Maria Clementina Sobieskaya

Daughter of Jacob Louis Sobieski , the eldest son of King John III, and Countess Gedwig Elizabeth Amelia of Neuburg . Her older sister Maria Carolina (known as Charlotte) was married to the Duke of Bouillon.

Maria Clementine was considered one of the richest heirs to Europe. King of Great Britain George I was opposed to the planned marriage of Mary Clementine and James Stuart , who claimed the English throne and got the opportunity to have legal heirs.

Emperor Charles VI , acting in the interests of the King of England, arrested Maria Clementine, who was on her way to Italy, to marry James Stuart. She was imprisoned in Innsbruck Castle, she managed to escape from there to Bologna , where by proxy she married James Stewart, who was in Spain at that time.

Maria Clementina's father Jacob Sobieski welcomed the news of her escape, saying that since she was engaged to James Stuart, she should follow him.

Maria Clementine and James Stuart formally became spouses on September 3, 1719 in the chapel of the Episcopal Palace in Montefiascon. At the invitation of Pope Clement XI , who recognized them as king and queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, James and Maria Clementine settled in Rome.

The pope gave them protection, allocated for the residence of the Palazzo Muti in the Roman Piazza di Santi Apostoli and a country villa in Albano. Annually, spouses from the papal treasury were paid benefits - 12,000 kroons. Clement XI and his successor Innocent XIII considered the Catholics of James and Mary Clementine the rightful king and queen of England.

The joint life of James and Mary Clementine was short-lived. Soon after the birth of their second child, Maria Clementine left her husband and retired to the Roman convent of St. Cecilia. The reason for the breakup, she said, was her husband's betrayal. James insisted on returning his wife, claiming that it was sinful to leave him and their children. However, two years later the couple divorced.

Maria Clementine died on January 18, 1735. She was buried by order of Pope Clement XII with royal honors in St. Peter's Basilica . Pope Benedict XIV ordered the sculptor Pietro Bracci (1700-1773) a tombstone for Maria Clementine.

Maria Clementine and James Stuart had two sons:

• Carl Edward Louis Philip Casimir Stewart (1720-1788), or The Handsome Prince Charles, a contender for the English and Scottish thrones as Charles III in 1766-1788. He was married to Louise Stolberg-Gedern.
• Henry Benedict Maria Clement Thomas Francis Xavier Stewart (March 11, 1725 - July 13, 1807), Cardinal Duke of York. Jacobite pretender to English and Scottish thrones since 1788 under the name of Henry IX.

• Amy Vitteleschi: A Court in Exile . Hutchinson, London 1903.
• Gaetano Platania: La Politica Europea e il Matrimonio Inglese di una Principessa Polacca. Maria Clementina Sobieska . Vecchiarelli, Rom 1993.