We go back to the last king of the previous Habsburg dynasty, Charles II, known as "the Bewitched," who due to a series of genetic problems caused by family endogamy over generations, had died without descendants on November 1, 1700 despite being married twice. This monarch had left the grandson of the French king, Louis XIV, as heir to the throne, but this had caused much envy and his detractors claimed that he had been manipulated to sign his will. His own wife, Mariana of Neuburg, proposed Archduke Charles of Austria as successor to the throne, a decision supported by other countries such as England and the Netherlands who wanted to avoid at all costs an alliance between Spain and France. This is how the War of the Spanish Succession began, which lasted for 14 years and ended with the French victory and the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in which the Spanish crown renounced numerous territories such as Gibraltar or Menorca.