Victus: The Fall of Barcelona

The War of the Spanish Succession: A Chronology

SPAIN

EUROPE

1700

— Charles II of Spain, known

as El Hechizado, or “The

Bewitched,” dies.

1701

— Philip V is named king.

— The Grand Alliance between Austria, Denmark, England, and Holland is formed.

1702

— The Grand Alliance declares war on Spain and France.

1703

— Portugal and the House of Savoy join the Grand Alliance.

1704

— The Austrian pretender to

the Spanish throne, Charles III,

disembarks in Portugal.

— Portuguese Campaign: The

Anglo-Portuguese army attacks

Spain from Portugal but is repelled

by the Franco-Spanish army under

the duke of Berwick.

— Admiral Rooke takes Gibraltar

in the name of Charles III of Austria

but with the flag of England hoisted.

— France loses forty thousand men in the Battle of Blenheim.

1705

— Treaty of Genoa, by which a

group of Catalan leaders make

a pact with England to support

them in a pro-Charles war effort.

— Charles III enters Barcelona and

establishes it as the provisional

capital of his kingdom.

1706

— Philip V lays siege to Barcelona,

but the arrival of an Anglo-Dutch

fleet forces his withdrawal.

— The Allies occupy Madrid, but

Charles III’s unpopularity leads

to the evacuation of the city.

— French defeat at the

Battle of Ramillies.

1707

— The Army of the Two Crowns

defeats the Allies at the Battle of

Almansa.

— The Bourbons occupy Lleida.

1708

— The Bourbons besiege

and take Tortosa.

1710

— Battles of Almenar and Zaragoza.

— The Allies enter Madrid for the second time, before being forced to evacuate by a Bourbon counteroffensive.

— Battles of Brihuega and Villaviciosa.

— Girona taken by the French army.

1711

— Emperor Joseph I of Austria dies. Charles, his younger brother, is

named as his successor and leaves

Barcelona for Vienna.

1713

— Signing of the Treaty of

Evacuation. The Allied armies

commit to withdrawing all

troops on the peninsula.

— June: The Catalan executive

declares resistance.

— July: Siege of Barcelona begins.

— Treaty of Utrecht: General peace between Europe’s powers is sealed. Philip V renounces any claim to the French throne, and Charles III to that of Spain. England reneges on the Treaty of Genoa, by which it had undertaken to uphold the Catalan constitutions in the case

of a military defeat.

1714

— September 11: Final assault on, and

fall of, Barcelona. Abolition of the

Catalan constitutions and liberties.

1719

— War between France and Spain.

Marshal Berwick’s French army,

with five thousand Catalans among

its number, takes several strongholds

in the Navarran region of Spain.

— Catalan guerrillas continue to fight

the Bourbon forces.

1725

— Treaty is signed between the Spanish and Austrian empires.