Editing Maria Clementina Sobieska

{{Infobox royalty
| name = Maria Clementina Sobieska
| image = Maria Klementyna Sobieska (1702-1735).jpg
| caption = [[Martin van Meytens]] (after), Maria Clementina Sobieska, 1727/28, [[Scottish National Gallery]]
| succession = [[Jacobitism|Consort of the Jacobite pretender]]
| consort = yes
| reign = {{nowrap|3 September 1719 – 18 January 1735}}
| reign-type      = Pretence
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1702|07|18|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Oława]], Poland
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1735|01|18|1702|07|18|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Palazzo Muti]], [[Rome]], [[Papal States]]
| burial_place = [[St. Peter's Basilica]], Rome, Italy
| spouse = {{marriage|[[James Francis Edward Stuart]]|1719}}
| issue = [[Charles Edward Stuart]]<br/>[[Henry Benedict Stuart]]
| full name = {{langx|en|Maria Clementina Sobieska}}<br/>{{langx|pl|Maria Klementyna Sobieska}}
| house = [[House of Sobieski|Sobieski]]
| father = [[Jakub Ludwik Sobieski]]
| mother = [[Countess Palatine Hedwig Elisabeth of Neuburg|Hedwig Elisabeth of Neuburg]]
| module = [[File:Coat of arms of Maria Clementina Sobieska.png|150px]]<br />Coat of arms of Maria Clementina Sobieska
}}

'''Maria Clementina Sobieska''' ({{langx|pl|Maria Klementyna Sobieska}};<ref>Sobieska is the proper spelling of her last name, for she was female. However, English language literature commonly uses the spelling Sobieski, which is appropriate for a male member of the family.</ref> 18 July 1702 – 18 January 1735) was a titular [[Queen consort of England|queen of England, Scotland and Ireland]] by marriage to [[James Francis Edward Stuart]], a [[Jacobitism|Jacobite]] claimant to the British throne. The granddaughter of the Polish king [[John III Sobieski]], she was the mother of [[Charles Edward Stuart]] ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") and of [[Henry Benedict Stuart|Henry Benedict Cardinal Stuart]] (Jacobite Duke of York, later Jacobite claimant).

==Biography==

===Early life===
She was born Maria Klementyna Sobieska, on  18 July 1702 in [[Oława|Oława (Ohlau)]], [[Silesia]], in [[Poland]]. Her parents were Prince [[Jakub Ludwik Sobieski]] (1667–1737), the eldest son of the Polish King [[Jan III Sobieski]], and [[Countess Palatine Hedwig Elisabeth of Neuburg]] (1673–1722). Jan III Sobieski was famous for his victorious [[Battle of Vienna]] against the Ottoman Turks on 12 September 1683. Her older sister [[Maria Karolina Sobieska|Maria Karolina]] (known as ''Charlotte'') was the [[Duchess of Bouillon]] by marriage.
[[File:Agostino Masucci (1691-1758) - The Solemnisation of the Marriage of Prince James Francis Edward Stuart and Princess Maria Clementin - PG 2415 - National Galleries of Scotland.jpg|thumb|left|The solemnisation of the marriage of Prince James Francis Edward Stuart and Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska (Montefiascone 1 September 1719) by Agostino Masucci]]

===Marriage===
Being one of Europe's wealthiest heiresses from inheriting vast estates in Poland from her paternal grandfather, she was betrothed to [[James Francis Edward Stuart|James, Prince of Wales]], the exiled son of James II and VII. King [[George I of Great Britain]] was opposed to the marriage because he feared that the union might produce heirs to James Francis Edward's claim to his thrones. To placate him, [[Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor]] (Maria Clementina's own maternal first cousin) had her arrested while on her way to Italy to marry James Francis Edward. She was confined in [[Innsbruck]] Castle but eventually the guards were deceived and, with the help of [[Charles Wogan]], Maria Clementina escaped to [[Bologna]], where, for safety from further intrusions, she was [[married by proxy]] to James, who was in [[Spain]] at that time.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aronson |first1=Theo |title=Kings over the Water: The Saga of the Stuart Pretenders |date=1979 |publisher=Thistle Publishing |isbn=978-1910198070 |pages=182–187}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Maher |first1=Richard |title=The Rescue & Escape of Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska (recording of lecture) |url=https://soundcloud.com/history-hub/richard-maher-rescue-and-escape-princess-maria-clementina-sobieska |website=History Hub |accessdate=3 June 2020}}</ref> Maria Clementina's father approved her escape, declaring that, as she became engaged to James Francis Edward, she ought to "follow his fortune and his cause".

