The War of the Spanish Succession was a catastrophe that many had foreseen and struggled to prevent. For decades European statesmen had anticipated the death without direct heirs of the last Habsburg king of Spain, Charles II (1661–1700). As the seven teenth century drew to an end, the eyes of European statesmen were drawn to the Spanish inheritance, an empire that included Spain, Sardinia, Sicily, Naples, Milan, the Spanish Netherlands, and colonies in the Americas, and the Philippines. Claims to this inheritance could be presented by the Austrian branch of the Habsburg family and by the French Bourbon family of Louis XIV. This, of course, was no mere family squabble over the details of a will. Acquisition of the Spanish Empire by either side threatened to destroy the European balance of power and thus the interests of states not directly involved in the obscure legal issues were linked to the outcomes.