Ferdinand VII of Spain

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Ferdinand VII

(born Oct. 14, 1784, El Escorial, Spain — died Sept. 29, 1833, Madrid) King of Spain (1808, 1813 – 33). He became king briefly in 1808 after the French invasion of Spain forced the abdication of his father, Charles IV. Napoleon soon replaced him as king with Joseph Bonaparte and held Ferdinand in France (1808 – 13). The Spanish populace rose against the French invaders in the name of Ferdinand, who became known as "the Desired." In 1812 independent Spaniards adopted a liberal constitution, which Ferdinand overthrew on his return as king in 1813 to rule in an absolutist style. His reign saw the loss of most of Spain's possessions in the Americas. He abolished the Salic Law of Succession to allow his daughter (the future Isabella II) instead of his brother (Don Carlos [1788 – 1855]) to succeed him, which triggered the opposition movement, Carlism.

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The reign of Ferdinand VII (1784-1833) was one of the most complex and important in the history of Spain. It was characterized by a popular war against French occupation and by the struggle of liberal groups to establish a constitutional monarchy.

On Oct. 14, 1784, Ferdinand was born in San Lorenzo del Escorial to the timid Charles, heir to the throne of Spain, and the domineering Maria Luisa of Parma. Two years later his mother became infatuated with Manuel de Godoy, a handsome officer of the Royal Guards. When Charles became king of Spain in early 1789, Godoy began his meteoric rise to power. By the end of 1792, at the age of 25, Godoy was virtual dictator of Spain. In 1796 he worked out an alliance with France against England, and from then till 1808 Spain and England were to be almost constantly at war.

During these years the weak and sickly Ferdinand was educated by Juan Escoiquiz, an amibitious man who inculcated in him a deep-seated hatred for Godoy. Beyond this, Ferdinand's education was one of the worst received by a Spanish monarch. The young prince hated studying, spoke little, rarely smiled, and, it was said, found sardonic satisfaction in all kinds of petty acts of cruelty.

In October 1802 Ferdinand married his cousin Maria Antonieta of Naples. An unattractive 18-year-old, he was described at this time by his mother-in-law as "an absolute blockhead, and not even a husband in the flesh. He is a fool who neither hunts nor fishes, who hangs all day about the room of his unfortunate wife, who busies himself with nothing, and is not even her husband from an animal point of view."

Plots against Godoy

Maria Antonieta soon joined Escoiquiz in his desire to overthrow Godoy, who was becoming more and more unpopular because of the inflation brought on by the war against England. Furthermore, Godoy's confiscation of clerical property had alienated the Church, and the high nobility resented being governed by a man of humble background. Escoiquiz was able to raise a conspiracy against him and organize it around the figure of Ferdinand. When Maria Antonieta died in May 1806, Godoy was accused by rumor of having poisoned her.

In 1807 Godoy told Charles that his son was plotting against him, and Ferdinand was placed under house arrest. Fearing for his life, he wrote his father: "I have done wrong; I have sinned against you both as King and as Father; but I have repented, and I now offer Your Majesty the most humble obedience." Ferdinand was freed and Escoiquiz was exiled to Toledo, but the plotting against Godoy continued.

By this time Napoleon had decided to unseat the Spanish Bourbons, and early in 1808 French troops began to occupy the main cities of Spain. Godoy and the royal family went to Aranjuez, planning to escape from Napoleon's clutches by going to the New World. Ferdinand, however, believed that the French troops were in Spain to support him, and on March 17 he overthrew Godoy at Aranjuez with the help of the aristocracy and a well-organized riot. Godoy was imprisoned, and the frightened Charles abdicated in favor of his son.

Abdication and Captivity

On March 24 Ferdinand made his triumphal entry into Madrid, which had been occupied on the previous day by a large French force commanded by Gen. Murat. A few days later he received an invitation from Napoleon to meet with him at Bayonne. Already the French emperor had offered the throne of Spain to his brother Joseph, and Joseph had accepted it.

