War of the Spanish Succession

Not to be confused with War of the Castilian Succession.

War of the Spanish Succession
Marshal Villars leading the French charge during the Battle of Denain. Oil painting by Jean Alaux, 1839; Palace of Versailles.
Date July 1701 – July 2, 1715 Location Western Europe, North Africa and America Result Treaty of Utrecht, Treaty of Rastatt and Treaty of Baden Philip V is recognized as King of Spain, without right to the French throne. Great Britain acquires the right of asiento. Territorial changes Spain cedes Menorca and Gibraltar to Great Britain, Sicily to Savoy, and the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Milan and Sardinia to Austria. France cedes areas of Canada to Great Britain and obtains Landau in der Pfalz and Barcelonnette.
Belligerents
Bourbons: Spain loyal to Philip V France Bavaria (until 1704) Cologne Mantua Portugal (until 1703) Savoy (until 1703)	Austracists: Spain loyal to Archduke Charles Holy Roman Empire Austria Prussia Hanover United Provinces Great Britain (union of kingdoms in 1707) England Scotland Portugal (from 1703) Savoy (from 1703) Denmark (auxiliary corps)
Commanders and leaders
Political leaders: Philip V Louis XIV Maximilian II Charles III Commanders: Marquis of Villadarias Duke of Berwick Cardinal Belluga Marquis of Bay Duke of Vendôme Duke of Villars Count of Tessé Duke of Villeroy Duke of Boufflers	Political leaders: Archduke Charles Leopold I Joseph I Anne I Anthonie Heinsius Victor Amadeus II Commanders: Rafael Casanova Basset y Ramos Margrave of Baden-Baden Prince of Hesse-Darmstadt Count of Starhember Prince of Savoy Duke of Marlborough George Rooke Marquis of Ruvigny Lord of Overkirk Earl of Albemarle Marquis of Minas
Strength
30,000 350,000 32,000 (Soldiers mobilized at the same time. Not all belligerents are included)	100,000 75,000 130,000 (Soldiers mobilized at the same time. Not all belligerents are included)
Casualties and losses
10,000–12,000 killed in combat 115,000–140,000 killed in combat 4,000–5,000 killed in combat	35,000–40,000 killed in combat 24,000–30,000 killed in combat 40,000–52,000 killed in combat
Probably between 400,000 and 700,000 dead (100,000 to 200,000 civilians), only 228,000 to 274,000 killed in combat, most from disease and wounds. Other sources raise the figure to 1,251,000 dead, nearly half a million of them in France, many from disease.

The War of the Spanish Succession was an international conflict that lasted from 1701 until the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

The fundamental cause of the outbreak of the war was the death without issue of Charles II of Spain, the last representative of the House of Habsburg, and its principal consequence was the establishment of the House of Bourbon on the throne of Spain.

Within the country, the War of Succession evolved into a civil war between Bourbon supporters, who found their main support in the Crown of Castile, and Austracists, who were the majority in the Crown of Aragon, whose last embers were not extinguished until 1714 with the capitulation of Barcelona and 1715 with the capitulation of Majorca to the forces of King Philip V of Spain.

For the Hispanic Monarchy, the main consequences of the war were the loss of its European possessions and the disappearance of the Crown of Aragon, which put an end to the "federal" model of monarchy, or "composite monarchy," of the Spanish Habsburgs.

Prior political situation

The treaties of partition of the territories of the "Catholic Monarchy" of Charles II

Charles II of Spain, last Spanish King of the Habsburg dynasty, by Juan Carreño Miranda.

The last King of Spain of the House of Habsburg, Charles II the Bewitched, was unable to leave descendants because of his illness. During the years before his death—in November 1700—the succession question became an international matter and made it evident that Spain constituted a tempting prize for the various European powers.

Both King Louis XIV of France, of the House of Bourbon, and Emperor Leopold I of the Holy Roman Empire, of the House of Habsburg, claimed rights to the Spanish succession because both were married to Spanish infantas, daughters of King Philip IV, father of Charles II, and, moreover, the mothers of both were daughters of King Philip III, grandfather of Charles II. Both the mother and the wife of Louis XIV, Anne of Austria and Maria Theresa of Austria respectively, had been born before their respective sisters, Maria of Austria and Margaret of Austria, mother and wife of Emperor Leopold I.

King Louis XIV had been married to Maria Theresa of Austria, elder sister of Charles II, and the Grand Dauphin of France, the only firstborn son of both who was still alive, appeared to be the descendant of the "Catholic King" with the strongest rights to the Spanish Crown. However, against him was the fact that both Anne of Austria and Maria Theresa of Austria had renounced their succession rights to the Crown of Spain, for themselves and for their descendants, with the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees. Moreover, since the Grand Dauphin was also heir to the French throne, the union of both crowns would have meant, in practice, the union of Spain—with its vast empire—and France under a single leadership, at a time when France was strong enough to be able to impose itself as the hegemonic power.

For his part, Emperor Leopold I had been married to Margaret of Austria, sister of Charles II, and their daughter, Maria Antonia of Austria, was the holder of the succession rights of the Hispanic Monarchy in the event of Charles II's death, but she died in 1692, before the death of Charles II. Thus, the surviving sons of Emperor Leopold I, first cousins of Charles II, asserted their succession right, although they had a lesser kinship than the Grand Dauphin since their mother was not Spanish but the German Eleanor of Neuburg, so, as Joaquim Albareda has pointed out, "in legal terms the succession question was convoluted, since both families [Bourbons and Habsburgs] could claim rights to the [Spanish] crown."

Family ties of Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria, Philip of Anjou and Archduke Charles with the House of Austria (the House of Habsburg in Spain).

On the other hand, the other two great powers of Western Europe, England and the Netherlands, viewed with concern the possibility of the union of the French and Spanish Crowns because of the danger that the emergence of a power of such magnitude would pose to their interests. The sons of Leopold I also posed problems, since the choice of either of the two as heir would mean the resurrection of an empire similar to that of Charles I of Spain of the 16th century (broken up by the division of his inheritance between his son Philip II of Spain and his brother Ferdinand I of Habsburg). This was a fear shared by Louis XIV, who did not want a repetition of the situation of the times of Charles I of Spain, in which the Spain–Austria axis fatally isolated France. Although both Louis XIV and Leopold I were willing to transfer their claims to the throne to younger members of their families—Louis to the youngest son of the dauphin, Philip of Anjou, and Leopold to his younger son, Archduke Charles—both England and the Netherlands supported a third option, which was also looked upon favorably by the Spanish court: the choice of the son of the Elector of Bavaria, Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria, only son of Maria Antonia of Austria, grandson of Leopold I, great-grandson of Philip IV and grandnephew of King Charles II. The Bavarian candidate seemed the least threatening option for the European powers, so King Charles II named Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria as his successor and heir to all the kingdoms, states and lordships of the Hispanic Monarchy.

To prevent the formation of a Hispano-German bloc that would stifle France, Louis XIV sponsored the First Partition Treaty, signed in The Hague in 1698, behind Spain's back. According to this treaty, Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria was allotted the peninsular kingdoms (except Guipúzcoa), Sardinia, the Spanish Netherlands and the Indies, with the Milanese going to Archduke Charles and Naples, Sicily, the Presidi of Tuscany and Finale and Guipúzcoa to the dauphin of France, as compensation for his renunciation of the Hispanic Crown.

The will of Charles II

In the last decade of the 17th century, an opinion spread at the court of Madrid in favor of convening the Cortes of Castile to resolve the succession question if King Charles II, as was foreseeable, died without issue. This option was supported by Queen Maria Anna of Neuburg, the ambassador of the Holy Roman Empire Aloisio de Harrach, and by some members of the Council of State and the Council of Castile, who as early as 1694 defended "the assembly of the Cortes as the only remedy to save the Monarchy." However, against this "constitutionalist" option the absolutist position prevailed, which held that it was the King who had to resolve the question in his will.

Portrait of Cardinal Portocarrero, by Juan Carreño de Miranda.

In 1696, when Charles II made his will in favor of Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria and, above all, when in 1698 the signing of the First Partition Treaty became known in Madrid, which left Archduke Charles only with the Milanese, a "German party" (or Austracist party) formed at court to pressure the King to change his will in favor of the Emperor's second son. This "German party" was headed by Juan Tomás Enríquez de Cabrera, Admiral of Castile, and by the Count of Oropesa, President of the Council of Castile and de facto prime minister, and the Count of Aguilar, and had the support of the Queen and of the Imperial ambassador. Opposite it stood the "Bavarian party," headed by Cardinal Luis Fernández Portocarrero, and Louis XIV's ambassador, the Marquis of Harcourt, who continued pressing to defend the rights of Philip of Anjou.

