ABSTRACT
Leopold's wife died leaving only one daughter and Leopold had that daughter renounce her claim to the Spanish throne in his favor and then concentrated on his claim through his mother with the intention of naming his second son, the Archduke Charles, to that throne. Louis XIV of France hoped to be able to place the Dauphin of France on the Spanish throne and thus eventually to unite the two countries, France and Spain, under a Bourbon king, a possibility which most of the rest of Europe could only view with alarm. French and Spanish land forces under the command of the Spanish Marquis de Villadarias had begun concentrating to the north of Gibraltar soon after its capture by the Allies. The Duc de Vendome, the French Commander-in-Chief of the Franco-Spanish forces, notified Louis that Philip would be willing to cede Gibraltar and Port Mahon to the British if he could keep the rest of Spain.
