SUCCESSION, WAR OF THE SPANISH, arose on the death, without issue or collateral male heirs, of Charles II., king of Spain, Nov. 3, 1700. The nearest natural heir to the throne was of the royal line of France, Charles's elder sister having married Louis XIV.; but to prevent any possible union of the two crowns, a solemn renunciation had been exacted both from Louis and his queen, for themselves and their heirs; and this renun ciation having been ratified by the king and cortes of Spain, was made as binding as legal forms could make it. Failing the Bourbons, the next heirs were the descendants of the younger sister of Charles, who had married the emperor Leopold I., and from whom no renunciation had been exacted; and the only issue being a daughter, who had married the elector of Bavaria, and borne a son, Joseph Ferdinand, this prince was dur ing his lifetime regarded both by Charles II. and the Spanish people as the rightful heir. But,•dying in 1699 without issue, the question of succession was reopened, Louis XIV., failing his wife's rights, claiming for himself, as the son of Philip IV.'s elder sister (being, however, again legally barred here by another solemn renunciation); while the emperor Leopold, maintaining with justice that the Bourbons were by these two renunciations wholly deprived of all their rights of heirship, claimed the throne as the son of Philip IV.'s younger sister. The other powers of Europe, especially Britain, Holland, and Germany, warmly interested themselves in the matter, as a question of policy, and with good reason; for not only was the crown of Spain a valuable prize in itself, carrying with it the sovereignty of the Netherlands, the Milanese, Naples, and Sicily, and immense possessions in America, but its union with France or Austria would of a certainty endanger the independence of every other sovereignty in Europe. Both claimants bads for the support of the maritime powers, the one by renouncing his claims in favor of his second grandson, Philip of Anjou, the other by putting forward his second son, Charles, as his substitute, while both solemnly promised never to undertake the union of the two crowns. The Austrian party at first preponderated in Spain; but Louis, by able and unscrupulous policy, succeeded in undermining the Austrian influence at Madrid, and in having Philip declared the heir (Oct. 2, 1700). On the death of king Charles, a month.
after, Philip appeared in Spain, and was well received by all classes, and at once recog nized as monarch, an example gradually and unwillingly followed all the European powers excepting the emperor; for at that time the dread of Louis XIV.'s power pressed like an incubus on the nations of Europe. However, the French monarch, by various ill-advised acts, chiefly by his support of the elder pretender (the son of James IL), whom he recognized as sovereign of Britain, and by occupation of the Netherlands and menacing treatment of Holland, stirred up such general resentment, that William III. was enabled to revive the grand alliance, and his successor, Anne, to join with Holland and Austria in declaring war against France and the " Spanish usurper," May 15, 1702.
Hostilities at once commenced; a combined British-Dutch-German army under Marlborough attacked the French in Belgium, and captured one by one their fortresses on the ]Ines, while the Reichs army (Germany having declared for Austria), under the Markgraf of Baden, crossed the Rhine, and took Landau. Austria herself had, how ever, commenced the contest in the previous year by sending into Italy prince Eugene (q.v.) of Savoy-Carignan at the head of a veteran army of 32,000 men, who did a good deal of hard fighting, with no adequate result. Meanwhile, the elector of Bavaria raised an army and declared for France, and a French army under Villars marched to join him. Both were kept in check by the Markgraf for some time; but, in the summer of 1703, Villars burst through the Black Forest, and joined the elector, with the view of penetrating through Bavaria into Austria, but his obstinate ally, the elector, was deter mined to invade the Tyrol instead, and join Vendome in northern Italy—a scheme which ended most disastrously; and Villars returned in disgust to France. In the Low Countries, Marlborough employed himself in gradually depriving the French of their strongholds: in Italy the Austrians were driven from point to point, till nothing remained to them but a few districts on the Po; they were, however, relieved toward the close of the year by the defection from France of the duke of Savoy, who joined the grand alliance Oct. 25, 1703, an event which compelled Vendome to return to Pied mont. The first great blow was struck in the following year, when the combined Austrian-German-British army, under Marlborough, totally defeated the French and the elector at Blenheim (q.v.), driving the debris of their forces almost to the foot of the
