Felipe V - History Lab

Power, honour and elites in the 18th century

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:46 +0000

Once the period of the War of Succession was over, with the destruction and loss of documents caused, the new political power announced the creation of the Royal Library. The Eeal library became the current National Library and its origin was surrounded by many intricacies. It was an initiative that clashed with Philip V’s profile as a monarch, who was more inclined to play cards than to read books. The idea had deeper and more complex roots. It was in fact an initiative of Philip V’s confessors, one of the many royalist measures that were being introduced with the new political power. For Jesús Pradells Nadal, the concentration of works in the hands of the political power responded to a need to control publications and also to make it easier to justify the new political power. Works (books, coins, manuscripts, etc.) were acquired both through the purchase of the collections of members of the nobility and the intellectual elite and through confiscations. In 1716, Philip V issued a decree establishing the new library. The decree of 2 June 1716 also established the number of employees and the allocation of their salaries

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Description of Xativa before it was razed to the ground by the troops of Philip V in 1707

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:40 +0000

The War of the Spanish Succession forced the different territories to take sides. The repressions in the rearguard against those cities that had shown their support for the other side were very numerous, both in the case of Philip V’s armies and those of Charles of Austria. In this context, after the battle of Almansa, the superiority and advantage of Philip V was decided, whose armies headed for the kingdom of Valencia. Xàtiva had positioned itself on the side of Charles of Austria, which is why it was besieged by Berwick’s troops in an encirclement that was exhausting due to the great resistance that the city put up. This may have been decisive in the decision to sack and burn the city, which led to the evacuation of the population. With this action in Xàtiva, the intention was to make an example of those who had resisted giving recognition to Philip V.

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Course on the History of Spanish Law

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:40 +0000

Indeed, with Philip V came a whirlwind of reforms that contributed to the transformation of Spain in every possible way (economic, political, social and military). The very arrival of the monarch was accompanied by a redesign of the administration that had been in place for centuries under the Habsburgs. A structure of secretaries of French heritage was introduced, which broke with the course of consultation with the councils (although parallel administrations were sometimes maintained). In the military sphere, regiments were introduced to replace the tercios, while the fleet was modernised to recover its former strength at sea. On the economic front, the treasury was restructured in order to make tax collection more efficient. Politically, an attempt was made to restore the territorial inheritance of the Habsburgs of Madrid in Italy, which was achieved through family pacts with France. In short, the country was reorganised at all levels. In any case, this set of reforms came in response to the diagnoses made of the country’s situation at the beginning of the 18th century, which spoke of backwardness and the need for urgent reforms.

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List of merits of Gaspar Cebrián de Cebrián

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:40 +0000

The War of the Spanish Succession was not only a clash of armies between the Austracist and Bourbon pretenders. In the rearguard, repressive operations were carried out against the supporters of the opposing king in order to neutralise them. In many cases, they were arrested and their estates confiscated. Others fled to the court of Philip V, where they had to be urgently allocated rents for their upkeep. After the conflict, some of these people or their descendants pleaded their merits of loyalty and loyalty to the monarchy in order to obtain public employment. Such is the case of Gaspar Cebrían, who in 1745 claimed the merits of his ancestors for the cause of Philip V, both his uncle and his father, the latter of whom was dead. To this end, as María del Carmen Irles Vicente says, Felipe V proceeded to create the post of ensign major in the city of Orihuela, which meant a continuity in the creation of a militarised administration in the area of the former Crown of Aragon.

