Juan was born at the Palacio Real de Aranjuez in the province of Madrid, the younger son of the Infante Carlos María Isidro of Spain, brother of King Ferdinand VII, and his first wife, Infanta Maria Francisca of Portugal.

In June 1834 Juan moved with his family to England, where they lived at Gloucester Lodge, Old Brompton Road, and later at Alverstoke Old Rectory, Hampshire.

On 15 January 1837 the Cortes which was controlled by the Isabellists passed a law, ratified by the Queen Regent Maria Christina, which excluded Juan, his father, and brothers from the Spanish succession.

In the mid-1850s Juan established an intimate relationship with Ellen Sarah Carter (1837-1910), an English commoner; her father was a merchant dealing in flowers and plants.

On 21 April Carlos Luis was captured by the troops of Isabella II and forced to renounce his claims to the Spanish throne.

[9] He became an active supporter of his son Carlos' attempts to regain the Spanish throne in the Third Carlist War.

Henri's widow, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Este, and a minority of his supporters held that Juan as senior male descendant of Louis XIV was his successor.

In 1821, when the Mexican Empire first achieved its independence, its original plan was for it to be ruled by a personal union with Ferdinand VII.

Despite him declining the throne, many Mexican conservatives did not give up on their hope to have a Bourbon ruler as Emperor of Mexico.

But it is noted that when offered the crown, he had declined it, thus the Mexican conservatives chose instead Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian to take the throne, who accepted it.