Ferdinand still believed that Napoleon was his friend, and in spite of the warnings of Escoiquiz and others he traveled to Bayonne, where he was shocked by Napoleon's demand that he abdicate. When he refused, the French brought Charles, Maria Luisa, and Godoy to Bayonne in order to increase the pressure on him. Finally, on May 2, when the people of Madrid rose against the French army of occupation, Napoleon became furious and threatened Ferdinand with death. The frightened King quickly abdicated in favor of Charles, who then abdicated in favor of Napoleon. A few months later Napoleon's younger brother entered Spain as Joseph I.

But the Spanish people refused to accept Joseph as their king and were joined in their resistance against the French by the armies of the Duke of Wellington. By 1813 the French position in Spain had become untenable, and Napoleon decided to withdraw his troops. Hoping that Ferdinand would honor his promise to keep Spain neutral, Napoleon allowed him to return to Spain in March 1814.

Ferdinand and the Liberals

During the war against the French a group of liberal Spaniards had written the Constitution of 1812, which placed severe limitations on the power of the monarchy. Ferdinand had no intention of accepting this document, and after making sure that the army would support him, he issued a decree on May 4 restoring royal absolutism and suspending the Constitution of 1812. A week later he entered Madrid.

Ferdinand now launched a systematic persecution of those who had collaborated with the French and of those who had dreamed of a constitutional monarchy. He also began to organize an army to send against the rebellious American colonies that had taken advantage of the French occupation of Spain to launch their struggle for independence.

The persecuted liberals began to establish contacts within the army, where service in America was very unpopular. In early 1820 Col. Rafael Riego declared himself for the Constitution of 1812. All over Spain army garrisons either joined the revolt or remained neutral. The frightened Ferdinand gave in and in March took the oath to the constitution.

The liberals, however, proved unable to set up a viable government. In 1822 a royalist revolt broke out in favor of the "imprisoned" Ferdinand, and in the spring of 1823 a royalist army from France was sent to restore Ferdinand to the throne. Everywhere the French were received with enthusiasm. The liberals fled to Seville and then to Cadiz, taking Ferdinand with them. In August they gave up and freed Ferdinand, who had promised a general amnesty.

Ferdinand did not keep his promise, and as in 1814, many liberals found themselves either in prison or in exile. As the years passed, however, Ferdinand's rule became less harsh, and gradually the more moderate liberals were allowed back into the country. This angered the more conservative groups in Spain, who now turned to Ferdinand's brother, the pious and reactionary Don Carlos, for inspiration and leadership.

After the death of his first wife in 1806, Ferdinand had married twice. His third wife died in May 1829, and Ferdinand still had not produced an heir. On Dec. 12, 1829, he married his fourth wife, the beautiful and capable Maria Cristina of Naples, who in October 1830 bore him an heir, the future Isabella II.

In 1713 Philip V had introduced into Spain the so-called Salic Law, which prevented females from succeeding to the throne of Spain. Don Carlos claimed that he would be the legitimate king of Spain if his brother Ferdinand died without a male heir. In 1830 Ferdinand annulled the Salic Law, but Don Carlos still refused to give up his claims. Between 1830 and 1833, therefore, Ferdinand turned more and more to the liberals who, afraid of the reactionary Don Carlos, were solidly behind the princess Isabella. By early 1833 the government of Spain was in the hands of the liberals, the men who had been so harshly persecuted by Ferdinand in the past.

After the summer of 1832 Ferdinand's health began to fail, and he died on Sept. 29, 1833. The Queen would not allow his body to be touched for 48 hours. It lay in state in the throne room of the Palacio Real, where it was seen by that conscientious traveler Richard Ford, who claimed that the face, hideous enough in life, was "now purple, like a ripe fig." Five days after his death, the King was buried among the other kings of Spain in the vault of the Escorial. Ferdinand VII has been praised by conservative Spanish historians as a capable and popular king who struggled to preserve the traditional Spanish way of life. But he has also been attacked by liberal historians as a coward and bloody ogre who tried to sweep back the tide of progress.

Early life

In his youth he occupied the painful position of an heir apparent who was jealously excluded from all share in government by his parents and the royal favorite Manuel de Godoy, his mother's lover. National discontent with a feeble government produced a revolution in 1805. In October 1807, Ferdinand was arrested for his complicity in the Conspiracy of the Escorial in which liberal reformers aimed at securing the help of the emperor Napoleon. When the conspiracy was discovered, Ferdinand betrayed his associates and grovelled to his parents.

