Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Philip V. of Spain

PHILIP V. (1683–1746), king of Spain, was the second son of the French dauphin, Louis, by his wife Maria Anna of Bavaria, and was born at Versailles on 19th December 1683. In 1700 Philip, at that time duke of Anjou, was called by the testament of the childless Charles II. to the throne of Spain. Quitting Versailles to take possession of his inheritance on 4th December, he arrived at the Buen-Retiro palace in Madrid on 18th February of the following year. At their parting his grandfather, Louis XIV., who a few months previously had concluded with England and Holland a treaty for the partition of the Spanish dominions, exhorted him to be a good Spaniard, but never to forget that he had been born a Frenchman; it was on the same occasion that he uttered the famous mot, " Mon fils, il n y a plus de Pyrenees." Philip's recognition as king by the other European powers did not take place until the war of the Spanish succession was brought to an end by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713. In 1702 he married Maria Louisa, daughter of Victor Amadeus, duke of Savoy; shortly after her death in February 1714, which he felt deeply, he married Elizabeth Farnese (December), a step to which he was advised by the then all-powerful princesse des Ursins. The disgrace of the princess immediately followed, and her place in the royal counsels was taken by Alberoni (q.v.), who remained in power till December 1719. In 1724 Philip, under the influence of a profound melancholy which had seized him, resigned the crown by royal decree, dated 14th January 1724, in favour of his eldest son, Louis, who, however, died after a short reign of only seven months. Philip died on 9th July 1746 and was succeeded by his son, Ferdinand VI. See Spain.