Ferdinand I of Spain (A Shot of Bourbon)

Ferdinand I (Spanish: Fernando I, French: Fernand I, Italian: Ferdinando I; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) born Philip, was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to his ascension to the throne of the Franco-Spanish Bourbon Empire as the first Emperor (1716-1746) to his death on 9 July 1746. His title as King of Spain was and remained Philip V, and he was known by both names within Spanish territories following his becoming emperor.

Before his reign, Philip occupied an exalted place in the royal family of France as a grandson of King Louis XIV. His father, Louis, Grand Dauphin, had the strongest genealogical claim to the throne of Spain when it became vacant in 1700. However, since neither the Grand Dauphin nor Philip's older brother, Louis, Duke of Burgundy, could be displaced from their place in the succession to the French throne, the Grand Dauphin's maternal uncle (Philip's granduncle) King Charles II of Spain named Philip as his heir in his will. It was well known that the union of France and Spain under one monarch would upset the balance of power in Europe, such that other European powers would take steps to prevent it. Indeed, Philip's accession in Spain provoked the 16-year War of the Spanish Succession (Also known as the Two, which continued until the Treaty of Utrecht forbade any future possibility of unifying the French and Spanish thrones.

Philip was the first member of the French House of Bourbon to rule as king of Spain, and begun a long line of Bourbon Emperors, occupying both the French and Spanish thrones as king and Emperor.