973
"Berthelsmann Discovery '97", Bertehlsmann Lexikon Verlag, Gütersloh, 1996
