The "Corts" and the rest of the autochthonous legal and political organization were finally terminated in 1716, as a result of the War of the Spanish Succession. The local population mostly took sides and provided troops and resources for Archduke Charles, the pretender, who was arguably expected to maintain the legal status quo. His utter defeat meant the legal and political termination of the autonomous parliaments in the Crown of Aragon, as the Nueva Planta decrees were passed and King Philip V of Spain of the new House of Bourbon sealed the transformation of Spain from a "de facto" unified realm into a "de jure" centralized state.