Philip V of Spain
Philip V was the first Bourbon king of Spain and reigned for forty-five years across two separate accessions. Born at Versailles in 1683, he was a grandson of Louis XIV and of Maria Theresa of Spain, and inherited under the will of the childless Charles II in 1700 — a bequest that made his grandfather's celebrated remark that there were no longer any Pyrenees. England, the Dutch Republic and Austria would not accept the union of the French and Spanish crowns, and the War of the Spanish Succession lasted from 1701 to 1714. He held Castile, whose population supported him, and lost the eastern kingdoms, where Catalonia and Valencia backed the Habsburg claimant. The settlement at Utrecht in 1713 confirmed him on condition that the two crowns never be united, and cost Spain Gibraltar, Menorca, the Netherlands and its Italian possessions. He used the victory to abolish the separate constitutions of Aragon, Valencia, Catalonia and Mallorca by the Nueva Planta decrees, imposing Castilian law and administration on them and creating a centralised state on the French model for the first time. He reformed the treasury, army and navy along French lines, and Spain recovered considerably in the second half of his reign, regaining Naples and Sicily for his sons. He suffered from severe depression, probably bipolar disorder, spending long periods unable to conduct business. He abdicated in January 1724 in favour of his son Luis, who died of smallpox that August, and he resumed the throne reluctantly. His second wife Elisabeth Farnese directed policy for decades. He died in 1746.
- Lived: 1683 CE – 1746 CE
- Nationality: Spanish
- Roles: king, head_of_state
