   #copyright

War of the Spanish Succession

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Pre 1900 Military

   War of the Spanish Succession
   The Battle of Denain 1712. Oil by Jean Alaux

     Date   1701- 1714
   Location Europe and North America
    Result  Treaty of Utrecht: Philip was recognised as King Philip V of
            Spain, but renounced his place in the French line of succession,
            thereby precluding the union of the French and Spanish crowns
   Combatants
   England,
   Dutch Republic,
   Holy Roman Empire,
   Crown of Aragon France,
   Castile,
   Bavaria
   Commanders
   Duke of Marlborough, Eugene of Savoy,
   Margrave of Baden King Louis XIV,
   Marshal Villars,
   Maximilian II Emanuel
   Strength
   220,000 450,000
   War of the Spanish Succession
   Carpi – Chieri – Cremona – Luzzara – Cádiz – Málaga – Friedlingen –
   Vigo Bay – Höchstädt - Schellenberg – Blenheim – Cassano – Calcinato –
   Ramillies – Turin – Almansa – Toulon – Oudenarde – Malplaquet –
   Saragossa – Almenara – Brihuega – Villaviciosa – Denain – Barcelona
   Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain. After his death, the
   War of the Spanish Succession broke out as France and Austria vied for
   the Spanish empire.
   Enlarge
   Charles II was the last Habsburg King of Spain. After his death, the
   War of the Spanish Succession broke out as France and Austria vied for
   the Spanish empire.

   The War of the Spanish Succession ( 1701- 1714) was a major European
   conflict that arose in 1701 after the death of the last Spanish
   Habsburg king, Charles II. Charles had bequeathed all of his
   possessions to Philip, duc d'Anjou - a grandson of the French King
   Louis XIV - who thereby became Philip V of Spain. The war began slowly,
   as the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I fought to protect his own dynasty's
   claim to the Spanish inheritance. As Louis XIV began to expand his
   territories more aggressively, however, other European nations (chiefly
   England and the Dutch Republic) entered on the Holy Roman Empire's side
   to check French expansion (and, in the English case, to safeguard the
   Protestant succession). Other states joined the coalition opposing
   France and Spain in an attempt to acquire new territories, or to
   protect existing dominions. The war was fought not only in Europe, but
   also in North America, where the conflict became known to the English
   colonists as Queen Anne's War.

   The war lasted over a decade, and was marked by the military leadership
   of notable generals such as the Duc de Villars and the Duke of Berwick
   for France, the Duke of Marlborough for England, and Prince Eugene of
   Savoy for the Austrians. The war was concluded by the treaties of
   Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714). As a result, Philip V remained King
   of Spain but was removed from the French line of succession, thereby
   averting a union of France and Spain. The Austrians gained most of the
   Spanish territories in Italy and the Netherlands. As a consequence,
   France's hegemony over continental Europe was ended, and the idea of a
   balance of power became a part of the international order due to its
   mention in the Treaty of Utrecht.

Origins

   As King Charles II of Spain had been both mentally and physically
   infirm from a very young age, it was clear that he could not produce an
   heir. Thus, the issue of the inheritance of the Spanish kingdoms -
   which included not only Spain, but also dominions in Italy, the Low
   Countries, and the Americas - became quite contentious. Two dynasties
   claimed the Spanish throne: the French Bourbons and the Austrian
   Habsburgs; both royal families were closely related to the late King of
   Spain.

