DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47347#0060
44
HISTORICAL ESSAY ON
represented by Philip V., it excludes also one of the
branches, namely, the French princes and their descend-
ants, who, according- to the legitimate order of succession
and the will of Charles II., were called to the throne before
the house of Austria. It involves no new principle; we
find in it merely an extension of the principle previously
expressed in the will of Charles II. in reference to the elder
princes and to the heirs to the throne of France. It was
evidently political considerations alone which dictated the
exclusion of two cognatic lines from the Spanish succession.
The interest of the Bourbons particularly required the ex-
clusion of the Austrian line, since, after the death of the
Emperor Joseph I., on the 17th of April, 1711, the male
branch of that house was represented solely by his brother,
the Archduke Charles, the claimant of the throne of Spain,
who in fact, on Joseph’s decease, had immediately left that
country to assume the imperial crown of Germany by the
name of Charles VI.
The principle of the cognatic succession, therefore, was
not altered by the act of Philip V., but declared for time to
come the fundamental law of succession to the throne; and
as for the principal lines, so far from its suffering the slight-
est infringement of their rights, those rights were very
formally confirmed and more expressly recognized in it.
This act did not innovatingly call the house of Savoy to the
crown of Spain. On the contrary, it expressly says that
the house of Savoy shall come to the throne only as de-
scending from the Infanta Dona Catalina, that is, as the
third cognatic line. In that quality it was that this house
had already been called upon to succeed by the will of
Charles II. The innovations introduced by the act of the
5th of November, 1712, consist in acknowledging it, after
the exclusion of the house of Austria, as the sole remaining
HISTORICAL ESSAY ON
represented by Philip V., it excludes also one of the
branches, namely, the French princes and their descend-
ants, who, according- to the legitimate order of succession
and the will of Charles II., were called to the throne before
the house of Austria. It involves no new principle; we
find in it merely an extension of the principle previously
expressed in the will of Charles II. in reference to the elder
princes and to the heirs to the throne of France. It was
evidently political considerations alone which dictated the
exclusion of two cognatic lines from the Spanish succession.
The interest of the Bourbons particularly required the ex-
clusion of the Austrian line, since, after the death of the
Emperor Joseph I., on the 17th of April, 1711, the male
branch of that house was represented solely by his brother,
the Archduke Charles, the claimant of the throne of Spain,
who in fact, on Joseph’s decease, had immediately left that
country to assume the imperial crown of Germany by the
name of Charles VI.
The principle of the cognatic succession, therefore, was
not altered by the act of Philip V., but declared for time to
come the fundamental law of succession to the throne; and
as for the principal lines, so far from its suffering the slight-
est infringement of their rights, those rights were very
formally confirmed and more expressly recognized in it.
This act did not innovatingly call the house of Savoy to the
crown of Spain. On the contrary, it expressly says that
the house of Savoy shall come to the throne only as de-
scending from the Infanta Dona Catalina, that is, as the
third cognatic line. In that quality it was that this house
had already been called upon to succeed by the will of
Charles II. The innovations introduced by the act of the
5th of November, 1712, consist in acknowledging it, after
the exclusion of the house of Austria, as the sole remaining