Following the death of John III and the loss of the political struggle to keep the throne within the Sobieski family, Maria Kazimiera decided to leave Warsaw and seek peace in Rome, under the protection of the Pope. The approaching celebrations of the Jubilee Year 1700 provided a fitting reason for her departure. The Queen, born at the Palais ducal de Nevers in France and brought up at the court of Louise Marie in an atmosphere dominated by her native culture, was well versed in the rules of court etiquette and was extremely sensitive in this regard.

The death of John III in 1696 and the election of his successor significantly altered Maria Kazimiera’s social status. There was controversy over how the queen dowager should be treated – in the 17th century, this was an unprecedented situation. Since the first free election, only Anna Jagiellonka (1523–1596) had outlived Stefan Batory, who died in 1586. As she had been proclaimed Queen of Poland in 1575, and only married the Prince of Transylvania a year later, she could lay greater claim to ceremonial precedence during the last ten years of her life than Maria Kazimiera could after Sobieski’s death.

The Polish court could not invoke the custom of honouring widowed queens from the time of their first election; consequently, Maria Kazimiera’s ceremonial entry into and reception in the Eternal City were a matter of dispute. Pope Innocent XII (Antonio Pignatelli), who had served as Apostolic Nuncio to Poland from 1660 to 1668, intended to show the Polish queen every courtesy in view of their previous good relations. ‘When the widowed Queen of Poland and wife of King John was due to arrive in Rome in 1699, Pope Innocent XII decided to accord her every honour to which she was entitled, to which the Queen was entitled, particularly because he had received much kindness from her whilst he was nuncio in Poland, precisely at the time when she married the late King Jan Sobieski.”

Maria Kazimiera’s entry into Rome was to take place according to the same ceremonial protocols as those applied to Queen Christina (1626–1689) in 1655. The Swedish monarch, whose conversion from Protestantism to Catholicism was celebrated as a symbolic victory for the papacy, was received after her abdication with every honour and the recognition of her rightful precedence. In view of Jan Sobieski’s triumph at Vienna, Maria Kazimiera demanded that she be granted the same social standing. Eyewitnesses to the Polish queen’s journey to Rome, including a member of her entourage, Antonio Bassani, confirmed that the ceremonial arrangements were modelled on those in force during the Swedish convert’s arrival in Rome.

Johann Christian Lünig commented similarly in *Theatrum ceremoniale*: “In terms of ceremonial protocol, she [Maria Kazimiera] be treated in exactly the same way as Queen Christina of Sweden, with the difference that when she meets a cardinal, both carriages will come to a halt at the same moment, which did not happen in Queen Christina’s time.” The question of whose carriage was to pass first, and who would have to give way, was indicative of the travellers’ status. In this way, their claims regarding the social hierarchy – the actual one, and more often the one they demanded – were made public before a wide audience.

Clearly, Maria Kazimiera did not agree to have her social status equated with that of the cardinals, but demanded that she be granted the precedence befitting a queen; this gave rise to numerous conflicts. Lünig describes it as follows: “If it was believed in Rome that the queen would not cause any difficulties over this matter, since the Kingdom of Poland is not a hereditary monarchy, then [Rome] was deceived on this point; for the widowed queen was, in matters of ceremony, very sensitive, and did not wish to be treated any worse in this respect than the Queen of Sweden”.

The text is taken from PASAŻ WIEDZY , where you can find more reliable texts on Old Polish history and culture

Made available courtesy of the Museum of King John III’s Palace in Wilanów