   The most direct and legitimate successor would have been Louis, the
   Grand Dauphin, the only legitimate son of King Louis XIV of France and
   Spanish princess Maria Theresa, herself King Charles II's elder
   half-sister. In addition, Louis XIV was a first cousin of his wife
   Maria Theresa and of King Charles II as his mother was Spanish princess
   Anne of Austria, the sister of King Philip IV, Charles II's father. The
   Dauphin, being next in the French line of succession as well, was a
   problematic choice: had he inherited both the French and the Spanish
   realms, he would have control of a vast empire that would have
   threatened the European balance of power. Furthermore, both Anne and
   Maria Theresa had renounced their rights to the Spanish succession upon
   their marriages. In the latter case, however, the renunciation was
   widely seen as invalid, since it had been predicated upon Spain's
   payment of the Infanta's dowry, which in the event was never paid.
   King Louis XIV of France was the most powerful monarch in Europe; it
   was feared that allowing his son to inherit Spain would seriously
   compromise the balance of power in Europe.
   Enlarge
   King Louis XIV of France was the most powerful monarch in Europe; it
   was feared that allowing his son to inherit Spain would seriously
   compromise the balance of power in Europe.

   The alternative candidate was the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, of the
   Austrian Habsburg dynasty. He was a first cousin of the King of Spain,
   his mother having been another sister of Philip IV; moreover, Charles
   II's father, Philip IV, had given the succession to the Austrian line
   in his will. This candidate, too, posed formidable problems, for
   Leopold's success would have reunited the powerful Spanish-Austrian
   Habsburg empire of the sixteenth century. In 1668, only three years
   after Charles II had ascended, the then-childless Leopold had agreed to
   the partition of the Spanish territories between the Bourbons and the
   Habsburgs, even though Philip IV's will entitled him to the entire
   inheritance. In 1689, however, when William III of England required the
   Emperor's aid in the War of the Grand Alliance against France, he
   promised to support the Emperor's claim to the undivided Spanish
   empire.

   A new candidate for the Spanish throne, the Electoral Prince Joseph
   Ferdinand of Bavaria, had been born in 1692. Joseph Ferdinand was
   Leopold I's grandson, but in the female line, so he belonged not to the
   Habsburg but to the Wittelsbach dynasty. His mother, Maria Antonia, had
   been Leopold's daughter by his first marriage, to Philip IV of Spain's
   younger daughter Margaret Theresa. As Joseph Ferdinand was neither a
   Bourbon nor a Habsburg, the likelihood of Spain merging with either
   France or Austria remained low. Although Leopold and Louis were both
   willing to defer their claims to a junior line of the family - Leopold
   to his younger son, the Archduke Charles, and Louis to the Dauphin's
   younger son, the Duc d'Anjou - the Bavarian prince remained a far less
   threatening candidate. Accordingly, he soon became the preferred choice
   of England and the Netherlands. Joseph Ferdinand, moreover, would have
   been the lawful heir to the Spanish throne under Philip IV's will.

   As the War of the Grand Alliance came to a close in 1697, the issue of
   the Spanish succession was becoming critical. England and France,
   exhausted by the conflict, agreed to the Treaty of Den Haag (1698),
   (the First Partition Treaty), which named Joseph Ferdinand heir to the
   Spanish throne, but divided Spanish territory in Italy and the Low
   Countries between France and Austria. This decision was taken without
   consulting the Spanish, who vehemently objected to the dismemberment of
   their empire. Thus, when the Partition Treaty became known in 1698,
   Charles II of Spain agreed to name the Bavarian Prince his heir, but
   assigned to him the whole Spanish Empire, not just the parts England
   and France had chosen.

   The young Bavarian prince abruptly died of smallpox in 1699, reopening
   the issue of the Spanish succession. England and France soon ratified
   the Treaty of London, 1700 (the Second Partition Treaty), assigning the
   Spanish throne to the Archduke Charles. The Italian territories would
   go to France, while the Archduke would receive the remainder of the
   Spanish empire. The Austrians, who were not party to the treaty, were
   displeased, for they openly vied for the whole of Spain, and it was the
   Italian territories in which they were most interested: richer, closer,
   and more governable. In Spain, distaste for the treaty was even
   greater; the courtiers were unified in opposing partition, but were
   divided on whether the throne should go to a Habsburg or a Bourbon. The
   pro-French statesmen, however, were in the majority, and in October
   1700, Charles II agreed to bequeath all of his territory to the
   Dauphin's second son, the duc d'Anjou. Charles took steps to prevent
   the union of France and Spain; should Anjou have inherited the French
   throne, Spain would have gone to his younger brother, the duc de Berri.
   After Anjou and his brother, the Archduke Charles was to have been next
   in the line of succession.