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Folleto Bonsoms, no. 893

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:35 +0000

The War of the Spanish Succession pitted two pretenders to the throne against each other. On the one side, Philip V of Bourbon and on the other, Charles of the House of Austria. In the conflict, the territories of the Crown of Aragon, such as Valencia, Aragon and Catalonia, took sides with the Austracist contender (some of them after swearing allegiance to Philip V). The balance between the two sides was broken by the decisive confrontation that took place at the Battle of Almansa on 25 April 1707, where Philip of Bourbon’s army emerged victorious. As a result, those territories that supported the Austracist contender experienced repression in which the nobility was forced to flee to the Austrian Empire, while the foral system was dismantled. The new monarch had claimed that these territories were treacherous, so he used the legitimate right of conquest to change the legislation in force. The belligerence and uncertainty generated by the Nueva Planta edicts demanded clarification from the monarch, who specified that the repressive measures would in no way concern those who had been loyal to him in the territories in question.

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The Council of Castile to Philip V

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:35 +0000

The arrival of Philip V in Spain and the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession forced a reorganisation of the administration in order to optimise the effectiveness of obtaining resources to finance the conflict. This led to the creation of the Secretariat of the Universal Office, which attempted to cover the areas of war and finance. However, this new administration clashed directly with the existing ones in the territory. The Council of Casilla and the new secretariat fought over the crossover of powers. The old Council saw the new extraordinary channels that had been introduced as a usurpation of powers. The new administration was in fact a response to the French influence of the new monarch, who, wishing to copy the achievements of his grandfather Louis XIV, introduced this type of reform in order to centralise the mechanisms of control over the territory.

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History of Gibraltar

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:35 +0000

The Rock of Gibraltar was occupied by an Anglo-Dutch fleet in the midst of the War of the Spanish Succession in 1704. Attempts to recapture the rock proved unsuccessful, such as the one carried out the same year. Once Philip V had consolidated his position on the throne, he questioned military experts about an attempt to reclaim the rock. However, as Armando Alberola Roma says, most of the experts’ opinions did not agree with the idea of besieging the rock because of its good geographical location and the superiority of the English fleet. The monarch decided to disregard this advice and rely on those who were in favour of carrying out this enterprise, and the siege took place in 1727. In fact, the siege was a failure, and in part the imprudence in organising the logistics for such an undertaking must have played a major role.

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Dossier on trade between the Philippines and New Spain

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:29 +0000

File on trade between the Philippines and New Spain. It contains, among others, a letter from the Marquis of Casafuerte, Viceroy of New Spain, reporting the arrival of the ship from the Philippines, named Sacra Familia, to carry the “situado”, and the organisation of the voyage, admitting its cargo for the 100,000 pesos admitted as duties on each voyage and 600,000 in silver. Mexico, 20 March 1723.

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Decree of 11 August 1710, signed at El Buen Retiro

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:29 +0000

The organisation of militias to defend the coast from Barbary raids was a task that the Habsburgs began in the 16th century. The strengthening of the Barbary corsairs (Tunisian, Algerian and Tripolitanian) in the first centuries of modernity led to the organisation of militias in the affected towns, which gradually became professionalised. The organisation of these militias not only made it possible to defend the coast from Berber landings and attacks, but also to rescue the North African towns in the event of a siege. In a context as complicated as 1716, Philip V needed all the military support he could get. The years of the War of Secession were exploited by the enemies of the monarchy: the Algerians had taken Oran and Mazalquivir. The Moroccans, led by Moulay Ismail and his successor, continued to besiege Ceuta. Likewise, the British had taken Gibraltar and Minorca.

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Decree of the Nueva Planta of the Audience of the Principality of Catalonia (1716)

ad_hlab_min — Sat, 19 Feb 2022 16:33:16 +0000

Philip V’s victory in the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) led to the establishment of a new political and administrative reality in Spain. The old feudal institutions were replaced by other forms of centralist government whose aim was, in the words of Philip V, to establish “the same laws, customs, usages, customs and courts […] to abolish and entirely repeal […] all privileges, privileges, practices and customs…”. The new reality generalised the legislation of Castile to the whole territory. However, the territories that supported Philip against Archduke Charles, the Basque areas and Navarre, did maintain the foral regime. The documentation presented here corresponds to the Nueva Planta Decree of the Audiencia of the Principality of Catalonia.

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