Charles II, Duke of Parma - King of Etruria

King of Etruria

After his father's death, Charles Louis, who was only three years old, succeeded him as King Charles Louis I of Eturia. He was under the regency of his mother Maria Luisa. In 1807, Napoleon dissolved the kingdom and had Charles Louis and his mother brought to France. Charles Louis was promised the throne of a new Kingdom of Northern Lusitania (in the North of Portugal), but this plan never materialized, due to the break between Napoleon and the Spanish Bourbons in 1808. Charles Louis, his mother and sister looked for refuge in Spain, arriving at the court of Charles IV on 19 February 1808. Spain was in unrest, and less than three months after they arrival, all members of the Spanish Royal family were taken to France on Napoleon's orders, while he gave the Spanish crown to his brother Joseph Bonaparte. Charles Louis left Spain with his mother and sister on 2 May 1808 for Bayonne and then Compiegne, the residence which had been assigned to them. Maria Luisa was promised the palace of Colorno in Parma and a substantial allowance, but Napoleon did not keep his word and Charles Lous with his mother and sister were held captive in Nice. When Charles Louis mother tried to escape from Napoleon's grip, she was arrested and locked up in a convent in Rome in August 1811. Charles Louis did not share his mother and sister imprisonment. He was giving in custody to his grandfather Charles IV, the deposed King of Spain. For the next four years, (1811–1815), Charles Louis lived under the care of his grandfather in the household of the exiled Spanish royal family in Rome.

After Napoleon's downfall in 1815, the House of Bourbon was not restored to the Duchy of Parma, which was instead given to Napoleon's wife, the Empress Marie Louise. The Congress of Vienna compensated the Bourbons with the Duchy of Lucca, which was given to Charles Louis' mother, with Charles Louis as her heir with the title Prince of Lucca. He was also promised the right of succession to Parma upon Empress Marie Louise's death.

In December 1817, few weeks before his eighteen birthday, Charles Louis made his entry in Lucca with his mother. Due to the vicissitudes of the early years of his life he had not received a formal political education, but through self-teaching he acquired a vast knowledge. He was a Renaissance man with a wide range of interests, yet his fickle nature drawn him from his early youth to many different branches of knowledge, from medicine to music (he composed sacred music), to foreign languages. He was particularly oriented to humanities. Biblical and liturgical studies captured his interest. His ideology was influenced by the enlightening and romanticism of the period that followed the restoration of the European peace after the end of the Napoleonic wars. As crown prince, he found himself subjected to continuous monitoring by his mother. Restless as he was, he clashed with his conservative mother who, in her later years, turned increasingly to religion. He also disliked her absolutist form of governing. However from his mother, he inherited the love of the Spanish Bourbon for the pomp of a royal court. The relationship between mother and son turned sour with the years. He later complained that his mother had "ruined him physically, morally and financially".