Beginning of the war

   When the French court first learned of the will, Louis XIV's advisors
   convinced him that it was safer to accept the terms of the Second
   Partition Treaty, of 1700, than to risk war by claiming the whole
   Spanish inheritance. However, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, marquis de Torcy,
   the French foreign secretary, successfully argued that whether France
   accepted the whole or a part of the Spanish Empire, it would still have
   to fight Austria, which did not accept the nature of the partition
   stipulated by the Treaty of London, 1700. Furthermore, the terms of
   Charles' will stipulated that Anjou was only to be offered the choice
   of the whole Spanish Empire or nothing; if he refused, the entire
   inheritance was to go to Philip's younger brother Charles, duke of
   Berry, or to Archduke Charles of Austria if the duke of Berry refused.
   Knowing that the Maritime Powers - England and the United Provinces -
   would not join France in a fight to impose the partition treaty on the
   unwilling Austrians and Spanish, Louis determined to accept his
   grandson's inheritance. Charles II died on 1 November 1700, and on 24
   November, Louis XIV proclaimed Anjou King of Spain. The new King,
   Philip V, was declared ruler of the entire Spanish empire, contrary to
   the provisions of the Second Partition Treaty. William III of England,
   however, could not declare war against France, since he did not have
   the support of the elites who determined policy in both England and the
   United Provinces. He reluctantly recognised Philip as king in April
   1701.

   Louis, however, took too aggressive a path in his attempt to secure
   French hegemony in Europe. He cut off England and the Netherlands from
   Spanish trade, thereby seriously threatening the commercial interests
   of those two countries. William III secured the support of his subjects
   and negotiated the Treaty of Den Haag with the United Provinces and
   Austria. The agreement, reached on September 7, 1701, recognised Philip
   V as King of Spain, but allotted Austria that which it desired most:
   the Spanish territories in Italy, forcing it to accept as well the
   Spanish Netherlands, thus protecting that crucial region from French
   control. England and the Netherlands, meanwhile, were to retain their
   commercial rights in Spain.

   A few days after the signing of the treaty, the former King of England,
   James II (who had been deposed by William III in 1688) died in France.
   Although Louis had treated William as King of England since the Treaty
   of Ryswick, he now recognized James II's son, James Francis Edward
   Stuart (the "Old Pretender"), as the rightful monarch. England and the
   United Provinces had already begun raising armies; Louis's action
   alienated the English public even further, and gave William grounds for
   war. Armed conflict began slowly, as Austrian forces under Prince
   Eugene of Savoy invaded the Duchy of Milan, one of the Spanish
   territories in Italy, prompting French intervention. England, the
   United Provinces, and most German states (most notably Prussia and
   Hanover), sided with Austria, but the Wittelsbach Electors of Bavaria
   and Cologne, the King of Portugal, and the Duke of Savoy supported
   France and Spain. In Spain, the cortes of Aragon, Valencia, and
   Catalonia (most of the kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon) declared
   themselves in favour of the Austrian Archduke. Even after William III
   died in 1702, his successor in England, Anne, continued the vigorous
   prosecution of the war, under the guidance of her ministers Godolphin
   and Marlborough.

Early fighting

   At the Battle of Vigo Bay, English and Dutch destroyed a Spanish
   treasure fleet, recovering silver to the value of about a million
   pounds sterling.
   Enlarge
   At the Battle of Vigo Bay, English and Dutch destroyed a Spanish
   treasure fleet, recovering silver to the value of about a million
   pounds sterling.

   There were two main theatres of the war in Europe: Spain and
   West-Central Europe (especially the Low Countries). The latter theatre
   proved the more important, as Prince Eugene and the English Duke of
   Marlborough each distinguished themselves as military commanders. There
   was also important fighting in Germany and Italy.

