Queen Maria Clementina (Sobieska) Stuart

"Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing."--Ephesians 5:24

Maria Clementina Sobeska was born on July 18, 1702.  She was the granddaughter of King John Sobieski, who had rescued Vienna from the Turks in 1683.

In 1718, Maria Clementina agreed to marry the Jacobite king-in-exile, James III.  However, news of the marriage leaked out and the Princess was arrested and confined in Inspruck.  Chevalier Wogan (who had negotiated the marriage) was commissioned to free her.  The mission seemed nearly impossible.  However, Wogan and his little expedition located and freed the Princess, then set out back to Rome.

"...the Princess was able to proceed on her journey, during which she charmed her companions by her affability and cheerfulness."--pg. 312, History of the Irish Brigades in the Service of France

"The Princess appears to have borne with a patience and courage beyond her years."--pg. 84, Memoirs of the Pretenders by John Heneage Jesse

Maria Clementina Sobieska married James III on September 3, 1719.  He said that his new bride had "the loveliness of seventeen with the sound sense and discrimination of thirty." She had two sons, Charles Edward (a.k.a. Bonnie Prince Charlie), and Henry Benedict.  She died January 18, 1765.