Charles II of Spain

Charles II (6 November 1661 – 1 November 1700) was king of Spain from 1665 to 1700. The last monarch from the House of Habsburg that had ruled Spain since 1516, his death without children resulted in the 1701 to 1714 War of the Spanish Succession. For reasons still debated, Charles experienced lengthy periods of ill health throughout his life. This made the question of who would succeed him central to European diplomacy for much of his reign, with one historian writing that "from the day of his birth, they were waiting for his death". The two candidates for the succession were Charles of Austria, and Philip of Anjou, the 16-year-old grandson of Louis XIV of France. Shortly before dying in November 1700, Charles made the latter his heir, but the acquisition of an undivided Spanish Empire by either threatened the European balance of power and resulted in war.