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325th Anniversary of death of Charles II, triggering the War of Spanish Succession

King Charles II had always been sickly. He was the last Spanish King in the Habsburg line, and had no heirs.

On Nov 1 1700 he kicked the can; he had wanted Louis XIV of France's teenage grandson Philip of Anjou to succeed him to the throne, but a lot of Austrians had other ideas in mind. The Holy Roman Emperor wanted it for himself. Philip was crowned two weeks after Charles died.

War ensued.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Spanish_Succession

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_Spain

All that royal intermarriage had a lot of bad consequences.

Note that contemporary scholarship has gotten past all this great-men-of-history perspective and shows how the wives and daughters were really running thiings, and the economic and political changes were directing the royalty paths.

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Note, for your travel enrichment and lest you think the War of the Spanish succession is only of interest to fans of Spain, that as a result of this conflict Gibraltar became British, Ypres became Belgian (Austrian, technically), and Orange became French.