Abdication and restoration

When his father's abdication was extorted by a popular riot at Aranjuez in March 1808, he ascended the throne^[1] but turned again to Napoleon, in the hope that the emperor would support him. He was in his turn forced to make an abdication on 6 May 1808^[2] but his father had relinquished his rights to the Spanish throne on 5 May 1808 (the previous day) in favour of Emperor Napoleon,^[3] so Ferdinand effectively had given the throne to Napoleon. Napoleon kept Ferdinand under guard in France for six years at the Chateau of Valençay.

While the upper echelons of the Spanish government accepted his abdication and Napoleon's choice of new monarch, his brother Joseph Bonaparte, the Spanish people did not. Uprisings broke out throughout the country, marking the beginning of the Peninsular War. Provincial juntas were established, since the central government had acknowledged Joseph. After the Battle of Bailén proved that the Spanish could resist the French, the Council of Castile reversed itself and declared null and void the abdications of Bayonne on 11 August 1808.^[4] Several days later, on 24 August, Ferdinand VII was proclaimed king of Spain again, ^[5] and negotiations between the Council and the provincial juntas for the establishment of a Supreme Central Junta were completed. Subsequently, on 14 January, British government acknowledged Ferdinand VII as king of Spain.^[6]

Five years later after experiencing serious reverses on many fronts, Emperor Napoleon agreed to acknowledge Ferdinand VII as king of Spain on 11 December 1813 and signed the Treaty of Valençay, so that the king could return to Spain. This, however, did not happen until Napoleon was nearly defeated by the allied powers several months later. The Spanish people, blaming the liberal, enlightened policies of the Francophiles (afrancesados) for causing the Napoleonic occupation and the Peninsular War by allying Spain too closely to France, at first welcomed Fernando. Ferdinand soon found that in the intervening years a new world had been born of foreign invasion and domestic revolution. In his name Spain fought for its independence and in his name as well juntas had governed Spanish America. Spain was no longer the absolute monarchy he had relinquished six years earlier. Instead he was now asked to rule under the liberal Constitution of 1812. Before being allowed to enter Spanish soil, Ferdinand had to guarantee the liberals that he would govern on the basis of the Constitution, but, only gave lukewarm indications he would do so. On 24 March the French handed him over to the Spanish Army in Girona, and thus began his celebratory procession towards Madrid.^[7] During this process and in the following months, he was encouraged by conservatives and the Church hierarchy to reject the Constitution. On 4 May he ordered its abolition and on 10 May had the liberal leaders responsible for the Constitution arrested. Ferdinand justified his actions by claiming that the Constitution had been made by a Cortes illegally assembled in his absence, without his consent and without the traditional form. (It had met as a unicameral body, instead of in three chambers representing the three estates: the clergy, the nobility and the cities.) Ferdinand initially promised to convene a traditional Cortes, but never did so, thereby reasserting the Bourbon doctrine that sovereign authority resided in his person only.

Meanwhile, the wars of independence had broken out in America, and although many of the republican rebels were divided and royalist sentiment was strong in many areas, the Manila galleons and tax revenues from the Spanish Empire had been interrupted. Spain was all but bankrupt.

Ferdinand's restored autocracy was guided by a small camarilla of his favorites, although his government seemed unstable. Whimsical and ferocious by turns, he changed his ministers every few months. The other autocratic powers of the Quintuple Alliance, though forced to support him as the symbol of legitimacy in Spain, watched these proceedings with disgust and alarm. "The King", wrote Friedrich von Gentz to the Hospodar John Caradja on 1 December 1814, "himself enters the houses of his first ministers, arrests them, and hands them over to their cruel enemies"; and again, on 14 January 1815, "The king has so debased himself that he has become no more than the leading police agent and gaoler of his country."

The king did recognize the efforts of the foreign powers on his behalf. As the head of the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece Ferdinand made the Duke of Wellington, head of the British forces on the Peninsula, the first Protestant member of the order.

