position between the French and the imperial candidates for succession, in which Joseph Ferdinand was featured as the candidate best suited to the succession. In the end Charles wrote a will in which he declared the Electoral Prince to be his successor. In September of that year Charles II had a severe relapse so the State Council resolved to force the King to sign the will in June. The King had a relapse on October 9, so that the State Council reconvened. At that meeting the Bavarian party got the will pushed through and Cardinal Portocarrero forced King Charles II to sign the testament in favor of the Electoral Prince of Bavaria: only the Admiral of Castile, the Constable and three members supported the Archduke Charles. During the minority of Joseph Ferdinand, the regency instituted by the will appointed a governing board which supported Mariana of Austria during the minority of Charles II, headed by Cardinal Portocarrero, the Regent-Governor who would have very broad powers. The stubborn defence of the nomination by the pro-Bavarian Cardinal Portocarrero, become a key policy of the last years of the reign of Charles II. The Cardinal prevented Charles II from succumbing to the influence of his wife and possibly summoning a Parliament to modify the testament. In early 1698 Portocarrero presented the king with a new report of the State Council in favor of the Bavarian Succession. The monarch wanted to consult with Pope Innocent XII, who was also allegedly pro-Bavarian. It was in such circumstances that the King reaffirmed his Testament: Mariana of Neuburg reacted against the Testament by having Catalonia seized, and German troops were sent to Toledo and Madrid, while her cousin, Prince George of Hesse-Darmstadt prepared to leave Barcelona with his troops. The French Ambassador to Madrid, Henri, duc d’Harcourt, met 6000 soldiers who had arrived in Madrid ready to intervene. Max Emanuel of Bavaria sent for his son to come to Brussels with the intention that the States of Flanders would swear an oath on the death of Charles II. Joseph Ferdinand came to the Flemish capital on 23 May 1698. Meanwhile, Louis XIV agreed in The Hague with the maritime powers on the distribution of the Spanish Crown's lands on the death of Charles II: the treaty was signed with England on September 8 and the United Provinces on 11 October. It provided that the peninsular kingdoms, with