   In 1702, Eugene fought in Italy, where the French were led by the Duc
   de Villeroi, whom Eugene defeated and captured at the Battle of Cremona
   ( February 1). Villeroi was now replaced by the Duc de Vendôme, who,
   despite a drawn battle at Luzzara in August and a considerable
   numerical superiority, proved unable to drive Eugene from Italy.

   In the meantime, Marlborough led combined English, Dutch, and German
   forces in the Low Countries, where he captured several important
   fortresses, most notably Liège. On the Rhine, an Imperial army under
   Louis of Baden captured Landau in September, but the threat to Alsace
   was relieved by the entrance of the Elector of Bavaria into the war on
   the French side. Prince Louis was forced to withdraw across the Rhine,
   where he was defeated by a French army under Claude-Louis-Hector de
   Villars at Friedlingen. The English admiral Sir George Rooke also won
   an important naval battle, the Battle of Vigo Bay, which resulted in
   the complete destruction of the Spanish treasure fleet and in the
   capture of tons of silver.

   Next year, although Marlborough captured Bonn and drove the Elector of
   Cologne into exile, he failed in his efforts to capture Antwerp, and
   the French were successful in Germany. A combined Franco-Bavarian army
   under Villars and Max Emanuel of Bavaria defeated Imperial armies under
   Louis of Baden and Hermann Styrum, but the Elector's timidity prevented
   a march on Vienna, which led to Villars's resignation. French victories
   in south Germany continued after Villars' resignation, however, with a
   new army under Camille de Tallard victorious in the Palatinate. French
   leaders entertained grand designs, intending to use a combined French
   and Bavarian army to capture the Austrian capital the next year. By the
   end of the year 1703, however, France had suffered setbacks for
   Portugal and Savoy had defected to the other side. Meanwhile, the
   English, who had previously held the view that Philip could remain on
   the throne of Spain, now decided that their commercial interests would
   be more secure under the Archduke Charles.

Blenheim to Malplaquet

   The Duke of Marlborough was the commander of the English, Dutch and
   German forces. He inflicted a crushing defeat on the French and
   Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim.
   Enlarge
   The Duke of Marlborough was the commander of the English, Dutch and
   German forces. He inflicted a crushing defeat on the French and
   Bavarians at the Battle of Blenheim.

   In 1704, the French plan was to use Villeroi's army in the Netherlands
   to contain Marlborough, while Tallard and the Franco-Bavarian army
   under Max Emanuel and Ferdinand de Marsin, Villars's replacement, would
   march on Vienna.

   Marlborough - ignoring the wishes of the Dutch, who preferred to keep
   their troops in the Low Countries - led the English and Dutch forces
   southward to Germany; Eugene, meanwhile, moved northward from Italy
   with the Austrian army. The objective of these manœuvres was to prevent
   the Franco-Bavarian army from advancing on Vienna. Having met, the
   forces under Marlborough and Eugene faced the French under Tallard at
   the Battle of Blenheim. The battle was a resounding success for
   Marlborough and Eugene, and had the effect of knocking Bavaria out of
   the war. In that year, England achieved another important success as it
   captured Gibraltar in Spain, with the help of Dutch forces under the
   command of Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt, and initially on behalf of
   the Archduke Charles.

   Following the Battle of Blenheim, Marlborough and Eugene separated
   again, with the former going to the Low Countries, and the latter to
   Italy. In 1705, little progress was made by either France or the allies
   in any theatre. Marlborough and Villeroi manoeuvred indecisively in the
   Netherlands, and the story was much the same for Villars and Louis of
   Baden on the Rhine, and Vendôme and Eugene in Italy. The stalemate was
   broken in 1706, as Marlborough drove the French out of most of the
   Spanish Netherlands, decisively defeating troops under Villeroi in the
   Battle of Ramillies in May and following up with the conquest of
   Antwerp and Dunkirk. Prince Eugene also met with success; in September,
   following the departure of Vendôme to shore up the shattered army in
   the Netherlands, he and the Duke of Savoy inflicted a heavy loss on the
   French under Orleans and Marsin at the Battle of Turin, driving them
   out of Italy by the end of the year.

