Nearly forty years passed from the day of King Jan III Sobieski’s death in Wilanów (17 June 1696) to the day of his funeral in the Wawel crypt (15 January 1734), when the king’s remains were buried together with those of Marie Casimire and King Augustus II the Strong. In the forty-year period, the king’s body was reposed in the Capuchin church located at Miodowa Street in Warsaw, to which it was transported from the Castle on 23 December 1697. A printed description of the solemn deportation, an event somewhat less known than the two aforementioned dates.
The solemn ceremony began “just after eyght” in the morning. Accompanied by Franciscan monks holding burning candles, by senators and officials, the king’s body was carried into the castle courtyard and placed on “a grand wagon” covered with “a Velvet crimson Pall” with a white fabric cross in the middle, all drawn by eight horses. Visible on the sides there were eight coats of arms of the Commonwealth. Placed on the coffin there were the royal insignia, the crown, the sceptre and the orb. “Despite a hard frost”, the gathered congregation sang “The usual exequies over a Corpse”, and then the funeral cortège set off “through the Marketplace and the Nowomieyska Gate”.
The cortège was headed by all four guilds active in the capital city, holding “a Bier covered with a black Pall”, burning candles, banners lowered in mourning and drums covered with palls. They were followed by religious orders “with three-Quarter Candles Burning, as is customary in processions”, Warsaw councillors, the clergy and finally the royal music band “signing mournful Laments”.
The successive group consisted of senators carrying the insignia removed from the coffin and placed on cushions made of cloth of gold, preceding directly “His Majesty’s Body, assisted by some 24 Courtiers holding Burning Torches”. Marching on the sides, there were units of Polish reiters and those of Marie Casimire, holding “Alberds” and guarding access to the cortège. The body was followed by Grand Chancellor of the Crown Mikołaj Wyżycki, carrying the king’s heart placed inside a golden box; he was accompanied by Grand Marshal of the Crown Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski and Court Marshal of Lithuania Aleksander Paweł Sapieha. They were succeeded by Princes Aleksander and Konstanty, dressed as “mourners in the French fashion”, accompanied by Grand Treasurer of Lithuania Benedykt Paweł Sapieha. The cortège ended with “Foreign Residents”, the queen’s ladies-in-waiting, a unit of marshal reiters and “a great Number of Gathered Commoners”.
The cortège stopped in front of the church door, where ”only the more selected People were let in by the Marshal guard”. The coffin was lifted from the wagon and the crowd instantly grabbed and tore the “Velvet Blankets” covering horses and riders, with “the Pall passing in one piece to St John’s Parish Church”. The Capuchins carried the coffin (decorated with the insignia anew) into the church and placed it on the catafalque; “also the Heart in the box was placed at the foot”. The princes with the senators “took their places by the Body where they stood until the end of all the Ceremonies. Next to the Body there were a few dozen Burning Candles in silver Holders”. Visible above the catafalque there was a shield with the coats of arms of the Commonwealth and the Sobieski family’s Janina coat of arms, held by two angels and framed with a chain of the Order of the Holy Spirit. The funeral mass was celebrated by Andrzej Chryzostom Załuski, the Bishop of Płock. When the ceremony was over, “the Princes and all other People left the Church”.
