The World of Teofila Jabłonowska, Crown Standard-Bearer’s Wife (1677–1754), in the Light of Family Correspondence

Abstract

This article reconstructs the world of Teofila Jabłonowska née Sieniawska (1677–1754), wife of the Crown Standard-Bearer, through family correspondence, primarily the letters written by her son, Józef Aleksander Jabłonowski, during his educational Grand Tour (1729–1731). Given the absence of Teofila’s own voice in the surviving sources, the study adopts a “mirror strategy,” analysing her presence indirectly through her son’s narratives, expectations, and silences. The mother son relationship is examined as a dynamic system of control, negotiation, and dependency, in which correspondence functioned as a key instrument of authority. Teofila appears as the central figure financing, supervising, and shaping the journey, employing financial  instruments, delayed responses, and diversified information channels to maintain control. The letters also illuminate the material and symbolic dimensions of her world, including  gardens, luxury goods, fashion, and exotic plants, situating her within the European circulation of goods and knowledge. By foregrounding these mediated traces, the article contributes to the study of female agency in early modern Europe, demonstrating how power could be exercised through financial management, information control, and family representation.