Marriage of Prince James Francis Edward Stewart and Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska

The marriage of Prince James Francis Edward Stuart—known as The Old Pretender, the son of the deposed King James II of England and Ireland—to Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska was both romantic and politically significant. • Date of marriage (in person): September 3, 1719 • Place: Montefiascone, near Rome, in the Papal States

Background:

Princess Maria Clementina Sobieska was the granddaughter of King John III Sobieski of Poland, and her marriage to James was part of a Catholic dynastic alliance. As a member of a powerful European family, she brought legitimacy and prestige to the Jacobite cause.

However, en route to the wedding, Maria Clementina was detained in Innsbruck (in modern-day Austria) under pressure from the British government, which feared the political implications of the union. The detention was effectively a kidnapping orchestrated to disrupt the Jacobite succession plans.

She was eventually rescued by Jacobite supporters, most notably Charles Wogan, and escaped to Italy, where she married James by proxy in Bologna in May 1719, before the formal ceremony in September.

Significance: • Their union produced Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) and Henry Benedict Stuart, two major figures in Jacobite history. • It reinforced the Catholic and European support for the Jacobite claim to the thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

The marriage symbolized defiance against the Hanoverian regime in Britain and was celebrated among Jacobite supporters across Europe.