CHARLES VI

Carlos Luis María Fernando de Borbón y Braganza, son of Carlos María Isidro and María Francisca de Braganza, was the pretender King for the Carlists, under the name of Charles VI, known as well as count of Montemolín. He participated actively in the First Carlist War and exiled later on to France. He became a Carlist pretender to the throne when his father abdicated on May 18th 1845 and, after publishing a manifesto where he addressed the masses to participate in an armed conflict, the War of the Matiners started. In 1850 he married Carolina de Borbón-Dos Sicilias.

On April 21st 1860, when he tried to enter Spain at La Rápita, he was arrested together with his brother, Fernando de Borbón y Braganza and taken to Tortosa, where both were forced to abdicate and returned to Trieste after they were released. On 15th June the abdication was declared null but their brother Juan, who was at that time the legitimate right holder to the throne, still considered the abdication as valid. The death of Charles VI, in January 1861, Juan became the heir to the Carlist dynasty under the name of Juan III.