Königsmark, Aurora von (1662–1728)

Countess of Königsmark and mistress of Augustus II, elector of Saxony and king of Poland. Name variations: Maria Aurora von Konigsmark. Born Maria Aurora von Königsmark on May 8, 1662 (some sources cite 1668 or 1669), in Worms, Estonia, Russia; died at Quedlinburg, Prussia, on February 16, 1728; daughter of Swedish nobles; sister of Count Philipp Christoph von Königsmark (1665–c. 1694); had liaison with Augustus II the Strong ("Mocny"), elector of Saxony (r. 1670–1733) and king of Poland (r. 1697–1706 and 1709–1733); children: (with Augustus II) Count Maurice de Saxe, generally called Marshal de Saxe or Marshal Saxe (1696–1750, who served under Marlborough in the War of the Spanish Succession).

Aurora von Königsmark was born into a noble Swedish family on May 8, 1662. Having passed some years at Hamburg, where she attracted attention both with her beauty and her talents, Aurora went in 1694 to Dresden to look into the circumstances surrounding the sudden and mysterious disappearance from Hanover of her brother Philipp Christoph, count of Königsmark. (After entering into the service of the elector of Hanover, Philipp was accused of an affair with Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Celle [1666–1726], wife of the future George I, king of England. It is thought that Philipp was murdered in 1694.)

While in Dresden, Aurora caught the attention of Augustus, then elector of Saxony (and future king of Poland), and became his mistress. In October 1696, she gave birth to a son Maurice, afterwards the famous Marshal de Saxe. Augustus, however, soon tired of Aurora, who then spent her time in efforts to secure the position of abbess of Quedlinburg, an office which carried with it the honor of a princess of the Empire, and to recover the lost inheritance of her family in Sweden. She was made coadjutor abbess and lady-provost (Pröpstin) of Quedlinburg but lived mainly in Berlin, Dresden, and Hamburg. In 1702, she went on a diplomatic errand to Charles XII, king of Sweden, on behalf of Augustus, but her adventurous journey ended in failure. The countess, who was described by Voltaire as "the most famous woman of two centuries," died at Quedlinburg on February 16, 1728.