Maria Clementina and Prince James were formally married on 3 September 1719 in the chapel of the episcopal palace of [[Montefiascone]], [[Italy]], in the Cathedral of Santa Margherita.<ref>{{cite web |title=Maria Clementina Sobieska |date=8 July 2016 |url=https://cullodenbattlefield.wordpress.com/2016/07/08/maria-clementina-sobieska |accessdate=3 June 2020}}</ref> Following their marriage, James and Maria Clementina were invited to reside in [[Rome]] at the special request of [[Pope Clement XI]], who acknowledged them as the king and queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.

===Titular queen===
The Pope provided them with a papal guard of troops and gave them the [[Palazzo Muti]] in the Piazza dei Santi Apostoli in Rome to live in, as well as a country villa at [[Albano Laziale|Albano]]. The [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic Church]] also provided them with an annual allowance of 12,000 crowns out of the papal treasury. Popes Clement XI and [[Innocent XIII]] considered James and Maria Clementina, both Catholics, the rightful king and queen of England, Scotland and Ireland.
[[File:Maria Clementina Sobieski Memorial.JPG|thumb|Memorial in St. Peter's, Rome]]
The married life of James and Maria Clementina proved turbulent and unhappy. Reportedly, James initially had a favourable impression of her because of her beauty, while she disliked him because of his lack of it, as well as his passive nature.<ref name="mclynn1">Frank McLynn: ''Bonnie Prince Charlie: Charles Edward Stuart''</ref> She befriended the governess of her son, a Mrs Sheldon, who became her confidant and favourite.<ref name="mclynn1"/> On the other hand, she disliked the influence of James's favourite [[John Hay of Cromlix]] and his wife Marjorie, and reportedly, she suspected James of having an affair with Marjorie Hay.<ref name="mclynn1"/>

In 1725, soon after their second child's birth, James fired Sheldon and appointed [[James Murray (Jacobite Earl of Dunbar)|James Murray]] as the guardian of their sons against the wishes of Maria Clementina.<ref name="mclynn1"/> She left him and went to live in [[convent]] of St. Cecilia in Rome with her favourite Sheldon and the rest of her personal retinue. 
She accused her husband of adultery, while he said it was sinful to leave him and her children. Upon the advice of Cardinal Alberoni, who claimed it was her only chance to gain support against her husband, Maria Clementina claimed that James wished to give his son a Protestant education.<ref name="mclynn1"/> This claim secured her the support of the Pope as well as the Kingdom of Spain against James and the sympathy of the public when she demanded that James remove the Duke of Dunbar and the Hays from his court and reinstate Sheldon in her position.<ref name="mclynn1"/> In April 1726, James granted her sons permission to visit her. The whole affair was seen as a scandal in Europe and reported about by anti-Jacobite agents in Rome.<ref name="mclynn1"/> In May 1727, through the mediation of the duke of Liria, James removed the Hay couple from his court, and in January 1728, Maria Clementina and James reconciled in Bologna.<ref name="mclynn1"/>

In practice, however, Maria Clementina and James lived the rest of their marriage separated: James preferred to reside in Albano, while Maria Clementina lived in the Palazzo Muti in Rome.<ref name="mclynn1"/>
She was prone to depression, spending much of her time praying and submitting to religious fasting and other Catholic ascetic rituals, which is thought to have played a role in the fact that she never conceived again.<ref name="mclynn1"/> Her sexual relations with James soon discontinued; they seldom dined together, and though they were officially reconciled, she preferred to avoid him outside formal occasions.<ref name="mclynn1"/>
Maria Clementina did perform the ceremonial functions she had as Jacobite queen: in June 1729, for example, she gave an audience for [[Montesquieu]].<ref name="mclynn1"/> Her favourite Mrs Sheldon did not officially reside at the Jacobite court, but she provided her with a residence close to it, and kept her as a confidante.<ref name="mclynn1"/> Her relation to her younger son was not close, as he was his father's favourite, but she was close to their elder son Charles, who was his mother's favourite: during an illness of Charles in 1732, for example, Maria Clementina tended to him despite the fact that he fell ill in Albano and she was thus forced to meet James.<ref name="mclynn1"/>

===Death===
Her health was weakened by her [[ascetic]] life style and deteriorated as the years went by.<ref name="mclynn1"/> Maria Clementina died at the early age of 32 on 18 January 1735. Her doctor named the cause of death as 'scorbutic disease', more commonly known as [[scurvy]].<ref name="Kybett">{{cite book |last1=Kybett |first1=Susan M. |title=''Bonnie Prince Charlie: A Biography of Charles Edward Stuart''. |publisher=Unwin Hyman |location=London |date=1988 |page=40|isbn=978-0044403876}}</ref> She was interred with full royal honours in [[St. Peter's Basilica]] in [[Rome]]. [[Pope Clement XII]] ordered that she have a state burial. [[Pope Benedict XIV]] commissioned architect [[Filippo Barigioni]] to design a monument for her memory, [[Pietro Bracci]] sculpted a statue for it, and it was erected 1742 in the Basilica.

