page_title: Elisabeth Farnese
section_title: Foreign policy
hierarchical_section_title: Elisabeth Farnese / Queen of Spain / Foreign policy
caption_attribution_description: Español: Retrato del rey Felipe V de España (1683-1746) y de su segunda esposa, la reina Isabel de Farnesio (1692-1766).
context_page_description: Elisabeth Farnese was Queen of Spain by marriage to King Philip V. She exerted great influence over Spain's foreign policy and was the de facto ruler of Spain from 1714 until 1746. From 1759 until 1760, she governed as regent.
context_section_description: Queen Elisabeth was uninterested in domestic policy and preferred foreign policy, where her goal was to enforce the Spanish presence in the Italian states, combined with her ambition for her own sons, who were initially not expected to succeed in Spain because of the existence of her step-sons.   Elisabeth's influence was exerted altogether in support of Alberoni's policy, one chief aim of which was to recover the ancient Italian possessions of Spain, and which actually resulted in the seizure of Sardinia and Sicily.    So vigorously did she enter into this policy that when the French forces advanced to the Pyrenees, she placed herself at the head of one division of the Spanish army.        In April 1719, the queen accompanied the king on his campaign to the front upon the French invasion; dressed in a French habit of blue and silver, she continuously reviewed and encouraged her troops on horseback.
  Her ambition, however, was grievously disappointed. The Triple Alliance thwarted her plans when British troops raided Vigo, and by 1720 the allies made the banishment of Alberoni a condition of peace. Sicily also had to be evacuated.
  During the later years of Philip V, when he was nearly senile, Elisabeth directed the whole policy of Spain so as to secure thrones in Italy for her sons.    In 1731 she had the satisfaction of seeing her favored scheme realized with the recognition by the powers in the Treaty of Vienna of her son Don Carlos (afterwards Charles III of Spain) as the Duke of Parma, and after the 1738 Treaty of Vienna his accession to the throne of the Two Sicilies.    Her second son, Philip, became Duke of Parma in 1748.
caption: Philip V and Elisabeth in 1739
exif: {}