Philip V of Spain
King Philip V of Spain (1683-1746) was king of Spain from 1700 to 1746, the first of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain. The grandson of Louis XIV of France, he was chosen by the dying Charles II of Spain as his successor. This provoked the War of the Spanish Succession.
On January 14, 1724, Philip abdicated the throne to his eldest son, Louis, but resumed it later that year when Louis died of smallpox.
Philip helped his Bourbon relatives to make territorial gains in the War of the Polish Succession and the War of the Austrian Succession. During his reign Spain began to recover from the stagnation it had suffered during the twilight of the Habsburg dynasty. Ferdinand VI of Spain, his son by his first queen Maria Luisa of Savoy, succeeded him.
Philip was afflicted by fits of manic depression and increasingly fell victim to a deep melancholia. His second wife, Elizabeth Farnese, completely dominated her passive husband. She bore him further sons, including another successor, Charles III of Spain.