The succession question became a serious political crisis from February 1699, when the premature death of the candidate chosen by Charles II, Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria—six years old—took place, which led to the Second Partition Treaty, also behind Spain's back. Under this agreement Archduke Charles was recognized as heir, but all of Spain's Italian territories, in addition to Guipúzcoa, were left to France. Although France, the Netherlands and England were satisfied with the agreement, Austria was not and claimed the whole of the Spanish inheritance. Nor was it accepted by the Spanish court, headed by Cardinal Portocarrero, because besides imposing an heir it entailed the dismemberment of the territories of the Monarchy. Cardinal Portocarrero's "Bavarian party," having been left without a candidate, ended up leaning toward Philip of Anjou. Thus was born the "French party," which would end up winning out over the "German party," thanks, among other reasons, to the effective work of ambassador Harcourt—which did not exclude bribery among the Grandees of Spain— "against the ineffective Austrian ambassador Aloisio de Harrach, whose relations with the queen, as if that were not enough, were never good." "While Charles II was subjected to exorcisms to free him from supposed spells." The Marquis of Villafranca, one of the most prominent members of Portocarrero's group, justified the decision in favor of the French candidate thus:

Looking to the entire maintenance of this Monarchy, there is little or nothing to doubt that only by one of the sons of the dauphin, the second or the third, entering into it can it be maintained

Thus Charles II, persuaded also by Harcourt's pressure that the "French option" was the best to ensure the integrity of the "Catholic Monarchy" and of the Spanish Empire—and this despite the four wars that had been fought against Louis XIV over the course of his reign: the War of Devolution between 1667 and 1668; the Dutch War between 1673 and 1678; the War of the Reunions between 1683 and 1685; and the Nine Years' War between 1688 and 1697—made his will on October 2, 1700, one month before his death, in favor of Philip of Anjou, second son of the Dauphin of France and grandson of Louis XIV, whom he named "successor... to all my Kingdoms and dominions, without exception of any part of them"—thereby invalidating the two partition treaties.

Allegory of the recognition of the Duke of Anjou as King of Spain, by Henri Antoine de Favanne (1704).

In the will Charles II established two rules of great importance that the future Philip V would not comply with. The first was the express charge to his successors that they maintain "the same tribunals and forms of government" of his Monarchy and that "very especially they keep the laws and fueros of my kingdoms, so that all their government be administered by natives of them, without dispensing with this for any cause; for in addition to the right that the kingdoms themselves have to this, the gravest inconveniences have been found in the contrary." Thus he said that the "possession" of "my Kingdoms and lordships" by Philip of Anjou and the recognition by "my subjects and vassals..." [as] "their king and natural lord" had to be preceded by "the oath that he must make to observe the laws, fueros and customs of said Kingdoms and lordships of mine," and in the rest of the will nine more direct references to respect for the "laws, fueros, constitutions and customs" were included. According to Joaquim Albareda, all of this shows Charles II's will to "ensure the preservation of the old political structure of the monarchy in the face of foreseeable changes that might occur at the hands of Philip V." The second rule was that Philip had to renounce the succession of France, so that "this monarchy may always remain separate from the crown of France."

In conclusion, the choice of Philip of Anjou was due to the fact that the Spanish government's main priority was the preservation of the unity of the territories of the Spanish Empire, and Louis XIV of France was at that moment the most powerful Monarch in Europe and, therefore, practically the only one capable of carrying out that task.

The acceptance of the will by Louis XIV and the breach of the Second Partition Treaty

On November 1, 1700, Charles II died—three days earlier he had appointed a Governing Junta, at the head of which he had placed Cardinal Portocarrero. On November 9 it was confirmed at Versailles that Charles II had named as his successor the second son of the dauphin of France, Philip of Anjou, which opened a debate among Louis XIV's councilors, since acceptance of the will would mean breaking the Second Partition Treaty signed in March with the Kingdom of England and with the United Provinces. The French ambassador in London recounted Louis XIV's doubt: "he felt pleased by the union of the two monarchies, but foresaw that it could lead to a war that he had set out to avoid."

Proclamation of Philip V as King of Spain at the Palace of Versailles (France) on November 16, 1700. Painting by François Gérard.

Louis XIV finally endorsed the will. On November 12, 1700, he made public the acceptance of the inheritance in a letter addressed to the Queen dowager of Spain in which he said:

Our thought will be applied each day to restore, through an inviolable peace, the monarchy of Spain to the highest degree of glory it has ever attained. We accept on behalf of our grandson the Duke of Anjou the will of the late Catholic King.

Official portrait of Louis XIV of France, by Hyacinthe Rigaud (1702).

On November 16, the King of France, before an assembly composed of the royal family, high officials of the kingdom and the foreign ambassadors, presented the Duke of Anjou with these words:

Gentlemen, here you have the King of Spain.

But he then addressed to his grandson a sentence that unsettled the rest of the European powers, whose response would not be long in coming:

Be a good Spaniard, that is your first duty, but remember that you were born French, and maintain the union between the two nations; such is the way to make them happy and to maintain the peace of Europe.

Nor did the sentence go unnoticed by Cardinal Portocarrero's Governing Junta—since it violated the will of King Charles II, which expressly prohibited the union of the two crowns—especially when the Spanish ambassador at the court of Versailles told the cardinal what Louis XIV had said to him during the meeting they held on the very day of Philip V's presentation:

There are no longer any Pyrenees; two nations, which for so long have disputed preeminence, will henceforth be no more than a single people.

These fears were confirmed the following month when Louis XIV made a formal declaration preserving Philip V's right of succession to the throne of France—legalized by virtue of letters granted by the Parlement of Paris on February 1, 1701—, which opened "the door to an eventual union of Spain and France, violated the will of Charles II and threatened the European balance." At the same time Louis XIV ordered French troops to occupy in Philip V's name, on the night of February 5 to 6, the barrier fortresses of the Spanish Netherlands (Nieuwpoort, Oudenaarde, Ath, Mons, Charleroi, Namur and Luxembourg), owing "to the little enthusiasm of the States General of the Spanish Netherlands for swearing allegiance to the Duke of Anjou as King of Spain," which on the other hand caused "a veritable panic on the London Stock Exchange," since it could be the beginning of a war, as the occupation of those fortresses, which were in the hands of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, constituted a violation of the Treaty of Rijswijk of 1697. In addition, Louis XIV's envoys began to make institutional changes in the Southern Netherlands and to increase taxes.

Philip V takes the throne

Philip of Bourbon, Duke of Anjou, by Hyacinthe Rigaud (1701).

Philip of Anjou entered Spain through Vera de Bidasoa (Navarre), arriving in Madrid on February 17, 1701. The people of Madrid, weary of the long and agonizing reign of Charles II, received him with delirious joy and with hopes of renewal. Soon the new King Philip V of Spain would become known, not without a certain irony, by the nickname the Spirited.

He was anointed as King in Toledo by Cardinal Portocarrero and proclaimed as such by the Cortes of Castile assembled on May 8, 1701, in the Royal Monastery of San Jerónimo. On September 17 Philip V swore the Fueros of the Kingdom of Aragon and then went to Barcelona, where he had convened the Catalan Cortes. There, on October 4, 1701, he swore the Catalan Constitutions, and while the Cortes were in session he had to remain in the capital of the Principality. Finally, at the beginning of 1702, he was able to close the Cortes after being forced to make important concessions—such as the creation of the Tribunal de Contrafacciones—thus reinforcing the pactist conception of relations between the sovereign and his vassals. As a memorial presented by the Catalan institutions recalled: "in Catalonia the one who makes the laws is the king with the court" and "in the Cortes most just laws are enacted by which the justice of the kings and the obedience of the vassals are ensured." The Cortes of the Kingdom of Aragon, presided over by the Queen since Philip embarked on April 8 from Barcelona for the Kingdom of Naples, were never closed because of the Queen's departure for Madrid, leaving pending the petitions of the four branches that made them up. The Cortes of the Kingdom of Valencia were never convened.

