Charles II of Spain

1 November 1700, at the Royal Alcázar

Charles II of Spain died childless at Madrid's Royal Alcázar on 1 November 1700, five days short of what would have been his thirty-ninth birthday. The direct male Spanish Habsburg succession ended with him.

His long illness had worsened sharply that autumn. Both of his marriages, the second to Mariana of Neuburg, had produced no children.

The will, opened before the assembled nobles

The will was opened immediately, before assembled nobles, and named Philip, Duke of Anjou — a grandson of Louis XIV — heir to the undivided Spanish monarchy. Charles had signed the final testament on 3 October 1700.

It stipulated that the Spanish monarchy should not be partitioned or united with another state. Philip's younger brother, Archduke Charles and the Duke of Savoy followed in its contingency order.

A regency for a king who was still at Versailles

A regency council assumed government pending the new king's arrival, with Cardinal Luis Manuel Fernández de Portocarrero as its most important member. Philip did not reach Madrid immediately.

Charles's last instruction tried to prevent exactly what foreign diplomats had been planning: the partition of his worldwide monarchy.

The succession moved that day from speculation to a concrete Bourbon claim, opposed by Vienna, which backed Archduke Charles.