Treaty of Utrecht

The Treaty of Utrecht, a series of treaties signed in 1713, helped end the War of the Spanish Succession. By its provisions, Louis XIV's grandson Philip V of Spain was recognized as King of Spain, but Spain's European Empire was divided up - Savoy received Sicily and parts of the Milanese, while Emperor Charles VI was to receive the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Sardinia, and the rest of the Duchy of Milan. In addition, Spain had to cede Gibraltar and Minorca to the British, and agreed to give the Asiento, or the valuable slave-trading contract, to the British.

After the treaty, the French continued to be at war with Emperor Charles VI and with the Holy Roman Empire itself until 1714 with the Treaties of Rastatt and Baden , respectively. The Emperor and Spain remained officially at war until 1720, and Spain and Portugal until the Treaty of Madrid in 1715.

Thus, the Treaties of Utrecht were between Louis XIV of France and Philip V of Spain, on the one hand, and Queen Anne of Great Britain, the United Provinces, and the Duchy of Savoy on the other.

In spite of some doubts of the legality of such measures, Philip V was to renounce the French throne for himself and his descendants, while various French princelings - notably Louis XIV's youngest grandson the Duc de Berri and his nephew the Duc d'Orléans - renounced their claims to the Spanish throne.

The treaty did not go as far as the Whigs in Britain would have liked, but they had been replaced by the more pro-French Tory administration of Oxford and Bolingbroke, which persuaded the Queen to create new Tory peers to ensure ratification of the treaty in the House of Lords.