Revolt

In 1820 his misrule provoked a revolt in favor of the Constitution of 1812 which began with a mutiny of the troops under Col. Rafael Riego and the king was quickly made prisoner. He grovelled to the insurgents as he had done to his parents. Ferdinand had restored the Jesuits upon his return; now the Society had become identified with repression and absolutism among the liberals, who attacked them: twenty-five Jesuits were slain in Madrid in 1822. For the rest of the 19th century, expulsions and re-establishment of the Jesuits would continue to be touchmarks of liberal or authoritarian political regimes.

At the beginning of 1823, as a result of the Congress of Verona, the French invaded Spain "invoking the God of St Louis, for the sake of preserving the throne of Spain to a descendant of Henry IV, and of reconciling that fine kingdom with Europe." When in May the revolutionary party carried Ferdinand to Cádiz, he continued to make promises of amendment until he was free.

When freed after the Battle of Trocadero and the fall of Cadiz he revenged himself with a ferocity which disgusted his far from liberal allies. In violation of his oath to grant an amnesty he avenged himself, for three years of coercion, by killing on a scale which left his "rescuers" sickened and horrified. The Duke of Angoulême, powerless to intervene, made known his protest against Ferdinand's actions by refusing the Spanish decorations Ferdinand offered him for his military services.

During his last years Ferdinand's energy was abated. He no longer changed ministers every few months as a sport, and he allowed some of them to conduct the current business of government. His habits of life were telling on him. He became torpid, bloated and horrible to look at. After his fourth marriage, with Maria Christina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies in 1829, he was persuaded by his wife to set aside the law of succession of Philip V, which gave a preference to all the males of the family in Spain over the females. His marriage had brought him only two daughters. The change in the order of succession established by his dynasty in Spain angered a large part of the nation and made civil war, the Carlist Wars, inevitable.

When well he consented to the change under the influence of his wife. When ill he was terrified by priestly advisers who were partisans of his brother Carlos. Ferdinand died on 29 September, 1833.

It had been a frequent saying with the more zealous royalists of Spain that a King must be wiser than his ministers for he was placed on the throne and directed by God. Since the reign of Ferdinand VII no one has maintained this unqualified version of the great doctrine of divine right.

King Ferdinand VII kept a diary during the troubled years 1820-1823 which has been published by the Count de Casa Valencia.

Marriages and children

Ferdinand VII was married four times. In 1802 he married his first cousin Princess Maria Antonietta of the Two Sicilies (1784-1806), daughter of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies and Marie Caroline of Austria. There were no children, because her two pregnancies (in 1804 and 1805) ended in miscarriages.

In 1816, he married his niece Maria Isabel de Bragança, Princess of Portugal (1797-1818), daughter of his older sister Carlota Joaquina and John VI of Portugal. Their only daughter lived only four months.

In 1819, he married Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony (1803-1829), daughter of Maximilian, Prince of Saxony and Caroline of Bourbon-Parma. No children were born from this marriage.

Lastly, in 1829, he married another niece, Maria Christina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1806–1878), daughter of his younger sister Maria Isabella of Spain and Francis I of the Two Sicilies. She bore him two daughters:

Isabella II
Luisa Fernanda (1832-1897). Married Antoine d'Orleans, Duke of Montpensier, and had issue.

Ancestors

Ancestors of Ferdinand VII of Spain

16. Louis, Dauphin of France

8. Philip V of Spain

17. Maria Anna of Bavaria

4. Charles III of Spain

18. Odoardo II Farnese

9. Elisabeth of Parma

19. Dorothea Sophie of the Palatinate

2. Charles IV of Spain

20. Augustus II of Poland

10. Augustus III of Poland

21. Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth

5. Maria Amalia of Saxony

22. Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor

11. Maria Josepha of Austria

23. Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick

1. Ferdinand VII of Spain

24. Louis, Dauphin of France (= 16)

12. Philip V of Spain (= 8)

25. Maria Anna of Bavaria (= 17)

6. Philip, Duke of Parma

26. Odoardo II Farnese (= 18)

13. Elisabeth of Parma (= 9)

27. Dorothea Sophie of the Palatinate (= 19)

3. Maria Luisa of Parma

28. Louis of France, Duke of Burgundy

14. Louis XV of France

29. Marie-Adélaïde of Savoy

7. Louise Élisabeth of France

30. Stanisław Leszczyński

15. Maria Leszczyńska

31. Catherine Opalińska

Spanish Dollar of Ferdinand VII, dated 1821

Obverse. The Latin inscription is FERDIN[ANDUS] VII DEI GRATIA 1821 ("Ferdinand VII, By the Grace of God, 1821").	Reverse. The Latin inscription is HISPAN[IARUM] ET IND[IARUM] REX M[EXICO] 8 R[EALES] ("King of the Spains and of the Indies, Mexico City Mint, 8 Reales.") The reverse also depicts the arms of Castile and León, with Granada in base, and an inescutcheon of Anjou, supported by the Pillars of Hercules).

