José Patiño, who had been intended for the priesthood but adopted a secular career, was granted the reversion of a seat in the senate of Milan on the accession of Philip V in 1700, but on the loss of the duchy, he was transferred to Spain and put on the governing body of the military orders in 1707.

[1] Patiño profoundly distrusted the reckless foreign policy undertaken by Alberoni under the instigation of the king and his obstinate queen, Elizabeth Farnese.

He became known to the king and queen in the latter year, while he was acting as a species of commissary-general during the disastrous operations against the French troops on the frontier of Navarre in the War of the Quadruple Alliance.

During the later part of his administration he was much engaged in the laborious negotiations with England in relation to the disputes between the two countries over their commercial and colonial rivalries in America, which after his death led to the outbreak of the War of Jenkins' Ear in 1739.

[citation needed] In his Patiño y Campillo (Madrid, 1882), Don Antonio Rodríquez Villa has collected the dates of the statesman's life, and has published some valuable papers.