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Henry
IV |
After
Antonio’s death, his son Henry –
real winner of the Wars of Religion since all
children of Henry II and Catherine of Guise
had died in the meanwhile – continued
his father’s policy.
As everybody knows, Henry wanted to go to Paris
and be crowned King there, but the city strongly
opposed his will and imposed him to deny Protestantism
and convert to Catholicism if he wanted to become
King of France. Henry accepted and in 1594 he
was welcomed in Paris and crowned King
of France and Navarre in God’s
name and with the papal recognition.
The Bourbon had become Kings of France. |
The Royal Line of France
Louis
XIII |
Become
king in 1594, Henry of Bourbon took the name
of Henry IV King of France and Navarre (1594-1610).
After him, the Throne went to his son Louis
XIII (1610-1643) under the regency of his mother
Maria de' Medici until he came of age and then,
at his death, to his son Louis XIV, who was
then aged just five, under the regency of his
mother Anne of Austria helped by Mazarine.
As everybody knows, Louis XIV, the Roi Soleil,
ruled for a very long time (his was the longest
of all reigns if we count its duration from
1643, the year of his father’s death,
in which he officially became Louis XIV King
of France and Navarre, although under the regency
of his mother). |
Even if we start to count from 1661 – the year
in which Mazarine died and Louis XIV took full possession
of the sovereignty also from the point of view of
political power (he proclaimed that he was “Prime
Minister of himself”) – his reign was
one of the longest.
Until that moment, the Bourbon Family held only one
Throne, the most important and glorious in the world
together with the Throne of the Sacred Roman Empire
(in fact, the two Thrones had their origin in Charlemagne).
But unforeseeable historical events were about to
change the future of the descendants of the Roi Soleil.
In Spain, the Hapsburg dynasty reigned from the time
of Charles V; as everybody knows, in 1556 the Emperor
of the Sacred Roman Empire divided his vast dominions
between his brother Ferdinand – whom he gave
the empire dominions and the title of Emperor –
and his son Philip II, to whom he gave the Throne
of Madrid and all overseas and European dominions
among which the viceroyalty of Naples and Sicily.
The line of the Hapsburg-Spain was originated in this
way, in parallel with the main line of the Hapsburg-Austria
who held the imperial title.
Louis
XIV |
At
the end of the XVII century, the Spanish line
died out with Charles II, who had no direct
heirs. The problem of the succession to the
Spanish Throne arose. Both Louis XIV and the
Emperor Leopold I of Hapsburg claimed rights
over it; in fact both had married one of Charles’
sisters (the King of France had married the
elder, the Hapsburg Emperor the younger).
For several reasons, Charles II of Hapsburg
in his testament appointed as sole heir Philip
of Anjou, nephew of Louis XIV and son of the
Dauphin, with the clause that he had to renounce
his rights over the Crown of France; secondarily
he appointed the Archduke Charles of Hapsburg,
second son of the Emperor Leopold.
In reality, when Charles II died in 1700, Philip
of Anjou ascended the Throne of Madrid with
the name of Philip V. |
Of
course this provoked the reaction of Austria and also
of the other great powers that were afraid of an excessive
strengthening of Louis XIV (who already acted as real
lord of Spain); therefore these powers supported the
candidature of Charles of Hapsburg. The War of the
Spanish Succession began.
The Bourbon on the Throne of
Spain. Philip V and the
War of Spanish Succession
Born
in Versailles on 19 December 1683 from Prince Louis,
Dauphin of France, and Maria Anne of Bavaria, the
Duke of Anjou was only seventeen when he inherited
the Crown of Spain.
Philip V was unprepared to the task of king, but Louis
XIV watched over him and through him expected to rule
over Spain: to help him, he established a State Council
formed by experienced ministers from Colbert’s
school who began to implement reforms also in Spain.
His marriage to the thirteen-year-old Maria Louise
Gabriella – daughter of Duke Victor Amadeus
II of Savoy – was a blessing for him. The wedding
was celebrated by proxy in Turin on 11 September 1701.
The Queen was clever and full of energy.
A rebellion broken out in Naples forced him to leave
for Italy. He gave the regency to his young wife,
who, helped by the clergy, government people and mainly
Princess Orsini - the "camarera mayor" deliberately
chosen as her lady-in-waiting by Louis XIV –
protected the French interests at the Court and was
up to her task. After restoring order in Naples, the
break out of the War of Spanish Succession forced
Philip to leave for Piedmont and Lombardy, where he
fought against the Austrian army of Archduke Charles
and showed to be a brave soldier. Fortune would have
smiled on him if the Netherlands and England had not
allied with Austria and changed in a decisive way
the outcome of the war.
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