Her influence on the sovereigns was dominant until the death of the queen. Madame des Ursins confesses in her voluminous correspondence that she made herself a burden to the king in her anxiety to exclude from him all other influence, watching him as if he were a child. Philip was too weak to break the yoke himself, and could insist only that he should be supplied with a wife. Madame des Ursins was persuaded by Alberoni to arrange a marriage with Elisabeth Farnese, hoping to govern the new queen as she had done the old.