On the other hand, after his arrival in Madrid, Philip V, following the instructions of the French ambassador, the Marquis of Harcourt, formed a "Council of Dispatch" (Consejo de Despacho), the highest governing body of the Monarchy above the Councils established by the Habsburgs, made up of the King himself and Cardinal Portocarrero, President of the Governing Junta appointed by Charles II; Manuel Arias, President of the Council of Castile; and Antonio de Ubilla, appointed Secretary of the Universal Dispatch, soon joined by the French ambassador at Louis XIV's insistence, since it immediately became clear, according to the French historian Janine Fayard, that "Louis XIV was going to act as the true master of Spain." Thus in June 1701 he sent Jean Orry to the court of Madrid to take charge of putting in order and increasing the resources of the Monarchy's Treasury, and he also negotiated, without consulting him, Philip's marriage to the Savoyard Princess Maria Luisa of Savoy—the royal wedding was celebrated in Barcelona, where Philip V had gone to swear as Count of Barcelona before the Catalan Cortes—who completely dominated the King despite being barely fourteen years old, with the support of the sixty-year-old Princess of the Ursins, appointed camarera mayor of the palace at Louis XIV's suggestion. That Louis XIV took the reins of government in the Monarchy of Spain is also proven by the 400 letters he sent to his grandson between 1701 and 1715, "in which he was lavish with political advice, even orders," and by the prominent role his ambassador played at the court of Madrid. "It was, then, the French king... who controlled the real levers of power. In this way, the respective ambassadors—Harcourt, Marcin, the two Estrées, uncle and nephew, and Gramont—did not act as legal representatives of France in the strict sense but as true ministers."

Louis XIV's interest in the "Catholic Monarchy" lay fundamentally in its Empire of the West Indies, as he acknowledged later in a letter sent to his ambassador in Madrid once the war had begun: "the main object of the present war is the trade of the Indies and of the riches they produce." This is what explains why the Council of Dispatch immediately took a series of measures to favor French trade with the American Empire. Thus, in a few months more than thirty ships were making continuous voyages between French ports and those of New Spain and Peru, and later the ports of Spanish America were "peacefully invaded" by hundreds of French ships, breaking the strict provisions that had been in force for two centuries and that granted the monopoly of trade with America to the House of Trade of Seville. The most far-reaching measure was the granting of the asiento de negros—the monopoly of the slave trade with America—to the Compagnie de Guinée on August 27, 1701—a company in which Louis XIV and Philip V held 50% of the capital—, which also received the privilege of extracting gold, silver and other goods, free of taxes, from the ports where it had sold slaves. Some historians consider this decision to be the trigger of the War of the Spanish Succession, and so some contemporaries saw it, especially the English and the Dutch.

The birth of the anti-Bourbon Grand Alliance

The opening of the Spanish Empire to French trade was one of the great fears of the two maritime powers of the time, England and the United Provinces, which suspected France of seeking to take over Spanish trade with America, this being one of the reasons why on January 20, 1701, an alliance was signed to carry out joint operations against France and to support the aspirations of Emperor Leopold I's second son to the Spanish throne. When the concessions made by Philip V to the Compagnie de Guinée in the slave trade became known—which coincided with Louis XIV's recognition of James III Stuart in his aspirations to the throne of London—England and the United Provinces promoted the formation of a great anti-Bourbon coalition. Thus on September 7, 1701, the Treaty of The Hague was signed, giving birth to the Grand Alliance, formed by Austria, England, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, Prussia and most of the German states, which declared war on Louis XIV and Philip V in May 1702. The Kingdom of Portugal and the Duchy of Savoy would join the Grand Alliance in May 1703.

The war began at first on the borders of France with the States of the Grand Alliance, and later in Spain itself, where it became a European war within the country, leading to a true civil war. Some have argued that this war took place between the various crowns that made up the Monarchy, depending on which were more attached to the French model and which to the Habsburg model, however, as Ignacio Vicent López demonstrates in El Discurso de la Fidelidad en la Guerra de la Sucesión, the division of loyalties to one or the other claimant depended on a multitude of factors, among which the religious one was not the least important, and the Crown (Crown of Aragon, of Castile) to which one belonged was by no means the decisive one.

Once the war was over, the States of the Crown of Aragon disappeared when their own laws and institutions were abolished and replaced by the "laws of Castile, so praiseworthy and commendable throughout the universe"—as stated in the Nueva Planta Decree of 1707 that put an end to the Spanish kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia—and only the Basque "provinces" and the Kingdom of Navarre kept their own laws and institutions, having remained loyal to the Bourbon cause.

The beginning of the war (1701–1705)

First military actions

As the King of Spain held the Duchy of Milan and, together with France, was allied with several Italian princes, such as Victor Amadeus II of Savoy and Charles III, Duke of Mantua, French troops occupied almost all of northern Italy up to Lake Garda. Prince Eugene of Savoy, in command of the troops of the Austrian Emperor, began hostilities in 1701, without a declaration of war, defeating the French Marshal Nicolas Catinat at the Battle of Carpi, as well as his successor Marshal Villeroy at the Battle of Chiari, but he did not manage to take Milan because of supply problems. At the beginning of 1702 the first attack was launched by Austrian troops against the city of Cremona, in Lombardy, taking Villeroy prisoner (Battle of Cremona). His place was taken by the Duke of Vendôme, who repelled the invading troops of Prince Eugene of Savoy's army. The supporters of Emperor Leopold I first attacked the electorates of Cologne and Brunswick, which had sided with Louis XIV of France, occupying those principalities. They also wanted to prevent the French forces from joining those of the Elector of Bavaria, for which purpose they raised an army under the command of Margrave Louis William of Baden, which took up positions on the upper Rhine facing the French forces commanded by Marshal Villars. The Margrave of Baden conquered Landau, in Alsace, on September 9, 1702, and on October 14, 1702, the two armies clashed again at the Battle of Friedlingen, from which neither emerged victorious, but which resulted in the French withdrawing behind the Rhine and being unable to join the Bavarians. Further north, Marshal Tallard once again occupied the entire Duchy of Lorraine and the city of Trier.

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, by Adriaen van der Werff (1704).

Encouraged by his grandfather, in 1702 Philip V landed near Naples, pacifying the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in a month, after which he re-embarked for Finale. From there he went to Milan, where he was also received with enthusiasm, joining the Duke of Vendôme's army near the Po river at the beginning of July. The first battle took place at Santa Vittoria and resulted in the destruction of General Visconti's army by the Franco-Spanish troops, followed by a bloody attempt at revenge at the Battle of Luzzara. His conduct in these battles was brilliant, bordering on reckless. Plunged into a new bout of his morbid melancholy, he re-embarked and returned to Spain, passing through Catalonia and Aragon and making a triumphal entry into Madrid on January 13, 1703. On his return the bad news awaited him that the Imperial Diet had declared war on him and his grandfather as usurpers of the Spanish throne. The army of the Duke of Burgundy had to retreat before the superiority of the Duke of Marlborough (protagonist of the children's song Mambrú se fue a la guerra), losing Kaiserswerth on June 15, 1702, Landau on September 12, Venlo on September 23, Roermond on October 7, Liège on October 31 and Rheinberg on February 15, 1703. This was somewhat offset by the successes of the Elector of Bavaria (ally of the Bourbon cause), who took Ulm and Memmingen.

The allies bring the war to the peninsula

One of the main concerns of the allies was to obtain a naval base in the Mediterranean for the English and Dutch fleets. Their first attempt was to take Cádiz in August 1702, but it failed. In the Battle of Cádiz an allied army of 14,000 men landed near that city at a time when there were almost no troops in Spain. They were gathered in great haste, even resorting to private funds of Philip V's wife, Queen Maria Luisa of Savoy (who in the future would be affectionately known by the Castilians as "la Saboyana"), and of Cardinal Luis Fernández Portocarrero. Surprisingly, this allied army was repulsed, and the Spanish defense triumphed.

Map of the Battle of Cádiz (1702).

Before re-embarking on September 19, the allied troops devoted themselves to plundering and sacking Puerto de Santa María and Rota, which would be used by Bourbon propaganda—according to the Philip-supporting Marquis of San Felipe the soldiers "committed the most enormous sacrileges, joining the rage of enemies to that of heretics, for not even the temples and sacred images escaped their fury"—and made it impossible for Andalusia to rise up against Philip V as the Castilian Austracists led by the Admiral of Castile had planned.

Ludolf Backhuysen: the Battle of Rande in the Ría de Vigo, oil painting, National Maritime Museum.

Another concern of the allies was to interfere with the transatlantic routes that connected Spain with its Empire in America, especially by attacking the fleet of the Indies that carried the precious metals that constituted the fundamental source of revenue of the Treasury of the Spanish Monarchy. Thus in October 1702 the English and Dutch fleets sighted off the coast of Galicia the fleet of the Indies coming from Havana, escorted by twenty-three French ships, which was forced to take refuge in the Ría de Vigo. There it was attacked on October 23 by the allied ships during the Battle of Rande, inflicting significant losses on it, although practically all of the silver was unloaded in time. It was taken first to Lugo and later to the alcázar of Segovia.