Vosges. After this the French never obtained a permanent footing in Germany. The campaigns of•Marlborough in Germany, and of Eugene in Italy, in 1705, were successful but not very important. The year 1706 was another great epoch in this protracted con test; the British and Dutch having freed the valley of the Macs, had forced the French into South Brabant, and Marlborough having, by a stratagem, caused them to march toward Namur, suddenly attacked them at Ramillies (q.v.), and, after a brief combat, put them completely to rout with great slaughter, the elector and Villeroy, the joint commanders, narrowly escaping capture. Louis hastily re enforced his army, and re called Vendome from Italy to take the command, a step which, however necessary, cleared the way for Eugene who completely out-generaled his opponent 3larsin, and after a memorable march of 34 days, appeared before Turin, and united with the duke of Savoy. The battle of Turin, in which the gallant Marsin was slain, was one of the most obstinate of the whole war, but its result was as decisive, and from this period the French power in northern Italy was shattered: and the following year saw the coun try completely cleared of both French and Spaniards. From 1706 the war in Germany was purely defensive, and no battle worthy of notice was fought. In Italy also the contest on the whole languished, though the Austrian arms were for the most part suc cessful, Mantua and Naples (1708) being subdued, and the pope compelled to preserve neutrality by dread of another sack of Rome. But since the commencement of 1704, another theater of war had been established by the landing of the archduke Charles at Lisbon with 8,000 British and 6,000 Dutch troops, who were joined by the Portuguese (their king having acceded to the alliance against France), and invaded Spain from the west; but nothing of consequence was accomplished till a landing had been effected by the earl of Peterborough (q.v.), with a small body of troops, in Catalonia. Then attacked both from the w. and e., the Bourbon forces were beaten and driven across the Pyr enees, and it was only after the departure of Peterborough that Berwick (q.v.) made head against his antagonists. By his victory at Almanza (April 25, 1707), he recovered the whole of Spain except Catalonia. In 1710 Berwick finally left Spain; and the Car lists under Stanhope and Starhemberg again got the upper hand, repossessing them selves of the e. of Spain, and of Madrid (Sept. 28). But the arrival of Vendome speedily changed the face of affairs. Stanhope was defeated and captured (Dec. 9) at Brihuega, and Starhemberg was forced to retreat on the following day. The war was thenceforth confined to Catalonia, and was distinguished by no noteworthy inci dents. The most important part of the struggle had been meanwhile taking place in the Netherlands, where Marlborough (1707) drew up in concert with Eugene a secret plan of operations which affected a division of the Moselle army under the elector and Berwick from that of the north under Vendome; whereupon the British and Germans swiftly uniting fell upon Vendome's army at Oudenarde (q.v.) (1708), and before Berwick could come up to its aid, inflicted upon it a severe defeat. The capture of Lille, Ghent, and Bruges necessarily followed. France now began to show symptoms of exhaustion, and made overtures of peace, but these being chiefly illusory, were rejected; and the emperor having largely re-enforced Eugene, the allies took the field with 110,000 men, while the French, equal in strength, were now directed by Villars, the most enterpris ing and fortunate of their generals; but his star, which had hitherto been constantly in the ascendant, fell before that of Marlborough at Malplaquet (q.v.) (Sept., 1709). After some further campaigning, besieging, and negotiating, the opportune death of the emperor (April 17, 1711) rescued France from the brink of destruction; for Britain became imme diately lukewarm in support of a cause which would effect the reunion of Austria and Spain; and the tories having come into power, private preliminaries of peace were signed between Britain and France, Oct. 8, 1711. Eugene, however, continued the war, aided by Holland, and captured Quesnoy; but the defeat and capture of the earl of Albermarle and the British contingent at Denain (July, 1712) so weakened his force, that he was compelled to give way; and in the following spring the Dutch joined the British as parties to the peace of Utrecht (q.v.). The emperor Charles was also forced to conclude a treaty of peace at Baden, Sept. 7, 1714, which ended the struggle, leaving Philip in possession of the Spanish throne (sec UTREcnr. PEACE OF); while Austria obtained the Spanish Netherlands and the Milanese.