Aleksander Benedykt Sobieski

Who was Aleksander Benedykt Sobieski?

Aleksander Benedykt Stanisław Sobieski was the son of John III Sobieski, King of Poland, and his wife, Marie Casimire Louise de la Grange d'Arquien.

He was a candidate for election to the Polish throne in 1697, following his father's death, but was unsuccessful. In 1702, he declined Charles XII of Sweden's offer to set him up as a rival king to Augustus II of Poland. He died in Rome in 1714, having recently become a Capuchin friar.

In Rome he helped a Czech-Slovak portrait painter Ján Kupecký to become famous.