Infante Pedro Carlos of Spain and Portugal


Pedro Carlos was an Infante of Spain and Portugal.

Family

Infante Pedro Carlos was a son of Infante Gabriel of Spain and Infanta Mariana Victoria of Portugal. His paternal grandfather was King Charles III of Spain and his maternal grandfather was King Peter III of Portugal. Pedro Carlos was the only surviving child of the couple and an orphan at the age of two.

Life

His father, a very intelligent man, was King Charles III's favorite son, but he and his wife died in 1788 of smallpox. When King Charles III also died the same year, his successor Charles IV of Spain sent the child away to Portugal, replying to Maria I of Portugal request. In fact, Queen Maria I was worried about the Braganza's succession and Pedro Carlos was, in that moment, her only grandchild. The child was raised there by his grandmother Maria I of Portugal. From this moment the little prince also became infante of Portugal.
Pedro Carlos had inherited a large fortune of his father and was welcomed in Portugal. In 1792 his grandmother was officially declared insane and her son John, uncle of Pedro Carlos, became Regent of Portugal.
When in 1807 the Portuguese royal family had to abandon Portugal because of the Franco-Spanish invasion led by Napoleon Bonaparte, Pedro Carlos left on 29 November on board the "Príncipe Real" with his grandmother and uncles for Brazil.
They arrived in Salvador de Bahía on 2 January 1808 and headed from there to Río de Janeiro, where the infante occupied the São Cristovão Palace.

Marriage

In Brazil Pedro Carlos was engaged to his cousin Maria Teresa, Princess of Beira, daughter of Carlota Joaquina of Spain and John VI of Portugal, and they married on 13 May 1810 in Rio de Janeiro.
The couple was very happy during their two years of marriage, after which Pedro Carlos became ill and died in Alto da Boa Vista on 4 July 1812.
The couple had one child: