A humanist devoted to arts, he bore a striking resemblance to his elder brother Charles IV.

At the death of his uncle Ferdinand VI of Spain, who he never met, his parents, brothers Charles and Gabriel, and sisters Maria Luisa and Maria Josefa departed for Spain where his father ruled as Charles III.

Aged 39, he married on August 25, 1795, María Amalia of Spain, 16-year-old daughter of his brother Charles IV in a double wedding where Maria Amalia's younger sister, Maria Luisa married Louis, Duke of Parma.

He headed the Junta Suprema de Gobierno in 1808, in the absence of his brother and nephew, when they tried to humor Napoleon in Bayonne.

During the Peninsular War he lived with the rest of the Royal Family under house arrest at the Château de Valençay.