including headings Spain's distant cousins, Partition treaties and wills, Europe takes sides, Fortunes of war, Peace proposals, ...
The War of the Spanish Succession outlasts Leopold I (who dies in 1705) and his eldest son Joseph I (who dies in 1711). The terms of the eventual treaty in 1714 between France and Austria are agreed by Leopold's second s...
After the War of the Spanish Succession the French and the British often act in a somewhat uneasy alliance. The main reason is that both nations have political leaders, Cardinal Fleury and Robert Walpole, who see peace a...
But the War of the Spanish Succession has also had one major effect in central Europe - not yet perhaps as evident as the territorial changes. In 1701 the Austrian emperor, Leopold I, needing the allegiance of Prussia in...
The treaties in 1713-14, ending the war of the Spanish Succession, replace Habsburg with Bourbon on the throne of Spain. The great Habsburg domain assembled in the 16th century by the brothers Charles and Ferdinand is re...
The Spanish branch dies out in 1700, provoking the War of the Spanish Succession. But the Austrian empire remains securely in Habsburg hands until its demise, along with the separate German empire, at the end of World Wa...
The great issue dominating Austria in the years after the War of the Spanish Succession is again a problem of succession - this time relating to the remaining Habsburg territories, ruled from Vienna. The emperor Charles...
It is impossible for Portugal to avoid being drawn into two European wars - the War of the Spanish Succession, and the Seven Years' War - but the 18th century is a time of prosperity. This partly derives from the wealth...
There is a sudden lightening of the tone in French society in the second decade of the 18th century. The treaty of Utrecht, concluding the War of the Spanish Succession in 1713, seems to promise the end of the almost con...
Peter the Great's proposal for concerted action against the Turks stands little chance of success in a western Europe obsessed with preparations for local hostilities (the War of the Spanish Succession, the Northern War)...
This achievement enables Frederick William's son, Frederick III of Brandenburg, to achieve the crucial next step. In 1700 the Austrian emperor, Leopold I, needs Frederick's assistance in the War of the Spanish Succession...
The partition of Italy settled upon in the mid-16th century remains the basic pattern for more than 200 years, though the regions of Milan, Naples and Sicily continue to be pawns in Europe's conflicts. The War of the Spa...
The Sicilians, frequently restless under Spanish rule, find their Austrian masters even more unacceptable. So a Spanish prince is welcome when he drives out the Austrians in 1735. Unlike previous Spanish rulers, this pri...
The eventual result of all this mayhem is disaster for France and triumph for Spain. In 1529, in the treaty of Cambrai, Francis I renounces all French rights in Milan and Naples. From 1540 Milan is directly annexed to th...
Charles II of Spain has no children. In recent years there has been much effort by Europe's diplomats to influence his choice of an heir. The general fear is that the wealth of Spain (particularly that which derives from...
