Carolina was the eldest child of Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, and his wife Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria.

[1] She was named after her godparents, her paternal great-uncle Charles III of Spain and her maternal grandmother Empress Maria Theresa.

Carolina was the eldest child of Ferdinand, Duke of Parma and his wife Maria Amalia of Austria.

By the time of the visit of her maternal aunt Maria Christina in Parma in 1774, she was described as a beautiful but melancholic child.

[2] In 1778, her brother Luigi hit his head on a marble table while playing with Carolina, and afterward suffered from epilepsy.