Congress of Utrecht

Treaty of Utrecht in 1713

Peace and Friendship Treaties of Utrecht
first edition of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht between Great Britain and Spain in Spanish (left) and a later edition in Latin and English.
Context	End of the War of the Spanish Succession
Signed	1713
Location	Utrecht, United Provinces
Signatories	Louis XIV of France Philip V of Spain Anne of Great Britain John V of Portugal Victor Amadeus I of Sardinia  United Provinces
Languages	English Spanish Latin

The Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht, is a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed by the belligerents in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713. The treaties between several European states, including Spain, Great Britain, France, Portugal, Savoy and the Dutch Republic, helped end the war.

The treaties were concluded between the representatives of Louis XIV of France and of his grandson Philip V of Spain on one hand, and representatives of Anne of Great Britain, Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia, John V of Portugal and the United Provinces of the Netherlands on the other. They marked the end of French ambitions of hegemony in Europe expressed in the wars of Louis XIV, and preserved the European system based on the balance of power. British historian G. M. Trevelyan argues:

That Treaty, which ushered in the stable and characteristic period of Eighteenth-Century civilization, marked the end of danger to Europe from the old French monarchy, and it marked a change of no less significance to the world at large, — the maritime, commercial and financial supremacy of Great Britain.

The War of the Spanish Succession was occasioned by the failure of the Habsburg king, Charles II of Spain, to produce an heir. In fact, the Habsburgs were prone to pedigree collapse, which is evident in the appellation given to Carlos II, el Hechizado (the bedevilled), and in portraits of the Kings, like those by Diego Velázquez and Juan Carreño de Miranda. Dispute followed the death of Charles II in 1700, and fourteen years of war were the result.