Editing Louis XIV (section)

===Turning point===
{{CSS image crop|Image=France 1709-A One Louis d'Or.jpg |bSize=445|cWidth=220|cHeight=220|oTop=3|oLeft=3|Location=right|Description=Louis XIV depicted on a [[Louis d'or]] in 1709}}

The final phases of the War of the Spanish Succession demonstrated that the Allies could not maintain Archduke Charles in Spain just as surely as France could not retain the entire Spanish inheritance for Philip{{Nbsp}}V. The Allies were definitively expelled from central Spain by the Franco-Spanish victories at the [[Battle of Villaviciosa|Battles of Villaviciosa]] and [[Battle of Brihuega|Brihuega]] in 1710. French forces elsewhere remained obdurate despite their defeats. The Allies suffered a [[Pyrrhic victory]] at the [[Battle of Malplaquet]] with 21,000 casualties, twice that of the French.{{Sfn|Lynn|1999|p=334}} Eventually, France recovered its military pride with the decisive victory at [[Battle of Denain|Denain]] in 1712.

French military successes near the end of the war took place against the background of a changed political situation in Austria. In 1705, Emperor Leopold{{Nbsp}}I died. His elder son and successor, [[Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph&nbsp;I]], followed him in 1711. His heir was none other than Archduke Charles, who secured control of all of his brother's Austrian landholdings. If the Spanish empire then fell to him, it would have resurrected a domain as vast as Holy Roman Emperor [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles&nbsp;V]]'s in the 16th century. To the maritime powers of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic, this would have been as undesirable as a Franco-Spanish union.{{Sfn|Lynn|1999|p=342}}