Infante Pedro Carlos of Spain and 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.

Infante Pedro Carlos was a son of Infante Gabriel of Spain and Infanta Maria Ana Vitória 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.

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 November 29 on board the "Príncipe Real" with his grandmother and uncles for Brazil.

They arrived in Salvador de Bahía on January 2, 1808, and headed from there to Río de Janeiro, where the infante occupied the São Cristovão Palace.

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 May 13, 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 July 4, 1812.

The couple had one child:

• Infante Sebastian of Portugal and Spain, born in Río de Janeiro on November 4, 1811.

• Wilhelmsen, Alexandra (1996). "Maria Teresa of Braganza: Portuguese Princess of Beira, Spanish Infanta, Wife of the Pretender Carlos V". Mediterranean Studies. Pennsylvania,USA: Penn State University Press. JSTOR 41166848.