August the strong, so called on account of his physical strength and virility in bed, was the most famous and ambitious elector of Saxony, a quiet and wealthy part of pre-united Germany. He had many children from numerous mistresses, one of which tried to blackmail her way to the throne only to end up imprisoned even after his death. August was fashionably proud of his growing weight. He bought his election as king of Poland-Lithuania, a Catholic country so he converted, to his people's horror and wrecking his marriage. His political ambitions were crushed as anti-Swedish ally of the loosing Prussian-Russian side in the Nordic Wars, which spilled into partially wrecked Saxony. Yet he regained the throne and spent even more, partially profits from Maissen's novel porcelain, on a lavish Versailles-style capital, Dresden, arts and spoiling courtiers and aristocracy in general. Despite his treasury drain and political failure, his cultural legacy remains among Germany's grandest.