THE BOURBON DYNASTY The decision of Louis XIV. to accept the inheritance left to his grandson by Charles II. led to a war (see SPANISH SUCCES SION, WAR OF THE), which was only ended in 1713 by the peace of Utrecht, and resulted in the loss of Gibraltar and the island of Minorca, which remained in the hands of England, and of all the Spanish dominions in Italy gild Flanders.
In internal affairs the years of the war were of capital importance in Spanish history. The general politi cal and administrative nullity of the upper Spanish class of this generation and the political views of the French monarchy led to the assumption of all real power by the French or Italian servants and advisers of the king. Under their direction important finan cial and administrative reforms were begun. The absolutist and centralizing nature of some of these innovations revived the sep aratist tendencies of the eastern portion of the peninsula which had embraced the cause of the Austrian party against the Bour bon dynasty. Philip V. was forced to reduce Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia by arms. Barcelona was only taken in 1714, the year after the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht. Most of the privileges of these once independent kingdoms, which had with rare exceptions been respected by the Austrian kings, disappeared.
On the death of Philip V.'s wife, Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy, in 1714, the king was married at once to Elizabeth Farnese of Parma, who ruled him and used her whole influence to drag Spain into a series of ad ventures in order to obtain Italian dominions for her sons. Her first agent was the Italian priest Alberoni (q.v.), whose favour lasted from 1714 to 1719. Alberoni could not, and perhaps did not sincerely wish to, prevent the queen and king from plunging into an attempt to recover Sardinia and Sicily, which provoked the armed intervention of France and England and led to the destruction of the rising Spanish navy off Cape Passaro (see TOR RINGTON, GEORGE BYNG, VISCOUNT). In 1731 Elizabeth secured the succession of her eldest son, Charles, afterwards Charles III. of Spain, to the duchy of Parma, by arrangement with England and the empire. Apart from the Italian intrigues, the most important
foreign affairs of the reign were connected with the relations of Spain with England. A feeble attempt to regain Gibraltar was made in 1733, and a serious war was only averted by the resolute peace policy of Walpole. The king, who had become almost entirely mad, died on July 9, 1746.
His successor, Ferdinand VI., the second son of his first marriage, was a retiring and modest man, who adopted a policy of peace with England. His ministers were mainly Spaniards, well qualified for political and administrative tasks (which indicates a very rapid recovery), intermingled with a few foreigners : the most notable of the Spaniards was Zenon de Somadevila, marquis of Ensenada, and of the foreigners, Richard Wall, an Irish Jacobite. The advance of the country in material prosperity was considerable.
1759-88.—Charles III. was one of the most sin cere, and the most successful, of the "enlightened despots" of the i8th century. He had had a long apprenticeship in Naples, and was a man of 43 when he came to Spain in
Until his death he laboured to advance the material prosperity of Spain. His foreign policy was less wise. He had a deep dislike of England, not only because of the late wars in Europe, but also because of the covetous eyes which England turned on America; and a strong and justified desire to recover Minorca and Gibraltar. All this added to a natural family feeling, induced him to enter into the "Family Compact" with his French cousins. In 177o he came to the verge of war with England over the Falk land islands. In 1778 he joined France in supporting the insurgent English colonists in America. The most statesmanlike of his for eign enterprises, the attempt to take the piratical city of Algiers in 1775, was made with insufficient forces and ended in defeat. Yet he was able to recover Minorca and Florida in the War of American Independence, and he finally extorted a treaty with Algiers which put a stop to piratical raids on the Spanish coast.