To this matter, the historian Angelantonio
Spagnoletti wrote: «
When
in 1734 don Charles of Bourbon, son of Philip V king
of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese, succeeded in coming
to Naples and expelling the Austrians who had ruled
it since 1707, everybody immediately understood that
his conquest did not forebear a return of the Spanish
rule over the South of Italy. In fact, although he
maintained strong relations with Madrid especially
at the beginning, he affirmed an independent political
state, which, as such, was acknowledged by the Vienna
Peace Treaty in 1738 (…) After more than two
centuries of foreign rule (first Spain and than Austria
for about 27 years), a new independent state appeared
in the Italian political scenario»

.
Charles was born as elder son of a second marriage
on 20 January 1716. By birth, on his mother side -
Elisabeth Farnese’s father was the son of a
lady of Medici - he already was a pretender to an
Italian principality including the Duchy of Parma
and Piacenza and possibly also the Medici dominions
in case of dying out of the direct branch (as it started
to appear).
Only by overcoming a series of obstacles did Elisabeth
cleverly succeed in guaranteeing her son the Duchy
in 1732, under the tutelage of his grandmother, the
widow Duchess of Parma. In the meanwhile, the previous
year Charles declared himself "great Crown Prince"
of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, since the dying out
of the Medici family was then sure and Giangastone,
the last Grand Duke still alive, was appointed as
his co-tutor.
When the War to the Polish Succession began, Charles’
future changed. In fact Elisabeth put him at the head
of an army in Italy and sent him to conquer the Kingdom
of Naples ruled by the Hapsburgs since 1707.
On 20 January 1734 Charles declared himself of full
age - therefore out of any tutelage - and marched
from Florence to Naples. In Monterotondo he addressed
the Neapolitans a proclamation of Philip V supporting
the enterprise: on 10 May he entered in triumph in
Naples. Five days after he received from Madrid a
deed of Philip V by which the latter transferred all
royal rights of the conquered Kingdom to his son.
Charles, availing himself of his rights, definitively
defeated the Austrian at Bitonto, conquered Sicily
and on 2 January 1735 adopted the title of King with
no number: in July he was crowned King of Sicily in
Palermo and on 12 July he came back to Naples.
However, the young king was in a phase of his life
in which he was still influenced by the policy of
his powerful parents who in 1737

chose the daughter of the King of Poland, Maria Amalia,
as his wife.
The end of the War for the Polish Succession in 1738
involved as consequence the Hapsburg conquest of the
Farnese’s Duchy of Tuscany (the Grand Duchy
was definitively taken by the Hapsburg-Lorraine),
whereas, by the Peace of Aachen, the Duchy of Parma
and Piacenza was given to Charles’ younger brother,
Philip, who started the Bourbon-Parma family.
In Naples, Charles ruled with the help of a State
Council formed by ministers chosen by his parents
and therefore influenced from Madrid (among them we
mention the Earl of Santostefano, the Marquis of Montealegre,
Tanucci, Brancaccio).