Battle of Austerlitz

'The Battle of Austerlitz, fought against an enemy of great valour but slender experience, was not of a very complicated character.  The Russians, we have seen, were extending their line to extend the French flank.  Marshal Davoust, with a division of infantry, and another of dragoons, was placed behind the convent of Raygern, to oppose the forces destined for this manoeuver, at the moment when they should conceive the point carried...'

The Battle of Austerlitz, covered in Sir Walter Scott's "The Life of Napoleon Bonaparte" (above), took place on December 2, 1805.  It was Napoleon's greatest victory, in which the Russians and Austrians were defeated.

Frederick Augustus I of Saxony

Frederick Augustus was born in Dresden; December 23, 1750. Saxony became a kingdom (December 11, 1806) following the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire under Napoleon's Confederation of the Rhine (July 12, 1806). The confederation was formed after Napoleon defeated the forces of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II at the Battle of Austerlitz. Frederick Augustus thus served as Elector of Saxony, as part of the HRE, and King of Saxony under the Rhine Confederation.

Scott covers Frederick Augustus in his "Life of Napoleon Buonaparte". The Battle of Leipzig (October 16-19, 1813) in Saxony proved very costly to Napoleon. Though he ultimately prevailed over German forces, this battle was a prelude to his abdication and exile in Elba. Per Scott, Napoleon appreciated Frederick's character:

"...Perhaps also, Napoleon might be influenced by the feeling of what was due to the confidence and fidelity of Frederick Augustus of Saxony, who, having been so long the faithful follower of his fortunes, was now to be abandoned to his own. To have set fire to that unhappy monarch's city, when leaving him behind to make terms for himself as he could, would have been an evil requital for all he had done and suffered in the cause of France..."