War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714): The Fight for Spain

The War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714) was a European war over who should inherit the vast Spanish empire after the death of the childless King Charles II in 1700. France and Spain backed Louis XIV’s grandson, Philip V, while a Grand Alliance led by Austria, England and the Dutch Republic backed the Austrian Archduke Charles. The war was fought across Europe, at sea and in the Americas, and its peace treaties created a new balance of power and launched Britain as a leading power.

Background

Charles II of Spain (reigned 1665–1700) was sickly and had no children. His empire included Spain, much of Italy (Naples, Sicily, Sardinia and Milan), the Spanish Netherlands (roughly modern Belgium), the Philippines and most of Central and South America. Both the French Bourbons and the Austrian Habsburgs had claims through marriages to Spanish princesses.

Other European powers, above all England and the Dutch Republic, could not accept the whole inheritance going to either France or Austria. After the Nine Years’ War, Louis XIV and William III of England agreed partition treaties in 1698 and 1700 to divide it. The Spanish court, determined to keep the empire whole, rejected partition.

Shortly before his death on 1 November 1700, Charles II made a will leaving everything to Philip, Duke of Anjou, the 16-year-old grandson of Louis XIV. If Philip refused, the inheritance would go to Archduke Charles, younger son of Emperor Leopold I. Louis accepted the will, and Philip entered Madrid as Philip V in 1701.

The road to war

Louis then took steps that alarmed his neighbours. He kept Philip’s right to the French succession open, sent French troops into the Spanish Netherlands to take over the barrier fortresses held by Dutch garrisons, and gained trading privileges in Spanish America for French merchants. In September 1701, when the exiled James II died, Louis recognised his son James Francis Edward Stuart as king of England.

Austrian troops under Prince Eugene of Savoy were already fighting the French in northern Italy in 1701, and won at Carpi and Chiari. On 7 September 1701 Austria, England and the Dutch Republic formed the Grand Alliance at The Hague. William III died in March 1702, but his successor, Queen Anne, kept his policy, and the allies declared war in May 1702.

France’s allies were Spain, Bavaria under the Elector Maximilian II Emanuel, and at first Savoy and Portugal. In 1703 both Savoy and Portugal changed sides, giving the Allies a base for campaigns in Spain itself.

Main campaigns

Germany and the Low Countries. In 1704 a Franco-Bavarian army threatened Vienna. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, led an Anglo-Dutch army on a march from the Low Countries to the Danube, joined Prince Eugene and won a crushing victory at the Battle of Blenheim on 13 August 1704. Bavaria was knocked out of the war. Marlborough then defeated the French at Ramillies in May 1706, taking most of the Spanish Netherlands, and with Eugene at Oudenarde in July 1708, followed by the capture of Lille.

Italy. In September 1706 Eugene relieved Turin, the besieged capital of Savoy, and drove the French out of northern Italy. Austria went on to occupy Milan and Naples.

Spain. Archduke Charles landed in Spain and was proclaimed King Charles III in the Allied-held east, especially in Catalonia, Valencia and Aragon. Allied armies briefly occupied Madrid in 1706 and 1710, but most Castilians supported Philip. The Franco-Spanish victory at Almansa in April 1707, under the Duke of Berwick, restored much of the east to Philip, and the battles of Brihuega and Villaviciosa in December 1710 secured his throne.

At sea and overseas. In October 1702 an Anglo-Dutch fleet destroyed a Spanish treasure fleet and its French escort in Vigo Bay, although most of the silver had already been landed. An Anglo-Dutch force captured Gibraltar in August 1704, and that month the French fleet fought an indecisive battle off Málaga that left the Allies in control of the Rock. The British took Menorca in 1708. In North America, the fighting known as Queen Anne’s War included raids on frontier settlements such as Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1704 and the British capture of Port Royal in Acadia in 1710.

France under pressure and the road to peace

France also faced trouble at home. From 1702 Protestant peasants in the Cévennes mountains, known as Camisards, rose in revolt against religious persecution, tying down royal troops for several years. By 1709 France was exhausted. The Great Frost of 1708–1709 ruined harvests and caused famine. Louis XIV offered major concessions, but the Allies demanded that he help drive his own grandson out of Spain, and he refused.

