Enrique's aunt, Queen mother Maria Christina of the Two Sicilies, the widow of Ferdinand VII, served as regent of Spain on Isabella's behalf from 1833 to 1840.

The second marriage of Maria Christina with Agustín Fernando Muñoz y Sánchez in 1833 caused a disagreement between her and her sister, Infanta Luisa Carlotta, resulting in the banishment of Luisa Carlota and her family to Paris, where the queen consort of France, Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, was her aunt.

At the Lycée, he met his cousin Antoine, Duke of Montpensier, with whom he later developed an intense rivalry that would eventually end in tragedy.

Finally able to return to Spain, Enrique soon began his military career in Ferrol, Galicia, where he was praised for his excellent conduct.

Openly offended at these setbacks, and accused of taking part in a revolt against the monarchy in Galicia, Enrique was expelled from Spain in March 1846, shortly before the wedding of his brother and the Queen.

They had four sons and one daughter: While in France, Enrique several times proclaimed himself a revolutionary, and he was asked to join the International Workingmen's Association.

She was buried in the Convent of Las Descalzas Reales rather than in the Spanish royal tombs at El Escorial, which are reserved for queens and infantas of Spain.

Enrique was shot and killed, removing him as a public critic of the duke's alleged aspirations to the Spanish throne.