Born at the Royal Palace of El Pardo, Maria Amalia was the second surviving daughter of King Carlos IV of Spain (1748–1819) and his wife Maria Luisa of Parma (1751–1819), a granddaughter of Louis XV of France.

[3] Louis, who was equally shy, preferred her younger sister, Infanta Maria Luisa, who although only twelve, was of a more cheerful disposition and somewhat better looking.

[2] To find a new groom for Maria Amalia of a royal rank in such a short period of time was not an easy affair; thus her parents decided to marry Maria Amalia to her uncle, Antonio Pascual, Infante of Spain, who was twenty-four years older than she was.

Maria Amalia married her uncle on 25 August 1795 at the Royal Palace of La Granja.

The baby got stuck by the shoulders in the birth canal and the doctors were unable to extract him.