One of the main turns of the war took place in the summer of 1703, when the Kingdom of Portugal and the Duchy of Savoy joined the other states that made up the Treaty of The Hague, until then formed only by England, Austria and the Netherlands. The Duke of Savoy, despite being the father of Philip V's wife, signed the Treaty of Turin, and Peter II of Portugal, who in 1701 had signed a treaty of alliance with the Bourbons, negotiated with the allies his change of sides in exchange for concessions at the expense of the Spanish Empire in America, such as Colonia del Sacramento, and for obtaining certain strongholds in Extremadura—among them Badajoz—and in Galicia—which included Vigo. Thus on May 16, 1703, the Treaty of Lisbon was signed, which turned Portugal into an excellent base for land and sea operations for the Austracist side.

The entry of Savoy and, above all, of Portugal into the Grand Alliance gave a boost to the aspirations of the House of Austria, which now saw much closer the possibility of placing one of its members on the Spanish throne. Thus on September 12, 1703, Emperor Leopold I formally proclaimed his second son, Archduke Charles of Austria, as King Charles III of Spain, renouncing at the same time, in his own name and that of his firstborn, the rights to the Hispanic crown, which made it possible for England and Holland to recognize Charles III as King of Spain. From that moment there were formally two kings of Spain.

On May 4, 1704, Archduke Charles landed in Lisbon with the favor of King Peter II of Portugal. The "Carlist" cause (as it came to be called, although it is not related to the Carlist Wars) was gaining followers. King Peter II published a manifesto in which he justified his decision to withdraw his support from Philip V. Charles III arrived in Lisbon at the head of an Anglo-Dutch fleet carrying 4,000 English and 2,000 Dutch soldiers, to whom were added 20,000 Portuguese paid by the two maritime powers. In Santarém Charles proclaimed his purpose of "freeing our beloved and faithful vassals from the slavery in which the tyrannical government of France has placed them," which sought "to reduce the dominions of Spain to a province of its own." He remained in Lisbon until July 23, 1705.

The Archduke made an attempt at invasion through the valley of the Tagus, in Extremadura, with an Anglo-Dutch army that was repulsed by the by then considerable royal army of 40,000 men, under Philip V's orders since March, which would later receive French reinforcements under the command of James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, a brilliant general of English origin. A second Anglo-Portuguese attempt to take Ciudad Rodrigo was also repulsed.

British man-of-war before the Rock of Gibraltar, by Thomas Whitcombe (c. 1800).

For its part, England had long since staked on command of the seas, and what it really wanted was the exhaustion of the two contenders, as well as the division of the Spanish territories so as to obtain strategic points for its trade and obtain maximum benefits. In 1704, George Rooke and George of Darmstadt carried out the landing at Barcelona, an undertaking that turned into a failure because the Catalan institutions, despite their sympathies for the Austracist cause, did not lead any rebellion. However, on the way back, the fleet besieged Gibraltar, which was defended by only 500 men, most of them militiamen, under the command of Diego de Salinas. Gibraltar surrendered honorably on August 4, 1704, to the Prince of Darmstadt after two days of fighting—that is, it surrendered to troops under the flag of a self-proclaimed Spanish king, Charles III of Habsburg—and the Prince assumed the office of governor of the stronghold.

A French fleet under the command of the Count of Toulouse tried to recover Gibraltar a few weeks later, confronting the Anglo-Dutch fleet under Rooke's command on August 24 off Málaga. The naval Battle of Málaga was one of the largest of the war. It lasted thirteen hours, but at dawn the next day the French fleet withdrew, so Gibraltar remained in allied hands. Thus they finally obtained what they had been trying for since the failure of the taking of Cádiz in August 1702: a naval base for the Mediterranean operations of the English and Dutch fleets.

In the same month in which the taking of Gibraltar occurred, the allies achieved at the Battle of Blenheim (Bavaria) one of their greatest and most decisive victories of the war. In the battle, which took place on August 13, 1704, a Franco-Bavarian army of 56,000 men under the command of Count Marcin and Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria faced an allied army composed of 67,000 Imperial, English and Dutch soldiers under the command of the Duke of Marlborough. The fighting lasted fifteen long hours, at the end of which the Bourbon army suffered a total defeat: it had 34,000 casualties and 14,000 soldiers were taken prisoner. The allies for their part lost 14,000 men between dead and wounded. The Elector of Bavaria took refuge in the Spanish Netherlands while his State was occupied and administered by the Austrians—and so it would remain until the end of the war—whereby Louis XIV lost his main ally in Central Europe. According to most historians, the victory of Blenheim put an end to "forty years of French military supremacy on the continent." "From that moment Louis XIV faced a clearly adverse military scenario."

The Austracist uprising of the Principality of Catalonia and the Kingdom of Valencia

Main articles: War of the Spanish Succession in the Kingdom of Valencia and War of the Spanish Succession in Catalonia

After the failure of the Austracist landing at Barcelona at the end of May 1704, the Viceroy of Catalonia Francisco Antonio Fernández de Velasco y Tovar unleashed a wave of repression against Catalan Austracism, accusing the Conference of the Three Commons of being "the office where the preceding conspiracy was formed." Many of its members were imprisoned and finally Viceroy Fernández de Velasco ordered its suppression.

In March 1705, Queen Anne of England appointed as her commissioner Mitford Crowe, a brandy merchant settled in the Principality of Catalonia, "to contract an alliance between us and the aforementioned Principality or any other province of Spain," and gave him instructions to negotiate with some representative of the Catalan institutions. However, Crowe was unable to meet with any of their members because of Viceroy Velasco's repression, so he got in touch with the group of the Vigatans, so that they would sign the Anglo-Catalan alliance on behalf of the Principality. Thus was born the Pact of Genoa, so called after the city where it was signed on June 20, 1705, which established a political and military alliance between the Kingdom of England and the group of Vigatans representing the Principality of Catalonia. Under the terms of the agreement, England would land troops in Catalonia, which, together with the Catalan forces, would fight on behalf of the claimant to the Spanish throne Charles of Austria against the armies of Philip V, England likewise committing itself to maintain Catalonia's own laws and institutions.

Siege of Barcelona (1705).

The Vigatans fulfilled their part of the pact and spread the rebellion in favor of the Archduke, and by the beginning of October 1705 they had taken control of practically the entire Principality, except Barcelona, where Viceroy Velasco still dominated the situation. For his part, Archduke Charles, in fulfillment of what had been agreed in Genoa, embarked in Lisbon bound for Catalonia at the head of a large allied fleet. In mid-August the fleet stopped at Altea, and in Denia the Archduke was proclaimed King, after which the Valencian Austracist revolt of the maulets led by Juan Bautista Basset y Ramos spread. On August 22 the allied fleet arrived at Barcelona, when the Catalan Austracist revolt was at its height, and a few days later some 17,000 soldiers landed, beginning the siege of Barcelona of 1705, which the Vigatans joined.

On September 15, 1705, as soon as they had captured Montjuic Castle, in whose assault the Prince of Darmstadt—one of the main champions of the Archduke's cause—lost his life, the allies began to bombard Barcelona from there. On October 9 Barcelona capitulated and on the 22nd Charles entered the city. On November 7 he swore the Catalan Constitutions, and then convened the Catalan Cortes.

In Catalonia the population's favorable attitude toward the Austracist cause was due to several reasons: first, the bad memory the Catalans had of the French since the Peace of the Pyrenees (1659) certified the cession of Roussillon, with the city of Perpignan included, to the French Crown—the Catalans were convinced that Roussillon would never be reunited with Catalonia with a Bourbon king in Spain—; second, the fact that the House of Austria had always respected their Constitutions, an attitude diametrically opposed to Bourbon centralism.

Valencia declared for Charles III on December 16, so that by the end of the year, in Catalonia and Valencia, only Alicante and Rosas remained loyal to Philip V.

The war drags on (1706–1710)

Archduke Charles proclaimed Charles III of Spain

Portrait of Archduke Charles before the port of Barcelona, oil painting by Frans van Stampart, Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna.

After the surrender of Barcelona, Philip V tried to recover the capital of the Principality of Catalonia, and a Bourbon army made up of 18,000 men under the orders of the Duke of Noailles and of Marshal Tessé began the siege of Barcelona of 1706 on April 3, while Philip V himself settled in Sarrià. By the end of April the Bourbons already controlled Montjuic Castle, from where they prepared the assault on the city. But on May 8 an Anglo-Dutch fleet of 56 ships with more than 10,000 men on board under the command of Admiral John Leake arrived at Barcelona, which forced the Bourbons to withdraw. Philip V crossed the French border, entering Spain again through Pamplona.

