Charles wanted to marry Archduchess Marie Amalie of Austria, the eighth child of Empress Maria Theresa and Emperor Francis I of the Holy Roman Empire. He was well-known in the Austrian court, and Marie Amalie was also in love with him. However, even if he was well-known to the imperial family, Marie Amalie's mother did not agree to the match as he was deemed of insufficient rank at that time to marry an Archduchess. Moreover, the Empress was determined to marry her daughter off to either the King of Naples or the Duke of Parma, thereby strengthening Austria's alliance with the House of Bourbon, upon the death of another daughter, Archduchess Maria Josepha. Maria Amalie's older brother, Joseph, was also in favor of the match between his sister and the Duke of Parma, as the latter was the younger brother of his beloved wife, Isabella. So in 1769, Maria Amalia was married off to Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, against her will. This decision not only permanently embittered Charles against the Empress and Austria but also Marie Amalie against her mother. The relationship between mother and daughter would never be the same again. Later on, Charles would fight against Austria in the War on the Bavarian Succession as he was the distant cousin (and heir presumptive) of the Elector of Bavaria, Charles Theodore.
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