How wars end: Lord Lexington’s mission to Madrid 1712-13

Abstract

This article discusses a relatively neglected aspect of the peace negotiations which concluded the War of the Spanish Succession, the mission to Spain in 1712-1713 of Robert Sutton, lord Lexington. Lexington’s primary object was to witness Philip V’s renunciation in the presence of the Cortes of his claim to the French throne (and the registration by the Cortes of the claims to the Spanish succession of Philip’s brothers). This was a remarkable development. The Cortes, which is largely regarded by historians of the period as almost irrelevant, therefore played an important part in the peace process at the insistence of the government of queen Anne. Having resolved the issue of the renunciations, Lexington also helped to negotiate the surrender of what remained of Spanish Italy – the island of Sicily – to Victor Amadeus II of Savoy – and played a part in the reconstruction of a British presence in a Spanish state in which the nueva planta was beginning to have an impact.