KONIGSMARK, MARIA AURORA, COUNTESS (GRAFIN) VON

born May 8, 1662, Stade, Bremen died Feb. 16, 1728, Quedlinburg, Brandenburg German noblewoman and mistress of Augustus II the Strong, elector of Saxony and king of Poland. She was for many years a powerful figure at the Saxon court. The beautiful and gifted daughter of an impoverished German nobleman in Swedish service, Countess Knigsmark met the Saxon elector in Dresden while pursuing inquiries about her missing brother Philipp Christoph. The elector Frederick Augustus I of Saxony soon made her his mistress, and the relationship resulted in the birth of a son (1696), Maurice de Saxe, the future marshal of France. In 1702 the elector, who had meanwhile become king of Poland, sent her on an unsuccessful mission to arrange peace between himself and Charles XII of Sweden. After her fall from favour, she became coadjutor abbess and lady provost of Quedlinburg, but she preferred court life and seldom resided in her holdings.