FILIPPO V, king of SPAGNA. — Born at Versailles to Luigi, Dauphin of France, and Maria Anna di Baviera on 19 December 1683; died on 9 July 1746. The king of France invested him with the duchy of Angiò. In 1700 Carlo II di Spagna named him heir to the throne in his second will, with the stipulation that Spain could not be united with other states. Upon Carlo’s death, F. was proclaimed king, and in February 1701 he arrived in Madrid. When Luigi 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 the Archduke Carlo di Asburgo to Catalonia; he succeeded in entering Madrid and was proclaimed king there under the name Carlo III, while F. took refuge in Valladolid. But, supported by the loyal attachment of the Castilian masses, F. reconquered the capital on 3 September 1706. He was forced to abandon it a second time in 1710, but returned there shortly afterward. When his adversary ascended the imperial throne, the powers recognized F. on the condition that he renounce, for himself and his successors, the throne of France.
In 1713 F. promulgated a “pragmatic sanction” establishing succession according to Salic law. After his first wife, Maria Luisa di Savoia (daughter of Vittorio Amedeo II), died in 1714, he married Isabella Farnese. This led to ALBERONE (v.). In 1721 Spain allied itself with France and England, and the marriages of Maria Anna Vittoria to Luigi XV and of the infante Luigi to Luisa Elisabetta d’Orléans, daughter of the Regent, were arranged (only the second of the two marriages took place). On 1 January 1724 F. abdicated in favor of his son Luigi, but when the latter died in August, he resumed power. F. was distinguished by the gentleness of his disposition, but his weakness of character meant that he was always dominated by others. In his final years he suffered from a serious nervous illness, so that the direction of affairs was assumed by the queen.
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), pp. 102–103. Roberto Palmarocchi