Kingdom of Sardinia (1700–1720)

From 1700 to 1720, the Kingdom of Sardinia, as a part of the Spanish empire, was disputed between two dynasties, the Habsburgs and the Bourbons. With the death of Charles II, the last of the Spanish Habsburgs, on 1 November 1700, the throne passed to Duke Philip of Anjou (Philip V), although the Emperor Leopold I also had a claim. Leopold was especially desirous of obtaining the Spanish inheritance in the Southern Netherlands and in Italy, which included Sardinia. With the failure of France to abide by the Second Partition Treaty, the other European powers lined up on the side of the Habsburgs. The Treaty of the Hague (7 September 1701) allotted to the Emperor the Spanish possessions in Italy. Imperial troops invaded Italy to seize them, and the War of the Spanish Succession began.

The Spanish governors of Sardinia were initially loyal to the Bourbons, and a pro-Habsburg revolt was suppressed. In 1708, with the help of Britain's Mediterranean Fleet, the island was conquered for the Habsburgs. At the end of the war, a series of treaties—Utrecht (1713), Rastatt (1714) and Baden (1714)—transferred the Spanish-held kingdoms of Sardinia and Naples to the Habsburg emperor, now Charles VI. Although Charles believed he should also receive the Kingdom of Sicily, which had been in union with Naples since 1504, this was instead given to the House of Savoy. Neither house possessed their island kingdom for long: Spain re-conquered Sardinia in 1717 and Sicily the next year. By the Treaty of the Hague (1720), Spain and the Empire recognised the re-allotment of Sicily to the Habsburgs and Sardinia to Savoy. Thus, although through the entire period from 1700 until 1720 Sardinia remained under Spanish rule, garrisoned by Spanish troops and governed by a Spanish viceroy, alternatingly loyal to one claimant or the other (with varying degrees of international recognition), at the end of this period it passed out of the Spanish sphere permanently.

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