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Sebastian was soon granted the title of Infante of Portugal by alvará of 9 December 1811. As he was only a great-grandson in the male line of a Spanish monarch, he was not a Spanish infante from birth, however in 1824 he was granted the style Infante of Spain by his maternal granduncle, Ferdinand VII of Spain.
Civil War
In Portugal, the country was in effective civil war since 1826, when "usurper-king" Miguel I of Portugal and his elder brother Pedro IV of Portugal (both were Sebastian's uncles) battled, until 1834.
Sebastian's mother remarried two decades later, in 1838, her uncle, Don Carlos María Isidro, the first Carlist pretender to the throne of Spain. Teresa had been a Carlist supporter since the succession dispute started in 1833, and spent her time in the Carlist camp, usually in northern Spain.
Sebastian participated in the second siege of Bilbao and became commander of the Carlist Army of the North from December 30, 1836. He won the Battle of Oriamendi (March 16, 1837) against the British Legion under George de Lacy Evans. Then he led the failed Royal Expedition against Madrid and was sacked upon its return to the north in late 1837.
Titles
On January 15, 1837, during the First Carlist War, the then 23-year-old Sebastian was excluded, by law of the Cortes, ratified by royal decree of Queen Regent Maria Christina, from the Spanish succession, on the grounds that he had joined Don Carlos' rebellion against Isabella II of Spain. Sebastian was also declared to be stripped of his Spanish titles and status as a dynast.
The same exclusion was legislated against Sebastian's mother and uncle, the deposed Miguel I of Portugal, as well as Don Carlos and his sons. Following his mothers marriage to Don Carlos in 1838, he became heir presumptive to the Portuguese throne per Miguelist reckoning, and would remain so until the birth of his cousin Infanta Maria das Neves in 1852.
In 1859 Sebastian was restored to his Spanish titles, in conjunction with his second marriage. He returned to Spain from Naples where he had lived since the end of the war in 1839.
Marriage and family
Sebastian first wed his cousin Princess Maria Amalia of the Two Sicilies, but the marriage, which lasted several decades, remained childless. When widowed at the age of 50 he remarried, on 19 November 1860, his cousin Infanta María Cristina of Spain, the niece of his first wife, and two decades his junior. Their three eldest sons, all Spanish dynasts until their marriages, were each granted dukedoms.
After the overthrow of Isabella II of Spain in 1868 Sebastian moved to Pau, where he tried to reconcile with the Carlist branch of the House of Bourbon, without success.
Arms
Heraldry of Infante Sebastian
Coat of arms of Infante Sebastian
Ancestors
Ancestors of Infante Sebastião of Spain and Portugal
* also an infante of Castile and León, Aragon, Sicily and Naples, § also an infante of Spain and an archduke of Austria, # also an infante of Spain, ‡ also an imperial prince of Brazil, ¶ also a prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Duke in Saxony, ◙ also a prince of Braganza, ¤ title removed in 1920 as their parents' marriage was deemed undynastic, ƒ claimant infante
The generations indicate descent from Carlos I, under whom the crowns of Castile and Aragon were united, forming the Kingdom of Spain. Previously, the title Infante had been largely used in the different realms.
Coat of arms of Infante Sebastian
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