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Infante Pedro Carlos of Spain and Portugal

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Infante Pedro Carlos
Portrait by Anthelme-François Lagrenée (1807)
Born(1786-06-18)18 June 1786
Royal Palace of Aranjuez, Aranjuez, Spain
Died4 July 1812(1812-07-04) (aged 26)
Palace of São Cristóvão, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
SpouseInfanta Maria Teresa of Braganza
IssueInfante Sebastian
Names
Pedro Carlos Antonio Rafael José Javier Francisco Juan Nepomuceno Tomás de Villanueva Marcos Marcelino Vicente Ferrer Raimundo
HouseBourbon-Braganza
FatherInfante Gabriel of Spain
MotherInfanta Mariana Victoria of Portugal

Don Pedro Carlos (Pedro Carlos Antonio Rafael José Javier Francisco Juan Nepomuceno Tomás de Villanueva Marcos Marcelino Vicente Ferrer Raimundo; 18 June 1786 – 4 July 1812) was an Infante of Spain and Portugal.

Family

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Infante Pedro Carlos as a child.

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

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His father, a very intelligent man, was King Charles III's favorite son, but he and his wife died in 1788 of smallpox. King Charles III also died the same year; his successor Charles IV of Spain sent the child away to Portugal, as requested by his grandmother, Queen Maria I of Portugal. Maria was worried about the Braganza succession and Pedro Carlos was then her only grandchild. He was raised by Maria, who created him an infante of Portugal.

Pedro Carlos had inherited a large fortune from 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.

In 1807, France invaded Portugal, and the royal family fled to Brazil, including Pedro Carlos. They left on 29 November on board the Príncipe Real.

They arrived in Salvador de Bahia on 2 January 1808 and headed from there to Rio de Janeiro, where the infante lived in the São Cristovão Palace.

Marriage

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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.[1]

The couple was very happy during their two years of marriage, after which Pedro Carlos became ill and died in Quinta da Boa Vista on 4 July 1812.

The couple had one child:

Ancestry

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References

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  1. ^ Wilhelmsen, Alexandra (1996). "Maria Teresa of Braganza: Portuguese Princess of Beira, Spanish Infanta, Wife of the Pretender Carlos V". Mediterranean Studies. 6. Pennsylvania,USA: Penn State University Press: 79–106. JSTOR 41166848.
  2. ^ Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. pp. 9, 15.