On leaving Madrid, Philip V had left the Portuguese front almost unguarded, so that almost at the same time as the allied squadron arrived at Barcelona, an Anglo-Portuguese army took Badajoz and Plasencia and advanced on Madrid through the valleys of the Duero and the Tagus. In May the allies took Ciudad Rodrigo and Salamanca, which forced the King and Queen to abandon Madrid and move to Burgos with the court. The Admiral of the Bourbon squadron, the Marquis of Santa Cruz, went over to the Austrian side. Zaragoza proclaimed Charles III, leaving only Tarazona and Jaca in Aragon loyal to the Bourbon cause. Charles III left Barcelona and on June 27, 1706, the first entry of Archduke Charles into Madrid took place, where he was received with a coldness that surprised Charles himself. In Madrid he was proclaimed on July 2 as Charles III King of Spain, but at the end of that same month he left the capital bound for Valencia because of the lack of support he had found—only a few nobles had sworn obedience to him—and the supply problems of the allied troops. Philip V entered Madrid again on October 4 amid popular acclaim, while the Duke of Berwick, together with Bishop Luis Antonio de Belluga y Moncada and "free corps" (forerunners of the guerrillas), reconquered Elche, Orihuela and Cartagena, capturing 12,000 prisoners. On the other hand, on the very day on which Philip V once again occupied the throne in Madrid, the Archduke was proclaimed King in the Kingdom of Majorca after the Austracist capture of Majorca. On October 10, Charles III the Archduke swore the Fueros in Valencia and was likewise consecrated as Monarch of the Kingdom of Valencia.

On the rest of the European fronts the Bourbons were defeated at the Battle of Ramillies in May 1706, and 15,000 soldiers were taken prisoner, whereupon the Duke of Marlborough took almost all of the Spanish Netherlands, including Brussels, Bruges, Leuven, Ostend, Ghent and Mechelen; and in Italy the siege of Turin, the capital of Savoy, was lifted, which allowed the Duke of Savoy to take Milan on September 26, and Eugene of Savoy conquered the Kingdom of Naples for Archduke Charles.

The Battle of Almansa and the end of the kingdoms of Valencia and Aragon

Battle fought on the fields of Almansa by the arms of the two crowns, against those of the Portuguese, English and Dutch on April 25, 1707, oil painting by Buonaventura Ligli and Filippo Pallotta (topographer), 1709, Museo del Prado.

On April 25, 1707, an allied Anglo-Portuguese-Dutch army gave battle to the Bourbon troops on the plain of Almansa without knowing of the important reinforcements the latter had received. Thus, the Bourbon victory at the Battle of Almansa was very important, but not decisive for the end of the war.

The allied army withdrew and the Bourbon forces advanced, taking Valencia, recovering Alcoy and Denia (May 8) and Zaragoza (May 26). On June 20 Játiva fell and was burned. Lérida was taken by assault on October 14. The political consequences of the Battle of Almansa were important. The Fueros of Valencia and the Fueros of Aragon were abolished by means of the Nueva Planta Decree. Despite the dispatch of an army by Archduke Charles's brother, Tortosa subsequently fell as well, in July 1708, and Alicante, in April 1709.

The 1709 rupture between Philip V and Louis XIV

Main articles: Preliminaries of The Hague and Geertruidenberg conference

This euphoria was short-lived. The land triumphs of the House of Bourbon were offset by the maritime triumphs owed to Anglo-Dutch naval superiority. In that same year of 1708 the stronghold of Oran and the islands of Sardinia and Menorca were lost. Moreover, the war in Europe was going badly for Louis XIV, and his enemies had brought him to the brink of military collapse. He had sent a disastrous expedition with the intention of restoring the Stuarts in Scotland. At the Battle of Oudenarde (July 1708) he had suffered a crushing defeat and had lost the city of Lille.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Torcy. Engraving by Hyacinthe Rigaud.

At the beginning of 1709 a serious economic and financial crisis began in France that made it very difficult for it to continue fighting. For this reason Louis XIV sent his minister of State, the Marquis of Torcy, to The Hague to negotiate the end of the war. An agreement of 42 points called the Preliminaries of The Hague was reached, but it was rejected by Louis XIV because it imposed on him conditions he considered humiliating: to recognize Archduke Charles as King of Spain with the title of Charles III and to help the allies remove his grandson Philip of Bourbon from the throne if the latter refused to give it up after the stipulated period of two months had passed.

As Louis XIV had foreseen, Philip V was not willing to voluntarily abandon the throne of Spain, and so his ambassador Michel-Jean Amelot informed him, having tried to convince the King to content himself with some territories so as to avoid the loss of the entire monarchy. But despite everything Louis XIV ordered his troops to leave Spain, except for 25 battalions, because, as he himself said, "I have rejected the odious proposal of contributing to dispossess him [Philip V] of his kingdom; but if I continue giving him the means to maintain himself in it, I make peace impossible." "The conclusion that [Louis XIV] reached was severe for Philip V: it was impossible for the war to end as long as he remained on the throne of Spain," states Joaquim Albareda.

The withdrawal of the troops from Spain allowed Louis XIV to concentrate on the defense of the borders of his kingdom, threatened from the north because of the allied advance in the Spanish Netherlands. And for this he placed all his trust in Marshal Villars, who on September 11, 1709, faced the allied troops under the command of the Duke of Marlborough at the Battle of Malplaquet. Although the allies prevailed, they had many more casualties than the French, who therefore considered it a "glorious defeat" that allowed them to resist the allied advance. However, they could not prevent Marlborough from taking Mons on October 23 and gaining complete control of the Spanish Netherlands.

Philip V, in agreement with the "Savoyard" Queen, reacted against Louis XIV, having his heir sworn in and seeking total independence to rule Spain.

I have long been resolved and there is nothing in the world that can make me change. Since God girded my brow with the Crown of Spain, I will preserve it and defend it as long as a drop of blood remains in my veins; it is a duty imposed on me by my conscience, my honor and the love I profess for my subjects.

Philip V demanded that his grandfather dismiss his ambassador in Spain and also broke with the Papacy, which had recognized Archduke Charles of Austria, closing the Tribunal of the Rota and expelling the nuncio in Madrid.

At the beginning of 1710 there was a new attempt to reach an agreement between the allies and Louis XIV at the Geertruidenberg talks, but these too failed. What would lead to the Treaty of Utrecht that put an end to the War of the Spanish Succession were the secret negotiations that Louis XIV began shortly afterward with the British government, behind Philip V's back, as on the two previous occasions.

1710, the decisive year for Philip V

The Battle of Zaragoza.

Map of troop movements in Spain during the War of the Succession.

In 1710 in Europe they were quietly preparing for the great peace negotiation. The military campaigns took place exclusively in Spain.

In the spring of 1710 the army of Archduke Charles (Charles III to his supporters) began a campaign from Catalonia to try to occupy Madrid for the second time. On July 27 the allied army under the command of Guido von Starhemberg and James Stanhope defeated the Bourbons at the Battle of Almenar, and almost a month later, on August 20, defeated the army of the Marquis of Bay at the battle of Zaragoza—also called the Battle of Monte Torrero—causing a rout of the Bourbon troops and taking many prisoners. After this victory the Kingdom of Aragon passed once again into Austracist hands, and Charles III the Archduke kept his promise and restored the Fueros of Aragon, abolished by the Nueva Planta Decree of 1707. Finally the second entry of Archduke Charles into Madrid took place on September 28—Philip V and his court had withdrawn to Valladolid—although he would remain there only one month. Almost at the same time a maritime expedition was organized in Barcelona to reconquer the Kingdom of Valencia, formed by eight English ships under the orders of the Count of Savellà, in which a thousand Catalans and a thousand Valencian Austracists who had taken refuge there after the Bourbon conquest of their kingdom enlisted, but the undertaking failed because when the ships reached the Grao of Valencia the expected uprising of the maulets did not take place.

When Archduke Charles made his second entry into Madrid he is said to have exclaimed "This city is a desert," and he decided to lodge outside the walls. This state of affairs was brief, since the allied armies abandoned Madrid at the end of October. Volunteer bands arose throughout the countryside and cities of Castile, which were organized into "free corps." Louis XIV, disillusioned with his possible pacts with the allies, sent the Duke of Vendôme, with whom, in a new campaign, Philip V, who marched and camped with his army, entered Madrid for the third time on December 3, amid a thunderous clamor. Vendôme would comment: "Never have I seen such loyalty of the people to their king."

