Nieudane starania Augusta II o kardynalat dla księcia Antoniego Egona Fürstenberga w 1712 roku

Abstract

The paper has shown the request of Polish King August II to make the Catholic prince Antoni Egon Füerstenberg cardinal. He was a deputy of Saxony, nominated by August, and belonged, similarly as his whole prominent family from Swabia, to the protectors of Catholicism. From the political point of view, his family supported the pro-French option. August took up his initiative at the moment of the renovation of the pro-French policy adopted by Poland and Saxony, after his return to the Polish throne. The elevation of his collaborator could have been a spectacular support to enhance his own position in Europe. In his request, the king stressed his deputy’s own and his family’s merits for the Catholic cause. The Holy See, however, refused to fulfil the request. The reason it gave was that the future position of a prince-cardinal would be awkward in the political affairs of Saxony, a country which officially was still a Protestant state.