Marriage and Children
Charles IV married his first cousin Maria Louisa, the daughter of Philip, Duke of Parma, in 1765. The couple had fourteen children, six of whom survived into adulthood:
- Charles Clement (Carlos Clemente) (19 September 1771 – 7 March 1774)
- Charlotte Joaquina (Carlota Joaquina) (25 April 1775 – 7 January 1830), married Prince John of Portugal, later King John VI
- Maria Louisa (Maria Luisa) (11 September 1777 – 2 July 1782)
- Maria Amalia (9 January 1779 – 22 July 1798), married her uncle Infante Antonio Pascual of Spain in 1795, no issue.
- Charles Dominic (Carlos Domingo) (5 March 1780 – 11 June 1783)
- Maria Louisa (Maria Luisa) (6 July 1782 – 13 March 1824), married Louis, heir of Bourbon-Parma and became Queen consort of Etruria and Duchess of Lucca
- Charles Francis (Carlos Francisco) (5 September 1783 – 11 November 1784)
- Philip Francis (Felipe Francisco) (5 September 1783 – 18 October 1784)
- Ferdinand (Fernando) (14 October 1784 – 29 September 1833), succeeded his father as King of Spain
- Charles (Carlos), Count of Molina (29 March 1788 – 10 March 1855), later the first Carlist pretender
- Maria Isabella (6 June 1789 – 13 September 1848), married Francis I, King of the Two Sicilies
- Maria Teresa (16 February 1791 – 2 November 1794)
- Felipe Maria (28 March 1792 – 1 March 1794)
- Francisco Antonio de Paula, Duke of Cadiz (10 March 1794 – 13 August 1865)
Maria Luisa was widely considered a vicious and coarse woman who thoroughly dominated the king. During the lifetime of Charles IV, she led her husband into court intrigues against the prime minister, the Count of Floridablanca.
Read more about this topic: Charles IV Of Spain
Famous quotes containing the words marriage and, marriage and/or children:
“Marriage and deathless friendship, both should be inviolable and sacred: two great creative passions, separate, apart, but complementary: the one pivotal, the other adventurous: the one, marriage, the centre of human life; and the other, the leap ahead.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“A house means a family house, a place specially meant for putting children and men in so as to restrict their waywardness and distract them from the longing for adventure and escape they’ve had since time began.”
—Marguerite Duras (b. 1914)