He was Philip of Anjou, the younger grandson of Louis XIV, and succeeded under the terms of the will of the last Habsburg king, Charles II. It was Louis XIV’s acceptance of this will that plunged Europe into the War of the Spanish Succession. Philip’s claim was confirmed at the Peace of Utrecht. Catalonia was deprived of its liberties when Barcelona surrendered to him in 1714. For the rest of his reign he was dominated by his second wife, Elizabeth Farnese, whose ambitions for her sons influenced Spanish foreign policy.