   Now that France had been expelled from Germany, the Low Countries and
   Italy, Spain became the centre of activity in the next few years. In
   1706, the Portuguese general Marquês das Minas led an invasion of Spain
   from Portugal, managing to capture Madrid. By the end of the year,
   however, Madrid was recovered by an army led by King Philip V and the
   Duke of Berwick (the illegitimate son of James II of England, serving
   in the French army). Galway led another attempt on Madrid in 1707, but
   Berwick roundly defeated him at the Battle of Almansa on 25 April.
   Thereafter, the war in Spain settled into indecisive skirmishing from
   which it would not subsequently emerge.

   In 1707, the War briefly intersected with the Great Northern War, which
   was being fought simultaneously in Northern Europe. A Swedish army
   under Charles XII arrived in Saxony, where he had just finished
   chastising the Elector Augustus II and forced him to renounce his
   claims to the Polish throne. Both the French and the Allies sent envoys
   to Charles's camp, and the French hoped to encourage him to turn his
   troops against the Emperor Joseph I, who Charles felt had slighted him
   by his support for Augustus. However, Charles, who liked to see himself
   as a champion of Protestant Europe, greatly disliked Louis XIV for his
   treatment of the Huguenots, and was generally uninterested in the
   western war. He turned his attention instead to Russia, ending the
   possibility of Swedish intervention.

   Later in 1707, Prince Eugene led an allied invasion of southern France
   from Italy, but was stalled by the French army. Marlborough, in the
   meantime, remained in the Low Countries, where he was caught up in
   capturing an endless succession of fortresses. In 1708, Marlborough's
   army clashed with the French, who were beset by leadership problems:
   their commanders, the Duc de Bourgogne (Louis XIV's grandson) and the
   Duc de Vendôme were frequently at variance, the former often making
   unwise military decisions. Bourgogne's insistence that the French army
   not attack led Marlborough once again to unite his army with Eugene's,
   allowing the allied army to crush the French at the Battle of
   Oudenarde, and then proceeded to capture Lille.

   The disasters of Oudenarde and Lille led France to the brink of ruin.
   Louis XIV was forced to negotiate; he sent his foreign minister, the
   Marquis de Torcy, to meet the allied commanders at The Hague. Louis
   agreed to surrender Spain and all its territories to the allies,
   requesting only that he be allowed to keep Naples (in Italy). He was,
   moreover, prepared to furnish money to help expel Philip V from Spain.
   The allies, however, imposed more humiliating conditions; they demanded
   that Louis use the French army to dethrone his own grandson. Rejecting
   the offer, Louis chose to continue fighting until the bitter end. He
   appealed to the people of France, bringing thousands of new recruits
   into his army.

   In 1709, the allies attempted three invasions of France, but two were
   so minor as to be merely diversionary. A more serious attempt was
   launched when Marlborough and Eugene advanced toward Paris. They
   clashed with the French under the Duc de Villars at the Battle of
   Malplaquet, the bloodiest battle of the war. Although the allies
   defeated the French, they lost over twenty thousand men, compared with
   only ten thousand for their opponents. The allies captured Mons but
   were unable to follow up their victory. The battle marked a turning
   point in the war; despite winning, the allies were unable to proceed
   with the invasion, having suffered such tremendous casualties.

Final stages

   Marshal Villars (1653-1734) rescued the French fortunes in the War of
   the Spanish Succession. Villars, along with Turenne and Luxembourg, was
   one of Louis's greatest battlefield generals.
   Enlarge
   Marshal Villars ( 1653- 1734) rescued the French fortunes in the War of
   the Spanish Succession. Villars, along with Turenne and Luxembourg, was
   one of Louis's greatest battlefield generals.