Assessment of the Encyclopædia Britannica 1911

We have to distinguish the part of Ferdinand VII in all these transactions, in which other and better men were concerned. It can confidently be said to have been uniformly base. He had perhaps no right to complain that he was kept aloof from all share in government while only heir apparent, for this was the traditional practice of his family. But as heir to the throne he had a right to resent the degradation of the crown he was to inherit, and the power of a favourite who was his mother's lover. If he had put himself at the head of a popular rising he would have been followed, and would have had a good excuse. His course was to enter on dim intrigues at the instigation of his first wife, Maria Antonietta of Naples. After her death in 1806 he was drawn into other intrigues by flatterers. At Valancay, where he was sent as a prisoner of state, he sank contentedly into vulgar vice, and scruples did not deter him from applauding the French victories over the people who were suffering unutterable misery in his cause.

Regnal titles
Ferdinand VII of Spain House of Bourbon Cadet branch of the Capetian dynasty Born: 14 October 1784 Died: 29 September 1833
Preceded by Charles IV	King of Spain 1808(19 March-6 May)	Succeeded by Joseph I
Preceded by Joseph I	King of Spain 1808 (11 August)^[4] / 1813–1833	Succeeded by Isabella II
Spanish nobility
Preceded by Prince Charles	Prince of Asturias 1788-1808	Vacant Title next held by Princess Isabella

References

^ Gazeta de Madrid de 25 de marzo pages 297 and 298
^ Gazeta de Madrid de 13 de mayo pages 458 and 459.
^ Gazeta de Madrid de 14 de octubre pages 1293 and 1294
^ ^a ^b Gazeta de Madrid de 19 de Agosto page 1041
^ Gazeta de Madrid de 6 de septiembre página 1119
^ A treatise on the laws of commerce and manufactures and the contracts relating thereto : with an appendix of treaties, statutes, and precedents por Joseph Chitty (1824)
^ Artola, Miguel. La España de Fernando VII. Madrid, Espasa, 1999, 405. ISBN 84-239-9742-1

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

v • d • e Monarchs of Spain from 1479

House of Trastámara (1479–1555)	Ferdinand II and Isabella I · Joanna and Philip I

House of Habsburg (1516–1700)	Joanna and Charles I · Charles I · Philip II · Philip III · Philip IV · Charles II

House of Bourbon (1700–1808)	Philip V · Louis · Philip V · Ferdinand VI · Charles III · Charles IV · Ferdinand VII

House of Bonaparte (1808–1813)	Joseph

House of Bourbon (1813–1868)	Ferdinand VII · Isabella II

House of Savoy (1868–1873)	Amadeo

House of Bourbon (1874–1931)	Alfonso XII · Alfonso XIII

House of Bourbon (since 1975)	Juan Carlos

v • d • e Infantes of Spain

The generations indicate descent form Charles I, under whom the crowns of Castile and Aragon were united, forming the Kingdom of Spain. Previously, the title Infante had been largely use in the different realms.