Without any battle taking place, Archduke Charles had withdrawn from the hostile and cold Castilian terrain (Vendôme had forced him to take position in Guadarrama), by the Aragon road to winter in Barcelona. His troops sacked churches during the retreat, which earned them the hatred of the people. Philip V set out with his troops without losing time in pursuit of the Austracist army, which had made the mistake of dividing its forces in the Alcarria. In the midst of the freezing blizzard that dominated the Alcarria in winter, James Stanhope's British army took refuge in the hollow where the town of Brihuega lies, 85 km from Madrid, without securing the heights that surrounded it. The Bourbon army did not hesitate to place artillery pieces on the surrounding heights and bombard the town, then unleash an assault, thus beginning the Battle of Brihuega. After a few hours, Stanhope capitulated and the town was taken along with 4,000 prisoners.

That same night, the Prince of Starhemberg with the rest of the Austrian army and the Aragonese troops, some 14,000 men, arrived to relieve Stanhope and halted near Villaviciosa de Tajuña, 3 km to the northeast, marking his camp with bonfires to encourage the defenders of Brihuega. In the early morning of December 10 he was spotted by the scouts of the Bourbon army, which went straight out to meet the Austracist contingent, beginning the Battle of Villaviciosa at midday and ending at nightfall with the total destruction of the Austracist army and the flight of Starhemberg with 60 men. In these victories one thing became evident: the Castilian people collaborated with almost passionate devotion with the Bourbon King. This placed the members of the Grand Alliance of The Hague before the sad evidence that they could hardly win the war in Spain, and that even if they won the military campaigns, the chances of being accepted by the Spanish people, except in the strongholds clinging to the Austracist cause, were very slim. After the victories of the Alcarria, Philip V continued his advance toward Zaragoza, which surrendered to him without a fight on January 4, 1711. Simultaneously, a French army of 15,000 men under the command of the Duke of Noailles quartered in Perpignan was preparing to cross the Pyrenean border and attack Catalonia.

After the Bourbon triumphs of Brihuega and Villaviciosa, the war in the Iberian Peninsula took a decisive turn in favor of Philip V—the victorious French general was acclaimed in Madrid with the cry of "Long live Vendôme our liberator!" They also had important international repercussions, because they served to make Louis XIV change his stance of ceasing to support Philip V militarily and to strengthen the political program of the new British Tory government, which had emerged from the elections held in autumn 1710, of ending the war as quickly as possible. Louis XIV himself described the new situation created by the Philippist victories thus:

My joy has been immense... [Philip V's victories represent] the decisive turn of the entire war of succession: my grandson's throne at last secured, the archduke discouraged... the moderate party in London confirmed in its desire for peace

The end of the conflict (1711–1714)

Toward the Peace of Utrecht

Louis XIV and his heirs (around 1710). From left to right: Louis, Duke of Brittany, dressed as a girl; the Grand Dauphin, son of Louis XIV; Louis XIV, seated; Louis, Duke of Burgundy, son of the Grand Dauphin and father of the Duke of Brittany.

On April 17, 1711, Emperor Joseph I of Habsburg died, and his successor was his brother, Archduke Charles. Three days earlier Louis of France, nicknamed the "Grand Dauphin" and father of Philip V, had died. This placed Philip in an even closer position in the succession of Louis XIV, with only his elder brother, the Duke of Burgundy, still ahead of him, along with the latter's son, a weak child whom everyone expected to die young, named Louis, at that moment Duke of Anjou, since Philip had left the duchy vacant, and who would ultimately reign as Louis XV. These deaths changed the situation. The possible union of Spain with Austria in the person of the Archduke could be more dangerous for Great Britain and Holland than the Spain-France union, since it meant the reappearance of the Hispano-German bloc that had been so powerful in the times of Emperor Charles V. The other European states, and above all England, accelerated negotiations toward a possible peace as soon as possible, now that the situation suited them, and began to see the advantages of recognizing Philip V as King of Spain. Fortunately for them, France was exhausted, which made it more inclined to negotiate. Louis XIV's pact with England was made in secret. England undertook to recognize Philip V in exchange for keeping Gibraltar and Menorca and commercial advantages in Hispanic America. Formal talks opened in Utrecht in January 1712, without Spain being invited to them at that time.

In February 1712 the Duke of Burgundy died, leaving only Louis, whom everyone considered incapable. Louis XIV wished to name his grandson Philip as regent, but the English made it an indispensable condition for peace that the crowns of Spain and France remain separate. Whoever occupied one of the kingdoms necessarily had to renounce the other. In Spain there were minor skirmishes during those days, although Barcelona reaffirmed its support for Elisabeth Christine, the wife of Archduke Charles, by then already Emperor Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire, who had remained in the city as regent and as a guarantee that her husband was not renouncing his claims to the Spanish throne. On the European stage, on July 24 Prince Eugene of Savoy was defeated at the Battle of Denain, which allowed the French to recover several strongholds. Finally Philip V made his decision public. On November 9, 1712, he pronounced before the Cortes his renunciation of his rights to the French throne, while the other French princes did the same with respect to the Spanish throne before the Parlement of Paris, which removed the last point obstructing peace.

The Treaty of Utrecht

Main article: Treaty of Utrecht

The Treaty of Utrecht.

On April 11, 1713, the first Treaty of Utrecht was signed between the Monarchy of Great Britain and other allied states and the Monarchy of France. Its consequence was the partition of the states of the Hispanic Monarchy that Charles II and his counselors had so wished to avoid. The Catholic Netherlands (corresponding approximately to present-day Belgium and Luxembourg), the Kingdom of Naples, Sardinia and the Duchy of Milan remained in the hands of the by now Emperor Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire, while the Kingdom of Sicily passed to the Duke of Savoy (although in 1718 he would exchange it with Charles VI for the Island of Sardinia).

On July 10 a second Treaty of Utrecht was signed between the Monarchies of Great Britain and Spain, according to which Menorca and Gibraltar passed to the British Crown (the Monarchy of France had already ceded to it in America the island of Newfoundland, Acadia, the Island of Saint Kitts in the Antilles, and the territories of Hudson Bay). To this must be added the privileges that Great Britain obtained in the slave market, through the right of asiento, and the navío de permiso, in the Spanish Indies.

Europe after the treaties of Utrecht, Rastatt and Baden:
Habsburg gains (Spanish Netherlands, kingdoms of Naples and Sardinia, and Duchy of Milan)
Savoyard gains (Kingdom of Sicily, exchanged in 1720 for Sardinia).
British gains (Menorca and Gibraltar)
Prussian gains (part of Upper Guelders)

The Austrian Empire had remained outside this peace, since Charles VI did not renounce the Spanish throne, and the Austrian Empress was still in Barcelona. The Spanish cessions to the Holy Roman Empire would not take effect until Charles VI renounced his claims. This happened in two phases: first with the peace between the Empire and the Monarchy of France in the Treaty of Rastatt on May 6, 1714, confirmed in the Treaty of Baden in September, and, definitively, by the Treaty of Vienna, signed by the plenipotentiaries of Philip V and Charles VI in 1725. As a consequence of this last treaty, the Austracist nobility who had gone into exile in Vienna were able to return to Spain and recover their property; prominent among them were the Duke of Uceda and the counts of Galve, Cifuentes, Oropesa and Haro.

When trying to draw up a balance of victors and vanquished at the time of the Treaty of Utrecht, it is somewhat difficult to speak in absolute terms. Great Britain can be considered a victor, since it acquired strategic colonial possessions and seaports that were the basis of its future supremacy and of the British Empire. The Duchy of Savoy received enlargements that transformed it into the Kingdom of Sardinia. The Electorate of Brandenburg would expand, becoming the Kingdom of Prussia. The Italian share of the Spanish Empire passed into the hands of the Austrian Emperor Charles VI, although Spain would recover de facto the Kingdom of Naples together with the Presidios of Tuscany in 1734 after the Battle of Bitonto, and a year later the Kingdom of Sicily, during the War of the Polish Succession. Also worth noting is Spain's loss of Oran and Mazalquivir in 1708 to the Ottoman Empire, an indirect consequence of the war, since reinforcement troops could not be sent to this city because they were fighting in Europe. These two strongholds would be recovered by Spain in 1732.

The Principality of Catalonia continues to resist (1713–1714)

Main article: War of the Spanish Succession in Catalonia

Castle of Cardona, the last stronghold of Austracist resistance in Catalonia.

