Philip V of Spain

Born into Louis XIV's court on 19 December 1683, Philip was a third-in-line spare never meant to rule anywhere. But his great-uncle Charles II of Spain died childless, and in 1700 Philip became the first Bourbon king of Spain. His accession lit the fuse on the War of the Spanish Succession, which dragged until 1713 and cost Spain the Netherlands and its Italian holdings, though he kept the New World empire. He centralized the monarchy through the Nueva Planta decrees, crushing regional privileges and restructuring administration across the peninsula. In 1724 he abdicated to his eldest son Louis I - who died seven months later, pulling Philip back to the throne. Prone to depression, he left much of the governing to his second wife, Elisabeth Farnese. He died in 1746 after forty-five years as king, the longest reign in Spanish history.