Pacte de Famille

The first of the three Pacto de Familia was agreed on November 7, 1733, between Philip V of Spain and his nephew Louis XV of France, in the Treaty of the Escorial.

[1] Louis's wife, Maria Leszczyńska, was the daughter of Stanisław Leszczyński, former King of Poland, deposed by Augustus II in 1709.

France received important trading rights with Spain, whose overseas empire in Spanish America was the source of vast amounts of silver flowing to the world and a lucrative market.

Although Stanisław failed to regain the Polish throne, France acquired the strategic Duchy of Lorraine, while Philip won back Naples and Sicily for his son Charles.

Louis guaranteed the position of Charles as king of Naples and Sicily, install Philip as ruler of Milan, and remove the commercial constraints on Spain, following the treaty ending the War of the Spanish Succession.

Spain gained from the agreement, as did France, and Britain felt the danger of a closer Bourbon alliance and increased French participation in the transatlantic trade.

In 1742 during the War of the Austrian Succession, Ferdinand attempted to use his Sicilian domains to assist his Bourbon allies, but a Royal Navy fleet led by Commodore William Martin intervened to ensure his neutrality.

The Portuguese troops were supported by a sizeable British contingent and, in spite of three attempts, the Spanish along with their French ally were decisively defeated, losing in total upwards of 25,000 men.

At the Treaty of Paris the following year Charles III was able to regain Havana and Manila, but ceded all of strategically located Florida to the British.