Family Compact

Family Compact, the name given to certain political leagues entered into by the Bourbon kings of Europe. Of these, two deserve mention. The first, an agreement concluded between the kings of France and Spain in 1733, was aimed on the one hand against the ascendancy of Austria in Italy and on the other against the mercantile supremacy of Britain on the sea. Out of this arose a war between Britain and Spain in 1739. The second compact, signed in 1761, had for its object the union, in a close offensive and defensive alliance, of the Bourbon sovereigns of France, Spain, and the two Italian kingdoms Naples and Sicily, and Parma and Piacenza; and next year Britain declared war.