Fit for a Queen: The Material and Visual Culture of Maria Clementina Sobieska, Jacobite Queen in Exile

Abstract

• Tracing its manifestation across three phases in her biography — marriage, separation and funeral — this article considers the image of Maria Clementina Sobieska (1702–35). Examining the objects and portraits which surrounded Clementina’s life and death offers a new historiography for the Jacobite queen in exile. It reinstates her place not only in Stuart and Jacobite history, but in the history of early modern European monarchy and queenship. Supported by documentary sources in the Stuart Papers at Windsor, it will be argued that the Stuart court in exile, their supporters and, importantly, Clementina herself, successfully fashioned for the Stuart consort an image which identified her as an early modern queen. Doing so supported the status of her marital dynasty as exiled royals. However, her image was not singular and it could be manipulated to meet the needs of personal and political agendas, beyond explicitly Jacobite ones.