His father was the only son of the Elector Frederick Christian of Saxony who left surviving male issue.

The people claimed a change in the constitution and demanded a young regent of the kingdom to share the government with the King Anton.

On 28 April Frederick August II dissolved the Parliament, and in 1849 he was forced to flee to the Königstein Fortress.

Later Count Beust, leader of the Austrian and feudal party in Saxony, became his principal minister and guided his policy on most occasions.

[1] In 1844 Frederick Augustus, accompanied by his personal physician Carl Gustav Carus, made an informal (incognito) visit to England and Scotland.

[2] In addition to his interest in fossils, Frederick Augustus devoted his leisure hours chiefly to the study of botany.

[1] During a journey in Tyrol, he had an accident in Brennbüchel in which he fell in front of a horse that stepped on his head.

In Vienna on 26 September 1819 (by proxy) and again in Dresden on 7 October 1819 (in person), Frederick Augustus married firstly with the Archduchess Maria Caroline of Austria (Maria Karoline Ferdinande Theresia Josephine Demetria), daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria.