View source for Infante Gabriel of Spain

{{short description|Spanish infante (1752 - 1788)}}
{{Infobox royalty
| name         = Gabriel of Spain
| title        = [[Infante of Spain]]
| image        = Mengs - Gabriel of Bourbon (1752-1788) - Museo del Prado.jpg
| caption      = Portrait by [[Anton Raphael Mengs]], 1767
| birth_date   = {{birth date|1752|5|12|df=y}}
| birth_place  = [[Palace of Portici]], [[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]]
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|1788|11|23|1752|5|12|df=y}}
| death_place  = [[Casita del Infante]], [[El Escorial]], [[History of Spain (1700-1808)|Spain]]
| burial_place = [[El Escorial]]
| spouse       = {{marriage|[[Infanta Mariana Vitória of Portugal]]|1785|1788|end=died}}
| issue        = [[Infante Pedro Carlos of Spain and Portugal|Infante Peter Charles]]<br>Infanta Maria Carlota<br>Infante Charles
| full name = Gabriel Antonio Francisco Javier Juan Nepomuceno José Serafín Pascual Salvador
| house        = [[House of Bourbon|Bourbon]]
| father       = [[Charles III of Spain]]
| mother       = [[Maria Amalia of Saxony]]
}}
[[File:Coat of Arms of Gabriel, Infante of Spain.svg|thumb|240px|right|Coat of arms of Infante Gabriel of Spain.<ref>{{in lang|es}} Menéndez Pidal y Navascués, Faustino, Hugo. ''El escudo''. P. 248. At Menéndez Pidal y Navascués, Faustino; O´Donnell y Duque de Estrada, Hugo; Lolo, Begoña. ''Símbolos de España''. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Políticos y Constitucionales, 1999. {{ISBN|84-259-1074-9}}</ref>]]

'''Infante Gabriel of Spain'''<ref>Sometimes called Gabriel de Borbón y Sajonia, Infante de España</ref> (12 May 1752 – 23 November 1788) was the son of King [[Charles III of Spain]] and [[Maria Amalia of Saxony]].

==Biography==
Born at the [[Palace of Portici]] outside [[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]], he was Christened Gabriel Antonio Francisco Javier Juan Nepomuceno José Serafín Pascual Salvador; he was the fourth son of King [[Charles III of Spain|Charles VII and V]] and [[Maria Amalia of Saxony]]; his father was the King of Naples and Sicily as part of a personal union from 1735.

Of all the sons of Charles III, Gabriel was the most intelligent and hardworking, and he was also his favourite son. He was very cultured, renowned as an excellent translator of [[Sallust]] and a true [[Maecenas]]. He had [[Antonio Soler (composer)|Antonio Soler]] as his music teacher, who composed several sonatas on [[harpsichord]] especially for his gifted pupil, as well as concerts for two organs to be interpreted together in the El Escorial church.

Gabriel spent his childhood growing up in his father's Neapolitan kingdom; at the age of seven, he moved with his parents and older siblings [[Charles IV of Spain|Infante Charles]] and [[Maria Luisa of Spain|Infanta Maria Luisa]] to live in Madrid. His half-uncle [[Ferdinand VI of Spain]] died without heir in 1759, so his father became [[Charles III of Spain]] by default. In Naples he left his two other brothers [[Infante Philip, Duke of Calabria]] (who was disabled and thus excluded from succession to any of his father's domains) and the eight-year-old [[Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies|Ferdinand, King of Naples and Sicily]]; Ferdinand was put in the care of a Regency council that ran the Kingdom till 1767.

While in Spain his brother married [[Maria Luisa of Parma]] in 1765; the couple did not have any issue until 1771; Gabriel was third in line to the Spanish Throne during that period. Prior to the birth of King Ferdinand's first son, Gabriel was heir presumptive to his throne from 1759 to 1775. He was later made the Grand Prior of the ''Orden Hospitalaria de San Juan'' in Castilla y León. In 1771 he instructed [[Juan de Villanueva]] to build the so-called ''[[Casita del Infante]]''.