==Issue==
Maria Clementina and James Francis Edward had two sons:

*[[Charles Edward Stuart|''Charles Edward'' Louis Philip John Casimir Stuart]] (31 December 1720 – 31 January 1788), aka "Bonnie Prince Charlie", married [[Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern|Louise of Stolberg-Gedern]] and had no issue; had affair with his cousin [[Marie Louise de La Tour d'Auvergne]] and had issue; had issue with his mistress [[Clementina Walkinshaw]];
*[[Henry Benedict Stuart|''Henry Benedict'' Maria Clement Thomas Francis Xavier Stuart]] (11 March 1725 &ndash; 13 July 1807), later known as the Cardinal Duke of York.

==Ancestry==
{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|1= 1. '''Maria Clementina Sobieski'''
|2= 2. [[James Louis Sobieski]]
|3= 3. [[Hedwig Elisabeth of Neuburg]]
|4= 4. [[John III Sobieski]]
|5= 5. [[Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d'Arquien]]
|6= 6. [[Philip William, Elector Palatine]]
|7= 7. [[Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
|8= 8. [[Jakub Sobieski]]
|9= 9. [[Zofia Teofila Sobieska]]
|10= 10. [[Henri Albert de La Grange d'Arquien]]
|11= 11. Françoise de La Châtre
|12= 12. [[Wolfgang William, Count Palatine of Neuburg]]
|13= 13. [[Magdalene of Bavaria]]
|14= 14. [[George II, Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt]]
|15= 15. [[Sophia Eleonore of Saxony]]
}}

==Gallery==
<gallery class="center">
File:Maria Klementyna Sobieska.jpeg|Maria Clementina by Pierre Imbert Drevet.
File:Maria Klementyna Sobieska Funeral.jpg|"Pompe funebre" for Maria Clementina at Rome.
File:Maria Klementyna Sobieska ~ Tomb.JPG|Maria Clementina's Tomb by Barigioni and Bracci in St Peter's Basilica, Rome.
File:Medal commemorating Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska.PNG|Medal commemorating Maria Clementina from 1719
</gallery>

==In fiction==
A fictionalised re-telling of Maria Clementina's rescue from [[Innsbruck]] in 1719 forms the plot of [[A. E. W. Mason]]'s 1901 novel ''[[Clementina (novel)|Clementina]]''.

==References==
{{Commons category|Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska|Maria Clementina Sobieska}}
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{NPG name}}
*[http://www.wilanow-palac.pl/nuptials_of_maria_klementyna_sobieska.html Nuptials of Maria Klementyna Sobieska] at the Wilanów Palace Museum
** Gaetano Platania, ''Angielskie małżeństwo ;arii Klementyny Sobieskiej'', in "Sobótka", 2, 1980, pp.&nbsp;401–410.
** Gaetano Platania, ''Morte di Maria Clementina Sobieska Stuart: il caso di Michele Marieschi progettista di apparati funebr''i, in ARTE/Documento. Rivista di Storia e tutela dei Beni Culturali, 4, 1990, pp.&nbsp;164–173.
** Gaetano Platania, ''La politica europea e il matrimonio inglese di una principessa polacca: Maria Clementina Sobieska'', Accademia Polacca delle Scienze-Biblioteca e Centro Studi a Roma, Manziana (Roma), Vecchiarelli editore, 1993.
** Gaetano Platania, ''Viaggio a Roma sede d'esilio. Sovrane alla conquista di Roma: secoli XVII-XVII''I, Istituto Nazionale di Studi Romani, Roma 2002, pp.&nbsp;99–118.
*[https://www.tcd.ie/library/exhibitions/directors-choice/marriage-certificate/ The Marriage Certificate of Maria Celementina Sobieska and James III, 1719] from the [[Library of Trinity College Dublin]] [TCD IE MS 7574]

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{{S-vac|last=[[Mary of Modena]]}}
{{S-tul|title=[[Jacobite consorts|Queen consort of England, Scotland, and Ireland]]|years=1719&ndash;1735|reason=[[Glorious Revolution]]}}
{{S-vac|next=[[Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern|Louise of Stolberg-Gedern]]}}
{{S-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sobieska, Maria Clementina}}
[[Category:1702 births]]
[[Category:1735 deaths]]
[[Category:Sobieski family|Maria Clementina]]
[[Category:Jacobites]]
[[Category:18th-century Polish nobility]]
[[Category:18th-century Polish women]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica]]
[[Category:Polish people of German descent]]
[[Category:Polish Servants of God]]
[[Category:Deaths from scurvy]]
[[Category:James Francis Edward Stuart]]