War of the Spanish Succession

The War of the Spanish Succession, fought from 1701 to 1714, was a European war over who would inherit the throne and vast empire of Spain after the death of the childless Charles II. France backed Louis XIV's grandson Philip of Anjou, while a Grand Alliance led by Austria, England and the Dutch Republic supported the Habsburg Archduke Charles. Philip kept the Spanish crown, but Spain's European possessions were divided, and Britain emerged as a leading power.

Charles II, the last Habsburg king of Spain, was sickly from birth and had no children, and for decades the other powers planned how his inheritance might be shared. The Spanish Empire had lost its old primacy in Europe but still held the southern Netherlands, Milan, Naples, Sicily and Sardinia, and huge territories in the Americas and the Philippines. Its passing whole to either France or Austria threatened to upset the balance of power. When Charles died on 1 November 1700, his will left everything to Philip of Anjou, on condition that the empire stay undivided. Louis XIV accepted on his grandson's behalf, and Philip became Philip V of Spain.

Louis's next moves alarmed his neighbours. He kept Philip's place in the line of succession to the French throne, sent French troops into the fortresses of the Spanish Netherlands that guarded the Dutch frontier, and won trading privileges in Spanish America. In September 1701 the Emperor Leopold I, England and the Dutch Republic renewed their Grand Alliance, later joined by Prussia, Portugal, Savoy and most German states. Bavaria and Cologne sided with France. War was declared in May 1702.

The allies had two outstanding commanders, the English Duke of Marlborough and the imperial general Prince Eugene of Savoy. In 1704 they marched deep into Germany and destroyed a Franco-Bavarian army at Blenheim, saving Vienna and knocking Bavaria out of the war. Marlborough's victory at Ramillies in 1706 drove the French from most of the Spanish Netherlands, and Eugene relieved Turin the same year, pushing them out of northern Italy. Further allied victories followed at Oudenaarde in 1708 and Malplaquet in 1709, but Malplaquet was so costly that it showed the limits of what the allies could achieve. France was exhausted, yet held its own frontier.

In Spain itself the allied cause failed. Archduke Charles, as Charles III, won support in the lands of the Crown of Aragon, especially Catalonia, and the allies twice occupied Madrid. But Castile stood firmly behind Philip, and Bourbon victories at Almansa in 1707 and in 1710 secured his throne. An English and Dutch force had taken Gibraltar in 1704.

Two events changed the politics of the war. In 1710 a new Tory government that wanted peace took office in Great Britain, formed by the union of England and Scotland in 1707, and in 1711 Archduke Charles became emperor, so that his victory would now unite Spain with Austria. Britain negotiated separately with France, and the Peace of Utrecht was signed in 1713. Austria made peace at Rastatt and Baden in 1714. Barcelona, the last centre of resistance to Philip, fell in September 1714, and Catalonia lost its separate institutions.

Philip V kept Spain and its overseas empire but renounced his claim to the French throne. Austria gained the Spanish Netherlands, Milan, Naples and Sardinia, and Savoy received Sicily with a royal title. Britain kept Gibraltar and Menorca, gained territory in North America, including Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and won the asiento, a thirty-year contract to supply enslaved Africans to Spanish America, part of the Atlantic slave trade. The ruler of Brandenburg was recognised as King in Prussia. The peace established a balance of power that shaped European diplomacy for much of the eighteenth century.

Our 1700 map shows Europe on the eve of the war, and our 1715 map shows the settlement, with the Austrian Netherlands, the Habsburg Monarchy and the new Kingdom of Prussia.