Editing War of the Spanish Succession (section)

===Savoy===
[[File:Victor Amadeus II of Sardinia - Palace of Venaria (cropped).png|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Victor Amadeus II]], [[Duke of Savoy]]]]

Throughout the 17th century, [[Savoyard state|Savoy]] sought to replace Spain as the dominant power in [[Northern Italy]]. Savoy consisted of two main geographic segments; [[Prince of Piedmont|Piedmont]], which contained the capital [[Turin]], and the [[Duchy of Aosta]] on the Italian side of the [[Alps]], with the [[Duchy of Savoy]] and [[County of Nice]] in Transalpine France. The latter were almost impossible to defend and combined with the anti-Habsburg policy pursued by Louis XIV and his predecessors, this meant Savoy generally sided with France. However, Piedmont provided foreign powers access to the restive southern French provinces of the [[Dauphiné]] and [[Vaunage]], former [[Huguenot]] strongholds with a long history of rebellion. This provided [[Victor Amadeus II]] with a degree of leverage, allowing him to manoeuvre between opposing parties to expand his territories.{{sfn|Symcox|1985|pp=146–147}}

During the Nine Years' War in 1690, Savoy joined the Grand Alliance before agreeing to a [[Treaty of Turin (1696)|separate peace]] with France in 1696. The accession of Philip V in 1701 led to a reversal of long-standing strategic policy, with France now supporting the Spanish position in Lombardy, rather than seeking to weaken it, and Austria doing the opposite. While Victor Amadeus initially allied Savoy with France, his long-term goal was the acquisition of the [[Duchy of Milan]], which neither Bourbons nor Habsburgs would relinquish voluntarily. As discussed elsewhere in this article, securing his borders in Italy was of greater concern to Emperor Leopold than Spain itself. This meant Britain was the only power inclined to help Victor Amadeus achieve this objective and he changed sides in 1703 after the Anglo-Dutch navies won control of the Western Mediterranean.{{sfn|Symcox|1985|p=149}}