Philip V.

Philip V., king of Spain, and the founder of the Bourbon dynasty in that country, was the second son of the Dauphin Louis (son of Louis XIV. and Maria Theresa of Spain) of France, and was born at Versailles, December 19, 1683. In 1700 Philip, then Duke of Anjou, was bequeathed the crown of Spain by Charles II. His grandfather, Louis XIV., as he left him to take possession of the throne, uttered the famous phrase, 'Mon fils, il n'y a plus de Pyrénées.' He entered Madrid in February 1701, and after a long and varying struggle against his rival, the Archduke Charles, was left in possession of his throne by the peace of Utrecht in 1713. Next year died the queen, Maria Louisa, daughter of Victor Amadus, Duke of Savoy, whom Philip had married in 1702; and soon after he married Elizabeth Farnese of Parma, 'the termagant,' in Carlyle's phrase, who embroiled the peace of Europe for thirty years. By her influence the reins of government were committed by the amiable and weak-minded king to Alberoni. Philip was obliged by the Quadruple Alliance to dismiss his daring and ambitious minister at the close of 1719. He abdicated in favour of his son Don Louis in 1724, but resumed the crown on his death eight months later. The ambitious queen's dearest wish was to drive the Hapsburgs out of Italy in the interests of her sons by a former marriage, but all her efforts succeeded only in securing the Two Sicilies for Don Carlos. Spain joined the coalition against Maria Theresa, and her younger son Don Philip was at first successful in conquering the Milanese; but as soon as the Silesian war was closed by the treaty of Dresden the Austrian queen poured her troops into Italy and drove out the Spaniards. At the crisis Philip, who had been for years sunk in a state of mental stupor, died at Madrid, July 9, 1746. See ALBERONI, SUCCESSION (WARS OF), and SPAIN; and Baudrillart's Philippe V. et la Cour de France, 1700-15 (2 vols. 1890-91).