The war continued, and at Malplaquet on 11 September 1709 Marlborough and Eugene won a narrow victory at a cost of over 20,000 Allied casualties, one of the bloodiest battles of the century. The losses strengthened the peace party in Britain.

Two events changed the politics of the war. In 1710 a Tory government under Robert Harley and Henry St John came to power in Britain and opened secret talks with France. In April 1711 Emperor Joseph I died, and Archduke Charles became Emperor Charles VI. Giving him Spain as well would have revived the empire of Charles V, which Britain and the Dutch did not want.

Marlborough was dismissed at the end of 1711. In 1712 Britain withdrew its troops from the field, and the French marshal Villars defeated the Dutch and Imperial forces at Denain in July 1712.

The peace settlement

The Treaty of Utrecht, a series of agreements signed in 1713, ended the war between France and Spain on one side and Britain, the Dutch Republic, Savoy, Portugal and Prussia on the other. Austria fought on and made peace with France at Rastatt in March 1714 and Baden in September 1714.

• Philip V kept Spain and the Spanish Americas, but renounced any right to the French throne.
• Austria received the Spanish Netherlands, Milan, Naples and Sardinia.
• Savoy gained Sicily and a royal title.
• Britain gained Gibraltar and Menorca from Spain, Newfoundland, Acadia and the Hudson Bay territories from France, and the asiento, a 30-year contract to supply enslaved Africans to Spanish America.
• The Dutch obtained the right to garrison barrier fortresses in the Austrian Netherlands.

Key people

• Louis XIV (1638–1715), King of France, who accepted the will of Charles II on his grandson’s behalf.
• Philip V (1683–1746), first Bourbon king of Spain.
• Archduke Charles (1685–1740), the Habsburg claimant, Emperor Charles VI from 1711.
• John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough (1650–1722), Allied commander-in-chief in the Low Countries.
• Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736), Austria’s leading general.

Consequences

Inside Spain, the war was also a civil war. The kingdoms of the Crown of Aragon had largely backed Archduke Charles, and Barcelona held out until 11 September 1714. Philip’s Nueva Planta decrees (1707–1716) abolished the separate laws and institutions of Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia and Majorca and centralised the Spanish state.

The war was enormously expensive. Britain paid for much of the Allied effort, including subsidies to its allies, by borrowing through the Bank of England, founded in 1694, and its national debt grew several times over. The ability to borrow cheaply on the security of parliamentary taxes became one of Britain’s main advantages in the wars of the 18th century. The Dutch Republic, by contrast, ended the war with heavy debts and began a long relative decline as a great power.

France kept its borders largely intact, but it was financially drained, and Louis XIV died in 1715, a year after the last treaty. Total military deaths are uncertain and estimates vary widely, but they are generally put at several hundred thousand, with many more civilians dying from famine and disease.

Legacy

The war ended French hopes of dominating Europe and established the idea of a “balance of power” as a guiding principle of European diplomacy. Britain, newly united by the Acts of Union in 1707, emerged with a strong navy, valuable bases and a growing share of Atlantic trade.

The settlement also left grievances. Spain wanted Gibraltar and its Italian lands back, and Catalonia’s loss of its institutions is still remembered on 11 September, Catalonia’s national day. Unresolved issues led to further wars over the following decades.

Timeline

• 1700, 1 November: Charles II of Spain dies, leaving his empire to Philip of Anjou.
• 1701, 7 September: Austria, England and the Dutch Republic form the Grand Alliance.
• 1702, May: The Allies formally declare war on France and Spain.
• 1704, 13 August: Marlborough and Eugene win the Battle of Blenheim.
• 1706: Allied victories at Ramillies (23 May) and Turin (7 September).
• 1707, 25 April: Franco-Spanish victory at Almansa.
• 1709, 11 September: Battle of Malplaquet.
• 1711, April: Emperor Joseph I dies and Archduke Charles becomes emperor.
• 1713, April: The Treaty of Utrecht is signed.
• 1714, March and September: Austria makes peace at Rastatt and Baden; Barcelona falls on 11 September.

Why it matters

The War of the Spanish Succession settled the shape of Europe for much of the 18th century. It placed the Bourbons on the Spanish throne, where their descendants still reign, gave Austria a large share of Spain’s former lands, and set Britain on the path to becoming the leading maritime and colonial power.