PHILIP V, King of Spain. - B. at Versailles on 19 Dec. 1683 to Louis, Dauphin of France, and Maria Anna of Bavaria, d. 9 July 1746. He was invested by the king of France with the duchy of Anjou. In 1700 Charles II of Spain named him heir to the throne in his second will, with the clause that Spain could not be united with other states. On Charles's death, P. was proclaimed king, and in Feb. 1701 he arrived in Madrid. When Louis XIV declared that he reserved for him the rights to the throne of France, a European coalition was formed against France and Spain. In 1705 the English brought Archduke Charles of Habsburg to Catalonia, who managed to enter Madrid and was proclaimed king there under the name Charles III, while P. took refuge in Valladolid. But upheld by the loyal attachment of the masses of Castile, P. reconquered the capital on 3 [sic] 1706. A second time he had to abandon it in 1710, but he returned there shortly afterward. When his adversary ascended the imperial throne, the powers recognized P. on the condition that he renounce, for himself and his successors, the throne of France.
In 1713 P. promulgated a "pragmatic" that established succession according to Salic law. On the death in 1714 of his first wife, Maria Luisa of Savoy (daughter of Victor Amadeus II), he married Isabella Farnese. From this derived the predominance of Card. Giulio Alberoni (v.). In 1721 Spain allied itself with France and England, and the marriages were arranged of Maria Anna Victoria with Louis XV and of the infante Louis with Louise Elisabeth of Orléans, daughter of the Regent (of the two marriages only the second took place). On 1 Jan. 1724 P. abdicated in favor of his son Louis, but since the latter died in Aug., he resumed power. P. was notable for the gentleness of his disposition, but his weakness of character meant that he was always dominated by others. In his last years he suffered from a serious nervous illness, so that the direction of affairs was held by the queen.
Bibliography2 works
Felipe I y del advenimiento de la casa de Barbón al trono de España, Madrid 1894; M. Machado, Felipe V continuador del « Quijote », in Revista de la Biblioteca, Archivio y Museo, Ayuntamiento de Madrid, 5 (1928), pp. 365-80; A. Ballesteros y Beretta, Historia de España, V. Barcelona 1929, passim; C. Pitollet, Les débuts du Regne de Philippe I, in Bulletin hispanique, 36 (1934), pp. 360-367; L. de Tasonera, Felipe V, fundador de una dinastía y dos veces Rey de España, Barcelona 1942. For the economic situation E. J. Hamilton, Money and economic recovery in Spain under the first Bourbon, in Journal of modern history, 15 (1943), p. 102-103.
Roberto Palmarocchi