James Louis Sobieski

James Louis Sobieski
Coat of arms Clan Janina
Consort Countess Palatine Hedwig Elisabeth of Neuburg
Issue
Maria Leopoldyna Sobieska
Maria Kazimiera Sobieska
Maria Karolina Sobieska
Jan Sobieski
Maria Clementina Sobieska
Maria Magdalena Sobieska
Full name
Jakub Ludwik Henryk Sobieski
Szlachta Sobieski
Father John III Sobieski
Mother Marie Casimire Louise de la Grange d'Arquien
Born November 2, 1667(1667-11-02)
Paris
Died December 19, 1737(1737-12-19) (aged 70)
Zhovkva

James Louis Sobieski (full name in Polish: Jakub Ludwik Henryk Sobieski; 2 November 1667 – 19 December 1737) was the son of King John III of Poland and Marie Casimire Louise de La Grange d'Arquien.

Contents

Biography

James Louis Sobieski was born on November 2, 1667 in Paris, France.

In 1683, the sixteen-year-old prince fought alongside his father in the battle against the Turks at Vienna.

James Louis owed allegiance to the Imperial Habsburgs as a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

On March 25, 1691, James Louis married Countess Palatine Hedwig Elisabeth Amelia of Neuburg (1673–1722), the daughter of the Palatine elector Philip William. Their children were:

  1. Maria Leopoldyna (April 30, 1693 - July 12, 1695)
  2. Maria Casimira (January 20, 1695 - May 18, 1723) - she became a nun. Her father tried to get her married to Charles XII of Sweden.
  3. Marie Carolina (November 15, 1697 - May 8, 1740) married (1) Frederick Maurice de la Tour d'Auvergne (2) Charles Godefroy de La Tour d'Auvergne (1706–1771).
  4. Maria Klementyna (July 18, 1702 - January 24, 1735), married Prince James "The Old Pretender" (1688–1766), son of King James II of England (1633–1701)
  5. Maria Magdalena (August 3, 1704 - August 3, 1704)

On the death of James Louis' father, John III, no fewer than eighteen candidates for the vacant Polish throne presented themselves. Family rivalries prevented the election of James Louis Sobieski even though Austria supported his candidacy. James Louis Sobieski’s own mother, Marie Casimire, favored her son-in-law, Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria. The powerful King Louis XIV of France supported François Louis, Prince of Conti (1664–1709).

In the end, Frederick Augustus, elector of Saxony, who renounced Lutheranism and converted to Catholicism in order to qualify, was crowned as Augustus II, King of Poland on September 1, 1697. It was the first time that a deceased monarch's son had not been elected to succeed him; that the rightful candidate had been debarred from the throne by military force; and that the Poles had acquired a German king, which went against a long tradition of keeping German hegemony at arm's length.

Augustus II’s first act as king was to expel the prince of Conti from the country. Then, in 1704 James Louis Sobieski and his brother Alexander were seized by Augustus II’s troops and imprisoned. They remained in prison for two years before finally being released.

James Louis Sobieski died on December 19, 1737 in Zhovkva, Poland and is buried there.

Ancestry

See also

External links