page_title: Philip V of Spain
section_title: Abdication
hierarchical_section_title: Philip V of Spain / War of the Spanish Succession / Abdication
caption_attribution_description: English: Breech_loading_firearm_belonged_to_Philip_V_of_Spain_by_A_Tienza_Madrid_circa_1715.jpg
context_page_description: Philip V was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. The sum of his two reigns, 45 years and 21 days, is the longest in modern Spanish history.
  Philip was born into the French royal family as Philippe, Duke of Anjou. He was the second son of Louis, Grand Dauphin, who was the son and heir of King Louis XIV. The Grand Dauphin had the strongest genealogical claim to the Spanish throne held by his maternal uncle, King Charles II. However, since neither the Grand Dauphin nor his eldest son, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, could be displaced from the succession to the French throne, King Charles named the Duke of Anjou as his heir in his will. He ascended the Spanish throne in 1700 as King Philip V.
  Philip was the first member of the House of Bourbon to rule as King of Spain. It was well known that the union of France and Spain under one monarch would upset the balance of power in Europe, and that other European powers would take steps to prevent it.
context_section_description: On 14 January 1724, Philip abdicated the throne to his eldest son, the seventeen-year-old Louis, for reasons still subject to debate. One theory suggests that Philip V, who exhibited many elements of mental instability during his reign, did not wish to reign due to his increasing mental decline. A second theory puts the abdication in context of the Bourbon dynasty. The French royal family recently had lost many legitimate agnates to diseases. Indeed, Philip V's abdication occurred just over a month after the death of the Duke of Orléans, who had been regent for Louis XV of France. The lack of an heir made another continental war of succession a possibility. Philip V was a legitimate descendant of Louis XIV, but matters were complicated by the Treaty of Utrecht, which forbade a union of the French and Spanish crowns. The theory supposes that Philip V hoped that by abdicating the Spanish crown he could circumvent the Treaty and succeed to the French throne.
  In any case, Louis died on 31 August 1724 in Madrid of smallpox, having reigned only seven months and leaving no issue. Philip was forced to return to the Spanish throne as his younger son, the later Ferdinand VI, was not yet of age.
caption: A breech loading miquelet musket with a reusable cartridge, used by Philip V, made by A. Tienza, Madrid, circa 1715
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