Son of Francis I. He was born in Palermo on the 12^th of January 1810 when de Bourbon court was in Sicily because of the French occupation in Naples. He ascended the throne of the Two Sicilies at the age of twenty, on the 8^th of November 1830. In 1832, he married Maria Cristina of Savoya, who died of puerperal fever after having given birth to the long-awaited successor Francis.