King Charles III of Spain.
Charles III (1716 - 1788) was King of Spain from 1759 to 1788.
Charles was born in Madrid on 20 January 1718, the fifth son of King Philip V of Spain, and the eldest son by Philip's second wife, Elisabeth Farnese. At the time of his birth, Charles was fourth in line to the Spanish throne after his three half-brothers. Charles' mother was ambitious, and sought to make him the heir to the childless Dukes of Parma and Tuscany in Italy. The 1720 Treaty of The Hague recognized Charles as the heir to the Duchy of Parma.
The abdication of Charles' father Philip in January 1724 brought Charles' half-brother Louis to the Spanish throne, and made Charles second in line to the Spanish throne after his surviving half-brother Ferdinand. Louis' death in August 1724 brought Philip back to the Spanish throne.
Charles succeeded to the Duchy of Parma in 1731 at the age of 15, and moved there from Spain the following year. When Charles reached his 18th birthday on 20 January 1734 his mother's regency ended and he ruled Parma in his own name, as well as being named co-commander of Spanish forces in Italy. Later that year Philip placed Charles in charge of a Spanish army with orders to conquer the Kingdom of Naples, then under the rule of an Austrian viceroy. Charles' army defeated the Austrians in May and he took up residence in the Royal Palace. The Spanish army completed the conquest of the mainland in August and the island of Sicily in November. The following year, in a treaty ending the war with the Austrians, Charles ceded the Duchy of Parma in exchange for recognition of him as King of Naples and Sicily.
The outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession in 1740 led Charles to reluctantly ally Naples with Spain, France, and Prussia against the Austrians and the British. An Austrian invasion of Naples was defeated by Charles at the Battle of Velletri on 12 August 1744. The victory allowed Charles to regain the Duchy of Parma for his younger brother Philip. The death of Charles' father in 1746 brought his half-brother Ferdinand to the Spanish throne as King Ferdinand VI, and made Charles the heir to the Spanish throne.
Charles kept Naples neutral during the Seven Years' War, much to the displeasure of the British, who wanted him to fight the Austrians. In the middle of the war, Charles' half-brother Ferdinand died, and he succeeded to the Spanish throne. Charles abdicated as King of Naples and Sicily in favor of his younger surviving son, Ferdinand, while his elder son, the future King Charles IV, became the heir to the Spanish throne. British success in the Seven Years' War led Charles to enter the war on the side of France and Austria. However, the war went badly for Spain, with the British capturing Cuba and the Philippines. In the 1763 Treaty of Paris the British returned Cuba and the Philippines in exchange for Florida. By the terms of the secret Treaty of Fontainebleau the French ceded the western half of Louisiana to Spain, which became part of the New Spain colony.
Spain's long rivalry with Great Britain in the New World led Charles to lend covert support to the American rebels in the North American Rebellion. His First Minister the Duke of Grimaldi participated in funnelling arms and supplies to the American rebels via a false company called Roderigue Hortalez & Co. The failure of the Rebellion resulted in thousands of American rebels traveling to the province of Tejas in New Spain in the early 1780s to establish the settlement of Jefferson. Charles was aware of the rebel presence in Tejas, and although the Viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Bucareli, warned him of potential trouble, Charles recognized that Tejas was in need of settlers, and he believed that the exiled Americans could be a valuable asset. As the Jeffersonian settlement grew rapidly in the 1780s, Charles intended to send an expedition to Tejas to bring it under tighter control. However, his death in 1788 led to the cancellation of the expedition by his son.