ABSTRACT
Marie Louise of Savoy (1688-1714), first wife to the Spanish king, Philip V (1683-1746), died of tuberculosis on February 14, 1714. Immediately after her passing, the search for a new queen began and when the requisite six months of mourning concluded on August 14, the marriage of the king of Spain to Isabel Farnese, Princess of Parma (1692-1766), was announced (Crónica festiva 83). This second marriage was considered an excellent pretext to rekindle the Spanish claims in the Italian peninsula. Although Isabel Farnese has been commonly accused of Italianizing the Spanish court and international politics of the crown, this is an erroneous interpretation of the marriage. The Spanish interests in the Italian peninsula were already present at the time, and the nuptials of Philip and Isabel can be better considered a consequence of the existing Italian preference in Spanish politics rather than the cause. As could be expected, their union increased the presence of Italians at the Madrid court, but this trend had already been initiated by AnneMarie de La Trémoille, Princess of Ursins, as a means of controlling the power of the French faction and of the Spanish grandees at the Royal Palace.1