In 1785, [[Henrique de Meneses, 3rd Marquis of Louriçal]], arranged his marriage to [[Infanta Maria Ana Vitória of Portugal]]; she was the daughter of [[Maria I of Portugal]] and [[Peter III of Portugal]]. They were second cousins, as Mariana Vitória's grandmother, Queen [[Mariana Victoria of Spain|Mariana Victoria]], was the sister of Gabriel's father. Mariana Victoria had a proxy ceremony on 12 April 1785 in [[Lisbon]]; they met for the first time at Aranjuez on 23 May. The couple had three children but only one survived infancy; their eldest child, Infante Peter Charles, was later made an Infante of Portugal by his grandmother who had him raised at her court at [[Queluz National Palace|Royal Palace of Queluz]].

At the birth of his last child, Infante Charles, he and his wife were in residence at Gabriel's Casita del Infante at [[El Escorial]].  While there, Gabriel caught [[smallpox]] and died at 36. His wife succumbed to the illness also and died, aged the following week at just 19, on 2 November; Infante Carlos died himself a week after his mother.

The three were all buried at the El Escorial complex. Gabriel's death deeply affected his father, who died three weeks later.

===Issue===
*[[Infante Pedro Carlos of Spain and Portugal|Infante ''Pedro Carlos'' Antonio Rafael José Javier Francisco Juan Nepomuceno Tomás de Villanueva Marcos Marcelino Vicente Ferrer Raimundo of Spain]] ([[Royal Palace of Aranjuez]], 18 June 1786 – [[Rio de Janeiro]], 4 July 1812), married [[Teresa, Princess of Beira|Infante Teresa, Princess of Beira]]; had issue;
*Infanta ''María Carlota'' Josefa Joaquina Ana Rafaela Antonieta Francisca de Asís Agustina Magdalena Francisca de Paula Clotilde Lutgarda Te of Spain ([[Casita del Infante]], 4 November – Casita del Infante, 11 November 1787) died in childhood.
*Infante ''Carlos'' José Antonio of Spain (Casita del Infante, 28 October – Casita del Infante 9 November 1788) died in infancy.

==Ancestry==
{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center |ref=<ref>{{cite book|title=Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans| trans-title=Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AINPAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA9|year=1768|publisher=Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel|location=Bourdeaux|language=fr|page=9}}</ref>
|boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
|boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
|boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
|boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
|1= 1. '''Infante Gabriel of Spain'''
|2= 2. [[Charles III of Spain]]
|3= 3. [[Maria Amalia of Saxony]]
|4= 4. [[Philip V of Spain]]
|5= 5. [[Elisabeth Farnese]]
|6= 6. [[Augustus III of Poland]]
|7= 7. [[Maria Josepha of Austria]]
|8= 8. [[Louis, Dauphin of France (1661–1711)|Louis, Dauphin of France]]
|9= 9. [[Maria Anna Victoria of Bavaria]]
|10= 10. [[Odoardo Farnese, Hereditary Prince of Parma]]
|11= 11. [[Dorothea Sophie of Neuburg]]
|12= 12. [[Augustus II of Poland]]
|13= 13. [[Christiane Eberhardine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth]]
|14= 14. [[Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor]]
|15= 15. [[Wilhelmine Amalie of Brunswick]]
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Infantes of Spain}}
{{The Bourbons of Naples and Sicily (1735–1816)}}
{{House of Bourbon, 1761-1931 (Charles III-Alfonso XIII Arms)}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabriel Of Spain, Infante}}
[[Category:1752 births]]
[[Category:1788 deaths]]
[[Category:18th-century Spanish people]]
[[Category:Spanish infantes]]
[[Category:House of Bourbon (Spain)]]
[[Category:Neapolitan princes]]
[[Category:Sicilian princes]]
[[Category:Deaths from smallpox]]
[[Category:Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain]]
[[Category:People from Portici]]
[[Category:Burials in the Pantheon of Infantes at El Escorial]]
[[Category:Sons of kings]]
[[Category:Children of Charles III of Spain]]
[[Category:Sons of dukes]]