Bourbon Claim To The Spanish Throne - Philip of Anjou and The French Succession

Philip of Anjou and The French Succession

Charles's second wife, Maria Anna of Pfalz-Neuberg Wives of Charles II

Philip of France, Duke of Anjou, was the second son of Louis, le Grand Dauphin and Maria Anna of Bavaria, known as Dauphine Victoire, a younger brother of Louis, Duke of Burgundy and an uncle of Louis XV of France. Philip was born at the Palace of Versailles in France. His older brother, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, was in line to the throne right after his father, Le Grand Dauphin, thus leaving him and his younger brother, Charles, Duke of Berry little expectation to ever rule over France. However, his fortune (and that of his grandfather Louis XIV) started looking up when the degenerate last monarch of Spain, Charles II, fell ill. Both of Charles's marriages had failed to produce any offspring.

Charles II married Marie Louise of Orléans (1662–1689), eldest daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, the only sibling of Louis XIV, and his first wife Princess Henrietta of England. It is likely that Charles was impotent, and no children were born. Marie Louise became deeply depressed and died at 26, ten years after their marriage, leaving 28-year-old Charles heartbroken. Still in desperate need of a male heir, the next year he married the 23-year-old Palatine princess Maria Anna of Neuburg, a daughter of Philip William, Elector of the Palatinate, and sister-in-law of his uncle Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor. However, this marriage was no more successful than the first in producing the much-desired heir.

Having failed to produce the desired male heir, towards the end of his life, Charles became increasingly hypersensitive and strange, at one point demanding that the bodies of his family be exhumed so he could look upon the corpses. He reportedly wept upon viewing the body of his first wife, Marie Louise.

This spelled good news for his French relatives as they could now forward their dormant claims to the Spanish throne. Initially, Louis XIV wished to further his own ambitions by placing himself on the throne and gaining control of the vast Spanish empire, using his claim as heir to the Spanish throne, through his mother, daughter of Philip III. Among all the contenders, it was Louis XIV's son, Louis the Grand Dauphin, who was the closest heir, as the son of the oldest sister of Charles II.

So when Charles II died in 1700, the line of the Spanish Habsburgs died with him. Charles' last will and testament named the 16-year old Philip, Duke of Anjou, second son of the Grand Dauphin, as his successor. Upon any possible refusal the Crown of Spain would be offered next to Philip's younger brother Charles, Duke of Berry, or, next, to Archduke Charles of Austria, Charles's cousin from the Austrian branch of the Habsburg dynasty

Both claimants had a legal right due to the fact that Philip's grandfather, King Louis XIV of France and Charles's father, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold, were both the husbands of Charles' older half sisters and sons of Charles' aunts.

Philip had the better claim because his grandmother and great-grandmother were older than Leopold's. However, the Austrian branch claimed that Philip's grandmother had renounced the Spanish throne for her descendants as part of her marriage contract. This was countered by the French branch's claim that it was on the basis of a dowry that had never been paid.

After a long council meeting where the Dauphin spoke up in favour of his son's rights, it was agreed that Philip would ascend the throne but would forever renounce his claim to the throne of France for himself and his descendants.

However, the spectre of the multi-continental empire of Spain passing under the effective control of Louis XIV provoked a massive coalition of powers to oppose the Duke of Anjou's succession.

Family tree of claimants to the Spanish throne


Claimants are shown with a heavy black border. In cases of second marriages, order is indicated via spouses' initials.

Henry IV
of France
(1553-1610)		 Marie de Médicis
(1575-1642)		 Philip III
of Spain
(1578-1621)		 Margaret
of Austria
(1584-1611)
Anne of
Austria
(1601-66)		 Louis XIII
of France
(1601-43)		 Elisabeth
of France
(1602-44)		 Philip IV
of Spain
(1605-65)
1st: E, 2nd: M		 Maria Anna
of Spain
(1606-46)		 Ferdinand III,
Holy Roman
Emperor
(1608-57)
Louis XIV
of France
(1638-1715)		 Maria Theresa
of Spain
(1638-83)		 Mariana of
Austria
(1634-96)		 Leopold I, Holy
Roman Emperor
(1640-1705)
1st: M, 2nd: E		 Eleonor Magdalene
of Neuburg
(1655-1720)
Duchess Maria
Anna Victoria
of Bavaria
(1660-90)		 Louis,
Grand Dauphin
(1661-1711)		 Charles II
of Spain
(1661 - 1700)		 Margaret Theresa
of Spain
(1651-73)		 Archduke Charles
of Austria
(1685-1750)
Louis, Dauphin
of France
(1682-1712)		 Philip V
of Spain
(1683-1746)		 Charles, Duke
of Berry
(1686-1714)		 Maria Antonia
of Austria
(1669-92)		 Maximilian II
Emanuel, Elector
of Bavaria
(1666-1726)
Joseph Ferdinand,
Prince of Asturias
(1692-99)

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