From Habsburgs to Bourbons

The 1st of November of 1700, Charles II of Habsburg dies in Madrid without any sons or daughters. Our very ill king wrote in his testament that his French cousin Philip, Duke d’Anjou would be the next king of Spain. In a context of instability and crisis in Spain, important countries of Europe wanted to place their candidates in the Spanish throne. So, while France supported Philip, the grandson of Louis XIV, Great Britain and other allied countries supported other candidate, the Austrian Archduke Charles, son of the Holy Roman Emperor, also Charles II’s cousin.

Proclamation of Philip V (1700. Versailles, France)

The War of the Spanish Succession had a double aspect: European and Spanish. This war started in 1701 and finished officially in 1714. Supporters of the Archduke Charles of Habsburg were mainly:

• The Crown of Aragon (fearing Philip's French centralism),
• The Holy Roman Empire,
• The United Kingdom,
• The United Provinces,
• Savoy,
• Portugal,

Supporters of the Duke d’Anjou (Bourbon) were mainly:

• The rest of Spanish territories,
• France,
• Bavaria,
• Naples, Sicily and Sardinia.

The war was being won by the supporters of Charles in Europe but things were better in the Iberian Peninsula for Philip with the win in the Battle of Almansa in 1707, although Gibraltar was captured by England in 1704 and it is still British territory today.

In 1711 everything changed. Something happened that made the end of the war come closer. The Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire died and also his successor to the throne, Archduke Charles’ older brother. So Charles was going to be king of Austria and also Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. That fact made England think that the balance of power could change to the other way if Charles becomes the king of Spain. As the probable winners of this war, they imposed certain conditions to Philip (France and Spain) to recognise him the king of Spain in the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), like for example:

• Philip V renounces to his rights to the French throne, 
• Britain gets important trading benefits with Spanish America (slaves), 
• Great Britain gets Gibraltar and Menorca, and from France, some Canadian and Caribbean territories, 
• Savoy gets Sicily, 
• Austria gets the remaining Spanish Flanders, Naples, Milan and Sardinia,

With those conditions everyone was happy, the allied countries and Philip. Everyone? No... Remember the Kingdom of Aragon? They were in Philip’s hands, thirsty of revenge. Philip took over these territories and imposed a terrible centralist policy based in the laws of Castile over Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia and Majorca. That is something that he didn’t do in the Basque Country and Navarre, as the supported him.