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Hi, I'm Griffin Johnson, the Armchair Historian. Today's video: the War of the Spanish Succession.
Coming up: pretender claimants, complex geopolitics, and some really funny looking Hapsburg jaws.
Europe's long and complex history is marked by many wars sparked by territorial,
religious, and colonial disputes to name a few. But it was fear of having one country or one dynasty
directly governing too much of Europe that lay at the heart of the War of the Spanish Succession.
Before we start, I would like to give a shout out to my friend and patreon supporter Derek.
He's headed to basic training on the 22nd. So I'd like everyone to wish him good luck. Now on to the video.
In the year 1665, the Spanish throne passed to the sickly Charles II; a man who made even Frankenstein look attractive.
His health problems prompted contemporaries to refer to him as 'El Hechizado,' or 'The Bewitched.'
It is traditionally held that Charles II's severe mental and physical impairments were a consequence of inbreeding; something that the Hapsburg Royals did frequently to ensure that wealth and influence
remained in the family.
Although the Hapsburgs weren't the only ones to partake in such a practice,
They are the only royal family to have an inbreeding induced deformity named after them the: Hapsburg Jaw.
One of the Hapsburgs' infamous disabilities was infertility; and
consequently, when the Spanish king, Charles II, died at the age of 38, he still lacked an heir.
A coalition of European powers had long been devising plans
to divide the Spanish Empire's vast holdings across the continent; and the time had come to put those plans into action.
However, there was one obstacle that the coalition had to surmount: Charles II had stated in his will that his kingdom should be left
to Philip of Anjou, the grandson of the famed French monarch
Louis XIV, also known as the Sun King.
Louis followed Charles' will and recognized Philip as the new King of Spain.
"Not so fast!" was the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I's first reply
The Emperor refused to recognize Philip of Anjou and instead laid claim to the Spanish throne on behalf of his son,
Archduke Karl VI.
"Noble Spaniards,
I hereby proclaim that my son,
Archduke Karl VI of Austria will be your rightful sovereign and ruler of the Spanish Empire. He shall henceforth be called
'Carlos.'"
"¿Qué? (What?)"
The Spanish people were not fans of this new Austrian pretender and a momentous clash was brewing.
On one side stood France and Spain, aided by Portugal, Hungary, Savoy, and a handful of German
principalities; and on the other, stood the Grand Alliance comprised of England, Scotland, the Dutch Republic, Austria,
Prussia, and Hanover. It wasn't long before the two alliances prepared for war. From the onset of the war of the Spanish Succession,
coalition forces were on the offensive. In
1703, a
decisive naval victory at Vigo Bay was one, which prompted Portugal to flip sides that same year opening a new front in Iberia.
around the same time Savoy also flipped sides, further pressuring French and Spanish Holdings in Italy. Between
1704 and 1708, this trend of aggression continued, as the Alliance won victory after victory in Central Europe.
The military prowess of John Churchill, whose victory at Blenheim, forced Bavaria out of the war, and Prince Eugene of Savoy
allowed coalition forces to fully contain France. These victories even included two brief occupations of Madrid and
successful occupations of Barcelona and Valencia.
But Philip of Anjou remained firmly seated on the throne, in part as a result of his popularity with the Spanish people.
"¿Qué?"
But massive war expenditures gradually took a toll on the Spanish and French treasuries.
By 1708, both sides were in a deadlock.
The French were completely forced out of northern Italy; and Spain, out of southern Italy.
the British Royal Navy also enjoyed naval supremacy in the Mediterranean, even seizing Spanish Gibraltar and
Menorca.
But France itself remained relatively untouched and no lasting breakthroughs were made in Spain.
Most of the participating countries wanted the war to come to a close, but France wouldn't budge.
Louis' decision to continue fighting paid off. Why? Because in
1705, the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I, died, passing the throne to his eldest son, Joseph, who then also died in 1711.
This meant that Archduke Karl
VI was now Holy Roman Emperor, the man the Grand Alliance was fighting to place on the Spanish throne. This, needless to say,
complicated things, as no one in Europe wanted to see Karl VI
accumulate so much power at the head of both the Holy Roman and the Spanish empires. An important thing to remember
is that the grand alliance was attempting to establish a balance of power on the continent, so that no dynasty had too much control.
However, with no figurehead to rally behind, the Grand Alliance soon
collapsed, allowing the French to negotiate for more favorable terms, but they still needed to make concessions.
Philip of Anjou remained on the Spanish throne, but several measures were taken to limit French power, including the transfer of
territories and trade privileges to the Allies (Grand Alliance).
Among the territories were parts of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Hudson Bay, St. Kitts
Gibraltar, and Menorca, all ceded to the British.
The war empowered the British in other ways as well. By the time it ended, Britain had the largest navy in the world.
Additionally, the war significantly weakened the Dutch, who had been one of, if not, the greatest obstacle to British mercantile supremacy.
Austria, meanwhile, did gain parts of the Netherlands, and was able to secure its hold over Italy and Hungary.
During that same century British and Austrian preeminence in Europe would be challenged in the War of the Austrian
Succession, just a couple decades later.
Meanwhile, the losses suffered by the severely overextended French state marked the beginning of the end of French hegemony in Central Europe
for nearly a century. But they would return to the region as a transformed state not under a king, but an emperor.
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