After the sudden death of his brother, Archduke Charles was elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire in September 1711. This forced him to travel to Frankfurt for his coronation as Emperor with the title of Charles VI and consequently to leave Spain, although he left his wife, Empress Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick, as Regent. Catalonia hoped that its own laws and institutions would be preserved as agreed in the Pact of Genoa of 1705, signed by the representatives of the Principality and of Queen Anne of England. Thus, when peace negotiations began in Utrecht in 1712, Great Britain raised the "case of the Catalans" with Philip V and asked him to preserve the fueros, which he refused, although he promised a general amnesty. The English did not insist, since they were in a hurry to have the treaty signed and to enjoy the enormous advantages it gave them. On learning of this agreement and under pressure from Great Britain, Austria secretly agreed to an armistice in Italy and confirmed the convention on the evacuation of its troops from Catalonia. Finally the Empress also embarked in March 1713, officially to "secure the succession" to the Austrian throne, leaving Prince Starhemberg as Viceroy, in reality with the sole mission of negotiating a capitulation on the best possible terms; but not even this was achieved, given that Philip V would not accept the preservation of the Catalan fueros. Moreover, the Treaty of Utrecht had only included a clause by which Philip granted a general amnesty to the Catalans and assured them the same privileges as his Castilian subjects, but no greater ones.

The Catalan government was then composed of three institutions, the Three Commons of Catalonia: the Council of One Hundred, which was in charge of the city of Barcelona; the General Deputation or Generalitat, with powers above all in taxation over the territory as a whole; and the Military Arm of Catalonia. On June 22, 1713, Prince Starhemberg informed the Catalans that he had reached an agreement with the Bourbon general in the so-called Convention of Hospitalet for the evacuation of the troops, and that as a guarantee he had handed over Tarragona to him. After this, he secretly embarked together with his soldiers, leaving Catalonia to its fate. In Barcelona the General Junta of Arms of Catalonia was formed, which decided on a Numantine defense. Meanwhile the Bourbon Commander, the Duke of Popoli, subdued the surrounding towns and ended by demanding the surrender of Barcelona itself, which the city refused. Popoli then began a naval blockade, which was not very effective, since it was evaded via Majorca, Sardinia and Italy. In the following months there were uprisings in the countryside, which were quickly put down. In March 1714 the Treaty of Rastatt was signed, confirmed in September by the Treaty of Baden, which meant Charles VI's definitive abandonment. The Emperor sent a letter to the General Deputation of Catalonia in which he explained that he had signed the Treaty of Rastatt compelled by circumstances and that he still retained the title of King of Spain.

The battle of September 11, 1714

Main article: Siege of Barcelona (1713–1714)

Final assault on Barcelona on September 11, 1714.

Philip V, after overcoming the death of his wife, again demanded the surrender of Barcelona, which was rejected by the resisters led by General Antonio de Villarroel and by the conseller en cap (first councilor of the Council of One Hundred of Barcelona), Rafael Casanova. The city had been besieged by an army of 40,000 men and 140 cannons, and Philip V responded by beginning the bombardment. The siege continued for two months (it had previously endured nine months of a dubious naval blockade). On September 11, 1714, Marshal Berwick ordered the assault; the defense of the Catalans was "obstinate and fierce", as the Marquis of San Felipe recalled, and in the fighting both Villarroel and Casanova were seriously wounded.

In the final moments of the battle, the Three Commons of Catalonia ordered the publication of a proclamation calling on the people of Barcelona to "gloriously shed their blood and life for their king, for their honor, for the Homeland and for the freedom of all Spain". Finally, on September 12 the capitulation of Barcelona was signed, and on September 13 the Bourbon troops occupied the city.

The end of the Principality of Catalonia

Main article: Nueva Planta decree of Catalonia

James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick, son of James II of England.

The Duke of Berwick carried precise instructions from Philip V on the treatment he was to give the resisters when the city fell, which stated that "they deserve to be subjected to the utmost rigor according to the laws of war so that it may serve as an example to all my other subjects who, like them, persist in rebellion".

Although he believed, according to what he left written in his Memoirs, that that order was excessive and "hardly Christian" (and that it was explained by the fact that Philip V and his ministers considered that "all the rebels should be put to the sword" and "those who had not shown their repudiation of the Archduke should be held to be enemies"), the Duke of Berwick carried it out as soon as he entered the City of Barcelona on September 13. The following day he created, on a provisional basis, the Royal Superior Junta of Justice and Government, made up of prominent Philippists, which replaced the Catalan institutions, since its task was to govern "that principality as if it had no government at all". Thus on September 16, only four days after the capitulation of Barcelona, the Duke of Berwick informed their representatives of the dissolution of the Catalan Courts and of the three institutions that formed the Three Commons of Catalonia: the Military Arm of Catalonia, the General Deputation of Catalonia and the Council of One Hundred. He likewise abolished the offices of Viceroy of Catalonia and of governor, the Audiencia of Barcelona, the veguers and the rest of the bodies of royal power. As for the municipalities, the offices of consellers, jurats and paers were filled by persons of proven loyalty to the Philippist cause, and at the end of 1715 the Bourbon organization was definitively imposed.

Capture of Majorca

Main article: Bourbon capture of Majorca

For the campaign of Majorca and Ibiza (Menorca had remained under British sovereignty as stipulated in Article 11 of the Treaty of Utrecht), the Intendant General of the Navy, José Patiño, had to organize a fleet with a shortage of personnel and supplies, so he resorted to chartering private vessels, Catalan but also French and Genoese. With these vessels and the help received from French troops sent by Louis XIV, the surrender of Majorca was achieved on July 2, 1715. Subsequently Ibiza and Formentera were occupied on July 5. With these episodes the War of the Spanish Succession was considered over, although politically it would not end until the signing in April 1725 of the Treaty of Vienna between the representatives of the two former contenders, Philip V and Archduke Charles, since 1711 Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire.

Consequences

Bourbon repression and the Austracist exile

Main articles: Bourbon repression in the War of the Spanish Succession and Austracist exile

Philip V applied a set of repressive measures against the Austracists who had supported Archduke Charles, which affected above all the States of the Crown of Aragon. One of the main forms the repression took was the confiscation of their goods and properties. According to the historian Joaquim Albareda, "once the War of Succession was over, the value of the estates confiscated from the Austracists was as follows: in Castile, 2,860,950 reales de vellón; in Catalonia, 1,202,249; in Aragon, 415,687; in Valencia, 207,690". If one takes into account that the number of people affected was much greater in the three States of the Crown of Aragon than in Castile, it is confirmed that in the latter those who supported the Archduke were fundamentally nobles, whereas in the Crown of Aragon the support was much broader and more socially diverse.

Defeat in the war and the Bourbon repression caused the exile of thousands of Austracists, an event considered by the historian Joaquim Albareda to be the first political exile in the history of Spain. Although there was also a Philippist exile made up of the supporters of Philip V who were forced between 1705 and 1707 to leave the States of the Crown of Aragon, the Austracist exile, as the aforementioned historian has pointed out, was much more significant, since "it reached dimensions without precedent in the history of Spain: between 25,000 and 30,000 people".

The main destination of the exiles was the former possessions of the Council of Italy, such as the Kingdom of Naples and the Duchy of Milan, as well as the island of Sardinia and the Spanish Netherlands, states that had passed to the sovereignty of Archduke Charles, who had become Emperor Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire. Another group, some 1,500, went to the capital of the Empire, Vienna, where some of the exiles held important posts at the court of Charles VI, such as the Catalan Marquis of Rialp, who was appointed Secretary of State and of the Office. A group of some 800 settlers founded New Barcelona in the Banat of Temesvar in the Kingdom of Hungary, which was also a dominion of Charles VI.

A second, smaller wave of repression and exile occurred later at moments of international crisis that coincided with the revival of Austracist resistance, as happened with the movement of the carrasclets of 1717–1719 during the War of the Quadruple Alliance.

By order of Emperor Charles VI, the exiles were looked after by the Supreme Council of Spain, created at the court of Vienna at the end of 1713, and its aid took the form of the payment of rents and pensions to the exiles, which came from the property confiscated from the supporters of Philip V in the Italian states incorporated into the Crown of Charles VI. The Marquis of Rialp played an essential role in this aid.

Philip V's "revisionist" policy and the Treaty of Vienna of 1725

Main article: Treaty of Vienna (1725)

The Spanish conquest of Sardinia in 1717 and that of the Kingdom of Sicily in 1718 provoked the War of the Quadruple Alliance, in which Philip V was defeated, so that after the signing of the Treaty of The Hague in February 1720 he had to withdraw from the two islands. To give concrete form to the agreements of The Hague, the Congress of Cambrai (1721–1724) was convened, which meant a new failure for Philip V because he achieved neither his great dynastic objective (that the duchies of Parma and Tuscany should pass to his third son, Charles) nor the return of Gibraltar to Spanish sovereignty.

Juan Guillermo Ripperdá, baron and Duke of Ripperdá.

