page_title: Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain
section_title: Honours and privileges
hierarchical_section_title: Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain / Honours and privileges
caption_attribution_description: English: Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain and his wife Infanta Luisa Carlota
context_page_description: Infante Francisco de Paula of Spain was an Infante of Spain and the youngest son of Charles IV of Spain and Maria Luisa of Parma. He was a brother of Ferdinand VII, as well as the uncle and father-in-law of Isabella II.
  His education at the Spanish court was derailed by the Napoleonic intervention in Spain. The departure of the fourteen-year-old Infante to exile in May 1808 provoked a popular uprising that was violently suppressed by French troops. For the next ten years, Infante Francisco de Paula lived in exile with his parents, first in Marseille and later in Rome.
  Infante Francisco de Paula returned to Spain in 1818, being called by his eldest brother, King Ferdinand VII, who showered him with honors and privileges. Interested in artistic pursuits, Francisco was an amateur singer and painter. In 1819, he married his niece, Princess Luisa Carlotta of Naples and Sicily, the eldest daughter of his older sister Maria Isabella. The couple had eleven children and were very active in political affairs. Luisa Carlotta was instrumental in securing the succession for Ferdinand VII's daughter, Queen Isabella II.
context_section_description: Infante Francisco de Paula returned to Spain in April 1818. Ferdinand VII did not allow his brother a position of command in the Spanish Army as Francisco had wished, but otherwise showered him with honors and privileges. The Infante was made a Knight of the orders of  Santiago, Calatrava, Alcantara and Montesa, as well as being given the control and income of some of the large properties these orders held in Spain. He also became a senior knight of the orders of St John of Jerusalem which brought similar benefits. He received the French order of Saint Spirit and was made an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Arts.
  As Infante Francisco settled in the Royal Palace, his father, Carlos IV, shortly before his death,  negotiated Francisco's marriage to Princess Luisa Carlotta of Bourbon Two Sicillies. This was with the consent of Ferdinand VII. Luisa Carlotta was the eldest daughter of Francis I of the Two Sicilies and Maria Isabel of Spain, Infante Francisco's sister. This was a union between uncle and niece. The couple married by proxy on 15 April 1819. On 14 May, Luisa Carlotta arrived in Barcelona.  The ceremonial wedding took place on 9 June 1819 at the Royal Palace of Madrid. Francisco de Paula was twenty-five years old; Luisa Carlotta was only fifteen. She was lively, witty, strong willed, hot tempered and ambitious. Luisa Carlotta quickly dominated her husband, won the King's heart, and began to produce children who were granted the rank and status of Infantes of Spain. Between 1820 and 1834 the couple had eleven children. The family lived in a wing of the royal palace of Madrid and also spent periods of time at the palaces of la Granja, Aranjuez and Sevilla.
  The position of Francisco de Paula and his wife at court was, however, a modest one. The Infante was only fifth in the line of succession—after his brother Don Carlos and Don Carlos's three sons. Hoping to have descendants, Ferdinand VII, who had no children from his first two wives, married for a third time four months after Francisco's wedding. During the 1820s Spain was a country in constant political turmoil, facing economic hardships. The economy had been devastated in the war of independence from France and by the loss of the Spanish colonies in the continental Americas. A revolution in 1820 imposed on Ferdinand VII the liberal constitution of 1812. This period lasted for three years. In 1823, with the approval of Britain, France, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, a French army invaded Spain and reinstated the King's absolute power. Constant political tensions between liberals and conservatives, who had the upper hand, continued. In this political struggle, Francisco de Paula, grateful, loyal and subservient to his brother the king, supported Ferdinand VII's conservative policies. However, as the infante's political views were moderate, the ultra-royalist party at court viewed him as a liberal.
  With a placid personality, Infante Francisco de Paula was more interested in art than in politics. The Infante, who in his childhood had received drawing lessons from the court painter and miniaturist Antonio Carnicero, was himself an amateur painter. Some of his works, including an oil painting of Saint Jerome, have survived. The Infante's main passion was music. Until he was forced to leave Spain for exile in 1808, he received music lessons from Pedro Anselmo Marchal and violin lessons from Francesco Vaccari. The Infante was a skillful singer with a good bass singing voice. His rooms at the Royal Palace were a gathering place for musicians and singers and he used to sing with them. The Infante also sang during musical evenings at the royal palace in the company of professional singers. From his youth until the end of his life, Francisco de Paula gathered an extensive sheet music collection that included almost 700 scores. This collection, acquired by the Biblioteca Nacional de España, has been preserved to this day. When Ferdinand VII created the Madrid Royal Conservatory in 1830, the infante was made an honorary member.
caption: Infante Francisco de Paula and Princess Luisa Carlota of Bourbon Two Sicillies
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