Decline of Spanish Control

Spanish control was lost when Charles II of Spain died in 1700, naming Philip, duc d’Anjou of France as his successor (as Philip V). The Spanish Netherlands were henceforth ruled for six years by Bourbon France and occupied for yet another seven by Dutch and British troops. Finally, in 1713, the Treaties of Utrecht divided the Spanish inheritance, and rule of the Spanish Netherlands passed to the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI and the Austrian Hapsburgs.

The Treaties of Utrecht were also called the Peace of Utrecht, and were a series of treaties between France and Britain, the Dutch Republic, Prussia, Portugal, and Savoy, and another series between Spain and the same powers, concluding the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-14).


Specific, and probably not hugely thrilling details can be found here.

Basically, the crux of the treaties was that the question of the Spanish Succession was finally settled in favour of the Bourbon Philip V, the grandson of France’s Louis XIV.