Johan Willem Ripperdá, a Dutch nobleman who had arrived in Madrid in 1715 as ambassador extraordinary of the United Provinces and who, after abjuring Protestantism, had entered the service of the Monarch and won his trust, persuaded the King and Queen to send him to Vienna, undertaking to reach an agreement with Emperor Charles VI that would put an end to the rivalry between the two sovereigns over the Crown of Spain and would allow the Infante Don Carlos to become the new Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Tuscany.

On April 30, 1725, the Treaty of Vienna was signed, which definitively ended the War of the Spanish Succession: Emperor Charles VI renounced his rights to the Crown of Spain and recognized Philip V as King of Spain and of the Indies, and in exchange the latter recognized the Emperor's sovereignty over the possessions in Italy and the Netherlands that had belonged to the Hispanic Monarchy, and once again reiterated his renunciation of the throne of France. In one of the documents Philip V granted amnesty to the Austracists and undertook to return to them their property that had been confiscated during the war and the immediate postwar period. Likewise, they were recognized the titles that Charles III the Archduke had granted them. In addition, Philip V granted the Ostend Company important commercial advantages so that it could trade with the Spanish Indies. In exchange, Vienna offered its support to Philip V in pressuring the King of Great Britain so that he might recover Gibraltar and Menorca. As for the rights over the duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Tuscany, Ripperdá obtained Charles VI's acceptance that they would pass to the Infante Don Carlos upon the extinction of the male line of the Farnese, although they could never be integrated into the Monarchy of Spain. Lastly, Ripperdá, following Philip V's instructions, did not allow the "case of the Catalans" to be raised again, so the Nueva Planta, which by decree of October 9, 1715, had abolished some of the laws and institutions proper to the Principality of Catalonia, remained in force.

Coalitions in Europe between 1725 and 1730. The signatories of the Treaty of Vienna of April 1725 in blue and the signatories of the Treaty of Hanover of September 1725 in red. Prussia, in brown, at first joined the Alliance of Hanover, but later switched sides after the Treaty of Berlin of December 1728

When the monarchies of Great Britain and France learned of the Treaty of Vienna, on September 3, 1725, they signed with the Kingdom of Prussia the Treaty of Hanover to "maintain the signatory States in the countries and cities within and outside Europe that they currently possessed". This belligerent stance of the powers guaranteeing the Utrecht status quo caused the Emperor to back down and refuse to consent to the marriage of his two daughters to the Spanish infantes Charles and Philip (a double marriage with which the new alliance was to be sealed), and to announce that he would not support Philip V either if the latter tried to recover Gibraltar or Menorca. In return, the commercial concessions promised to the Ostend Company never materialized, and it ended up being dissolved in 1731 under British pressure.

Philip V, on the other hand, responded with the second siege of Gibraltar in 1727, which was unsuccessful due to the superiority of the British fleet defending the Rock, which prevented the infantry from launching an assault after the artillery had bombarded the British fortifications. Finally the Anglo-Spanish War of 1727–1729 was sealed with the signing of the Treaty of Seville of November 9, 1729, in which Philip V, in exchange for definitively recognizing the new international order arising from the Peace of Utrecht, obtained what he and his wife Elisabeth Farnese had longed for since 1715: that their firstborn son, the Infante Charles, should occupy the throne of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza in 1731 and be named heir to the Duchy of Tuscany upon the death of Gian Gastone de' Medici.

Conclusions

Portrait of Philip V of Spain by Jean Ranc (1723).

To the question of who won the War of the Spanish Succession, the answer is usually unanimous: the Monarchy of Great Britain, which achieved dominion over the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, with the bases of Gibraltar and Menorca, and which laid the foundations of the British Empire with the territorial and commercial concessions it obtained in America. But the other two signatories of the Grand Alliance of 1701 also benefited, although to a lesser extent: the United Provinces and the Austrian Empire. The latter kept the possessions of the Hispanic Monarchy in Italy and the Netherlands, although Charles VI did not obtain the Spanish Crown. The Monarchy of France, for its part, achieved the objective of placing a Bourbon on the Spanish throne, although not only did it gain no return from this but it paid a high price, since France emerged from the war with a serious financial crisis that it would drag throughout the entire 18th century. "It was the fortune of his family that guided the actions of Louis XIV rather than the dictates of reason of State," states Joaquim Albareda.

As for the Monarchy of Spain, the outcome of the war meant the enthronement of the new Bourbon dynasty, at the cost of the loss of its possessions in Italy and the Netherlands, plus Gibraltar and Menorca, and of the loss of control over trade with the Empire of the Indies, because of the concession to the British of the asiento de negros and the navío de permiso. With all this there came about, according to Joaquim Albareda, "the political conclusion of the Spanish decline". Thus, Philip V failed in the mission for which he had been chosen as successor to Charles II: to keep the territories of the monarchy intact.

Internally, Philip V put an end to the Crown of Aragon by military means and abolished the institutions and laws proper to the states that composed it, establishing in their place an absolutist, centralist and uniformist State, inspired by the absolute monarchy of his grandfather Louis XIV and by some institutions of the Crown of Castile. Thus, it can be stated that the great losers of the war were the Austracists, defenders not only of the rights of the Habsburg dynasty but also of the preservation of the "federal" character of the Hispanic Monarchy.

According to the Swiss historian and journalist Sibille Stocker and the historian of the same nationality Christian Windler, authors of Instituciones y desarrollo socioeconómico en España e Hispanoamérica desde la época virreinal (Bogotá, 1994), in the economic sphere the territories of the Crown of Aragon benefited greatly from the abolition of customs barriers, as well as from access to a new and broad market; especially Catalonia, which was able to increase its profits by trading with the American colonies. The reforms of the new king created a positive environment that considerably favored crafts, industry and trade, which resulted in a climate favorable to pacification between the contenders in the conflict.

According to the historian Ricardo García Cárcel, the Bourbon victory in the war meant the "triumph of vertical Spain over the horizontal Spain of the Habsburgs", understanding by "horizontal Spain" the "Austracist Spain", the one that defends "the federal Spain that conceives the national reality as a territorial aggregate with a common bond based on the premise of a plural and 'extensive' Spanish identity", while "vertical Spain" is the "centralized Spain, articulated around a central axis, which has always been Castile, structured from a backbone, with a concept of a homogenized and 'intensive' Spanish identity".

According to the historian Juan Pablo Fusi, the new monarchy carried out far-reaching favorable reforms: education was promoted, academies were patronized and scientific research was enhanced, especially in the medical sciences and in mathematics. Likewise, positive reforms were carried out in the production system, with the creation of royal factories; this led to a consequent innovation in production techniques, to the revival of "declining" sectors and to the creation of previously nonexistent productive sectors.

See also

• Nueva Planta decrees
• War of the Spanish Succession in the Kingdom of Valencia
• War of the Spanish Succession in Catalonia
• Bourbon Reforms

Bibliography

• Albareda Salvadó, Joaquim (2010). La Guerra de Sucesión de España (1700-1714) (in español). Barcelona: Crítica. ISBN 978-84-9892-060-4.
• Capel Martínez, Rosa Mª; Cepeda Gómez, José (2006). El Siglo de las Luces. Política y sociedad (in español). Madrid: Síntesis. ISBN 84-9756-414-6.
• Fayard, Janine (1980). "La Guerra de Sucesión (1700-1714)". In Jean-Paul Le Flem; Joseph Pérez; Jean-Marc Perlorson; José Mª López Piñero and Janine Fayard (ed.). La frustración de un Imperio. Vol. V de la Historia de España, dirigida por Manuel Tuñón de Lara (in español). Barcelona: Labor. ISBN 84-335-9425-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
• García Cárcel, Ricardo (2002). Felipe V y los españoles. Una visión periférica del problema de España (in español). Barcelona: Plaza & Janés. ISBN 84-01-53056-3.
• Pérez, Joseph (1980). "España moderna (1474-1700). Aspectos políticos y sociales". In Jean-Paul Le Flem; Joseph Pérez; Jean-Marc Perlorson; José Mª López Piñero and Janine Fayard (ed.). La frustración de un Imperio. Vol. V de la Historia de España, dirigida por Manuel Tuñón de Lara (in español). Barcelona: Labor. ISBN 84-335-9425-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link)
• Bacallar Sanna, Vincenzo. La Sardegna Paraninfa della Pace e un piano segreto per la sovranità 1712-1714 (a cura di Sabine Enders), Stuttgart, Giovanni Masala Verlag (Collana Sardìnnia, volume 10), 2011, pp. 240, ISBN 978-3-941851-03-0. (in Italian)

External links

• La Batalla de Almansa y más artículos sobre la Guerra de Sucesión (in Spanish).