PHILIP V., King of Spain, and the founder of the Bourbon dynasty in that country, was the second son of the Dauphin Louis (son of Louis XIV.) of France, and was born at Versailles, Dec. 19, 1683. The last king of Spain of the Iklapsburg dynasty, Charles II., had successively promised the succession to the throne to Charles, archduke of Austria, the great grandson of Philip III. of Spain, and to Philip, then duke of Anjou, the son of his own eldest sister; but becoming cognizant of a secret treaty which had been agreed to between England, France, and Holland for the partition of Spain, be, to prevent the dismemberment of his kingdom, left by will the succession to Philip of Anjou. France immediately seceded from the partition treaty, and, on the death of Charles II. in 1700, Philip, who was the favorite candidate among the Spaniards, with the exception of those in the eastern provinces, possession of the kingdom (April 21, 1101); and, to gain over Savoy to his side, and thus create a diversion in Italy against Austria, he married Maria Louisa, daughter of Victor Amadeus. War almost immedi ately broke out between the rival claimants, Charles being supported by the "grand alliance," which included England, Austria and Holland, and subsequently (January, 1702) Prussia, Denmark, and Hanover (May, 1703), Portugal, and (October. 1703) Savoy. See SUCCESSION, WAIL OF SPANISH. The fortune of war was mostly on the side of the allies; but France and Spain carried on the contest heroically, and, though at great sac rifices, the throne was secured to Philip by the peace of Utrecht (April 11, 17131. In the following year the queen died, and Philip espoused Elizabeth Farnese of Parma, who immediately induced her husband to commit the, reins of government to Alberoni (q.v.); in feet, so much was the weak-minded king tinder the influence of his
talented young wife, that he granted everything she asked. "He was," says Sismondi, " remarkable for good nature, he had few faults and as few virtues, his sentiments were just and honorable, but lie was wholly deficient in energy: lie had no taste for anything I eyond devotional exercises and the chase; he was made to be governed, mud he was so 111 his life " Alberoni's adventurous foreign policy, which at first succeeded in restor ing the Spanish rule in and Sardinia, brought down upon Spain the wrath of the quadruple alliance (France, England, Holland, and Austria), and war was only averted by his being dismissed; but his dismissal was really produced by his neglecting to further the queen's pet scheme of providing sovereignties in Italy for her sons, who seemed to have little chance of obtaining the throne of Spain. The strong bond of union which had hitherto subsisted between Spain and France was broken, in 1725, by the refusal of the regent of the latter country to fulfill certain matrimonial agreements; but four years afterward the two countries joined with England and Holland against thc emperor, and in 1731 Philip took measures to recover the old Spanish possessions in Italy. The war which followed at last satisfied the queen by giving the kingdom of the two Sicilies to her son Charles (1736), but Philip, in attempting to obtain still greater advantages' over Austria, was led into a war of which he was not destined to see the result. He died at Madrid, July 9, 1746,