1st Generation	Philip II

2nd Generation	Charles, Prince of Asturias · Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias · Diego, Prince of Asturias · Philip III

3rd Generation	Philip IV · Infante Carlos · Carlos Lorenzo · Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand · Alfonso Mauricio

4th Generation	Balthasar Charles, Prince of Asturias · Fernando Tomas · Philip Prospero, Prince of Asturias · Charles II

5th Generation	none

6th Generation	Joseph Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias*

7th Generation	Louis I · Felipe · Felipe Pedro · Francisco · Ferdinand VI · Charles III · Philip, Duke of Parma · Louis, Count of Chinchón

8th Generation	Philip, Duke of Calabria · Charles IV · Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies · Infante Gabriel · Infante Antonio Pascual · Ferdinand, Duke of Parma*

9th Generation	Ferdinand VII · Carlos, Count of Molina · Infante Francisco de Paula · Infante Pedro Carlos* · Louis I of Etruria**

10th Generation	Antoine, Duke of Montpensier** · Carlos, Count of Montemolín* · Juan, Count of Montizón* · Infante Ferdinand* · Francis, Duke of Cádiz* · Enrique, Duke of Seville* · Infante Duarte Felipe* · Infante Sebastian* · Charles II, Duke of Parma*

11th Generation	Alfonso XII · Gaetan, Count of Girgenti · Infante Louis Ferdinand of Bavaria · Infante Ferdinand of Orléans* · Antonio, Duke of Galliera* · Charles III, Duke of Parma*

12th Generation	Infante Carlos of Bourbon-Two Sicilies · Infante Ferdinand of Bavaria · Alfonso, Duke of Galliera* · Infante Luis Fernando of Orléans* · Robert I, Duke of Parma*

13th Generation	Alfonso, Prince of Asturias · Jaime, Duke of Segovia · Infante Fernando · Juan, Count of Barcelona · Infante Gonzalo · Alfonso, Duke of Calabria* · Infante Luis Alfonso of Bavaria* · Infante José Eugenio of Bavaria*

14th Generation	Juan Carlos I · Infante Alfonso · Carlos, Duke of Calabria*

15th Generation	Felipe, Prince of Asturias

*title granted by Royal Decree **consort to an Infanta who was naturalized as a Spanish Infante

The Bourbons of Spain

Philip V of Spain

Spouse(s)	HH Princess Maria Luisa Gabriella of Savoy • HH Elisabeth of Parma

Children	Louis I of Spain* • Felipe of Spain* • Felipe of Spain* • Ferdinand VI of Spain* • Charles III of Spain* • Francisco of Spain* • Mariana Víctoria, Queen of Portugal* • Philip, Duke of Parma* • Maria Teresa Rafaela, Dauphine of France* • Luis, Count of Chinchón* • Maria Antonietta, Queen of Sardinia*

Siblings	Louis, Duke of Burgundy • Charles, Duke of Berry

Grandchildren	María Isabel Antonia • María Josefa Antonieta • María Isabel Ana • María Josefa Carmela • Maria Luisa, Holy Roman Empress • Felipe, Duke of Calabria • Charles IV of Spain • María Teresa • Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies • Infante Gabriel of Spain • Ana María • Antonio Pascual • Francisco Javier • Isabella Maria, Archduchess of Austria • Ferdinand, Duke of Parma • Maria Luisa, Queen of Spain • Luis, Count of Chinchón • Maria Teresa, Countess of Chinchón • María Luisa, Duchess of San Fernando de Quiroga

Louis I of Spain

Spouse(s)

HSH Louise Élisabeth d'Orléans

Ferdinand VI of Spain

Spouse(s)

HH Infanta Maria Bárbara of Portugal

Charles III of Spain

Spouse(s)	HH Princess Maria Amalia of Saxony

Children	María Isabel Antonia • María Josefa Antonieta • María Isabel Ana • María Josefa Carmela • Maria Luisa, Holy Roman Empress • Felipe, Duke of Calabria • Charles IV of Spain • María Teresa • Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies* • Infante Gabriel of Spain • Ana María • Antonio Pascual • Francisco Javier

Grandchildren	Carlos Clemente • Charlotte, Queen of Portugal • Maria Luisa • Maria Amalia • Carlos Domingo • Maria Louisa, Duchess of Lucca • Carlos Francisco • Felipe Francisco • Ferdinand VII of Spain • Carlos, Count of Molina • Maria Isabella, Queen of the Two Sicilies • Maria Teresa • Felipe Maria • Francisco de Paula • Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Empress* • Luisa, Grand Duchess of Tuscany* • Carlo* • Maria Ana* • Francis I of the Two Sicilies* • Maria Christina, Queen of Sardinia* • Maria Cristina Amelia* • Carlo* • Giuseppe* • Maria Amalia, Queen of the French* • Maria Cristina* • Maria Antonia, Princess of Asturias* • Maria Clothilde* • Maria Enrichetta* • Carlo* • Leopold, Prince of Salerno* • Alberto* • Maria Isabella*