   In 1710, the allies launched a final campaign in Spain, but failed to
   make any progress. An army under James Stanhope reached Madrid together
   with the Archduke Charles, but it was forced to capitulate at Brihuega
   when a relief army came from France. The alliance, in the meantime,
   began to weaken. In Great Britain, Marlborough's powerful political
   influence was lost, as the source of much of his clout - the friendship
   between his wife and the Queen - came to an end, with Queen Anne
   dismissing the Duchess of Marlborough from her offices and banishing
   her from the court. Moreover, the Whig ministry which had lent its
   support to the war fell, and the new Tory government that took its
   place sought peace. Marlborough was recalled to Great Britain in 1711,
   and was replaced by the Duke of Ormonde.

   In 1711, the Archduke Charles became Holy Roman Emperor as Charles VI
   following the sudden death of Joseph, his elder brother; now, a
   decisive victory for Austria would upset the balance of power just as
   much as a victory for France. The British, led by Secretary of State
   Henry St John, began to secretly correspond with the Marquis de Torcy,
   excluding the Dutch and Austrians from their negotiations. The Duke of
   Ormonde refused to commit British troops to battle, so the French under
   Villars were able to recover much lost ground in 1712, such as at the
   Battle of Denain.

   Peace negotiations bore fruit in 1713, when the Treaty of Utrecht was
   concluded, and Great Britain and the Netherlands ceased fighting
   France. Barcelona, which had supported the Archduke's claim to the
   throne of Spain and the allies in 1705, finally surrendered to the
   Bourbon army in 11 September 1714 following a long siege, ending the
   presence of the allies in Spain. Nowadays this date is remembered as
   the National Day of Catalonia. Hostilities between France and Austria
   lumbered on until 1714, when the Treaties of Rastatt and Baden were
   ratified, marking the end of the War of the Spanish Succession. Spain
   was slower in ratifying treaties of peace; it did not formally end its
   conflict with Austria until 1720, after it had been defeated by all the
   powers in the War of the Quadruple Alliance.

Result

   Under the Peace of Utrecht, Philip was recognised as King Philip V of
   Spain, but renounced his place in the French line of succession,
   thereby precluding the union of the French and Spanish crowns (although
   there was some sense in France that this renunciation was illegal). He
   retained the Spanish overseas empire, but ceded the Spanish
   Netherlands, Naples, Milan, and Sardinia to Austria; Sicily and parts
   of the Milanese to Savoy; and Gibraltar and Minorca to Great Britain.
   Moreover, he granted the British the exclusive right to slave trading
   in Spanish America for thirty years, the so-called asiento.

   With regard to the political organization of their kingdoms, Philip
   issued the Decretos de Nueva Planta, following the centralizing
   approach of the Bourbons in France, ending the political autonomy of
   the kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon; territories in Spain that had
   supported the Archduke Charles and up to then had kept their
   institutions in a framework of loose dynastic union. On the other hand,
   the Kingdom of Navarre and the Basque Provinces, having supported the
   king against the Habsburg pretender, did not lose their autonomy and
   retained their traditional differentiated institutions and laws.

   No important changes were made to French territory in Europe. Grandiose
   imperial desires to turn back the French expansion to the Rhine which
   had occurred since the middle decades of the seventeenth century were
   not realized, nor was the French border pushed back in the Low
   Countries. France agreed to stop supporting the Stuart pretenders to
   the British throne, instead recognising Anne as the legitimate queen.
   France gave up various North American colonial possessions, recognising
   British sovereignty over Rupert's Land and Newfoundland, and ceding
   Acadia and its half of Saint Kitts. The Dutch were permitted to retain
   various forts in the Spanish Netherlands, and were permitted to annex a
   part of Spanish Guelders.

   With the Peace of Utrecht, the wars to prevent French hegemony that had
   dominated the seventeenth century were over for the time being. France
   and Spain, both under Bourbon monarchs, remained allies during the
   following years. Spain, stripped of its territories in Italy and the
   Low Countries, lost most of its power, and became a second-rate nation
   in Continental politics.
   Retrieved from "
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Spanish_Succession"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
