Augustus was born in Freiberg, the youngest child and third (but second surviving) son of Henry IV, Duke of Saxony, and Catherine of Mecklenburg.

Augustus, however, remained on friendly terms with his brother, and to further his policy spent some time at the court of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, in Vienna.

[1] In 1544, Maurice secured the appointment of his brother as administrator of the bishopric of Merseburg; but Augustus was very extravagant and was soon compelled to return to the Saxon court at Dresden.

This object was secured by a treaty made at Naumburg in February 1554, when, in return for the grant of Altenburg and other lands, John Frederick recognized Augustus as elector of Saxony.

In imperial politics Augustus acted upon two main principles: to cultivate the friendship of the Habsburgs, and to maintain peace between the contending religious parties.

[3] His policy of religious peace was also promoted by the marriage he negotiated between his niece Anna and the then-Catholic Prince of Orange, at the time one of the chief Habsburg vassals in the Netherlands, in 1561.

Augustus also entered into communication with the Huguenots; however, his aversion to foreign complications prevailed, and the incipient friendship with the elector Palatine soon gave way to serious dislike.

He continually urged them to consider the necessity of giving no cause of offence to their opponents, and he favoured the movement to get rid of the clause in the Peace of Augsburg concerning ecclesiastical reservation, which was offensive to many Protestants.

Associated with Flacius was a knight, Wilhelm von Grumbach, who, not satisfied with words only, made inroads into the Electorate of Saxony and sought the aid of foreign powers in his plan to depose Augustus.

In 1576 he opposed the proposal of the Protestant princes to make a grant for the War against the Ottoman Empire conditional upon the abolition of the clause concerning ecclesiastical reservation, and he continued to support the Habsburgs.

In 1573 he became guardian to the two sons of John William, duke of Saxe-Weimar, and in this capacity was able to add part of the County of Henneberg to the Electorate of Saxony.