Great grandchildren	Carlos, Count of Montemolin • Juan, Count of Montizón • Fernando • Isabella II of Spain • Maria Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier • Francisco de Asis • Isabel • Francis, Duke of Cádiz • Henry, Duke of Seville • Luisa, Duchess of Moscoso • Duarte Felipe • Josefina • Teresa • Fernando • Maria Cristina, Infanta of Portugal • Amelia Philippina, Princess Adalbert of Bavaria •

Charles IV of Spain

Spouse(s)	HRH Princess Maria Luisa of Parma

Children	Carlos Clemente • Charlotte, Queen of Portugal • Maria Luisa • Maria Amalia • Carlos Domingo • Maria Louisa, Duchess of Lucca • Carlos Francisco • Felipe Francisco • Ferdinand VII of Spain • Carlos, Count of Molina • Maria Isabella, Queen of the Two Sicilies • Maria Teresa • Felipe Maria • Francisco de Paula

Grandchildren	Carlos, Count of Montemolin • Juan, Count of Montizón • Fernando • Isabella II of Spain • Maria Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier • Francisco de Asis • Isabel • Francis, Duke of Cádiz • Henry, Duke of Seville • Luisa, Duchess of Moscoso • Duarte Felipe • Josefina • Teresa • Fernando • Maria Cristina, Infanta of Portugal • Amelia Philippina, Princess Adalbert of Bavaria

Ferdinand VII of Spain

Spouse(s)	HRH Princess Maria Antonia of Naples and Sicily* • HRH Infanta Maria Isabel of Portugal • HH Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony • HRH Princess Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies*

Children	Isabella II of Spain • Maria Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier •

Isabella II of Spain

Spouse(s)	HRH Infante Francis, Duke of Cadiz

Children	Ferdinand, Prince of Asturias • Isabella, Princess of Asturias • Maria Cristina • Alfonso XII of Spain • Maria de la Concepcion • Maria de Pilar • María de la Paz, Princess Ludwig of Bavaria • Francisco de Asis • Eulalia, Duchess of Galliera

Alfonso XII of Spain

Spouse(s)	HRH :Princess Mercedes d'Orléans • HI&RH Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria

Children	Mercedes, Princess of Asturias • Maria Teresa, Princess and Duchess of Bavaria • Alfonso XIII of Spain

Grandchildren	Alfonso, Duke of Calabria* • Fernando, Prince of Bourbon-Two Sicilies • Isabella Alfonsa, Princess of Bourbon-Two Sicilies • Alfonso, Prince of Asturias • Jaime, Duke of Segovia • Beatriz, Princess of Civitella-Cesi • Ferdinand • Maria Cristina, Countess of Marone • Juan, Count of Barcelona • Gonzalo

Great grandchildren	Teresa, Princess of Bourbon-Two Sicilies • Carlos, Duke of Calabria* • Inés Maria, Princess of Bourbon-Two Sicilies • Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz • Gonzalo, Duke of Aquitaine • Pilar, Duchess of Badajoz • Juan Carlos I of Spain • Margarita, 2nd Duchess of Hernani • Alfonso

Alfonso XIII of Spain

Spouse(s)	HSH Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg

Children	Alfonso, Prince of Asturias • Jaime, Duke of Segovia • Beatriz, Princess of Civitella-Cesi • Ferdinand • Maria Cristina, Countess of Marone • Juan, Count of Barcelona • Gonzalo

Grandchildren	Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cádiz • Gonzalo, Duke of Aquitaine • Pilar, Duchess of Badajoz • Juan Carlos I of Spain • Margarita, 2nd Duchess of Hernani • Alfonso

Juan Carlos I of Spain

Spouse(s)	HRH Princess Sophia of Greece and Denmark

Children	Infanta Elena, Duchess of Lugo • Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca • Felipe, Prince of Asturias

Grandchildren	Infanta Leonor of Spain • Infanta Sofía of Spain

*also a Prince or Princess of the Two Sicilies
**also an Archduchess of Austria
***both

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