Charles III (; 14 January 1823 – 27 March 1854) was Duke of Parma from 1849 to 1854. He was the only son of Charles II, Duke of Parma, and was educated in Saxony and Vienna. He grew up as a restless young man and traveled extensively while he was hereditary Prince of Lucca. For a time he served in the Piedmontese army with the rank of captain. In 1845, his father arranged his marriage with Princess Louise Marie of France, a wealthy heiress who gave him four children. In December 1847, at the death of Empress Marie Louise, his father Charles II became the reigning Duke of Parma, but abdicated on 24 March 1849. Charles III became the Duke of Parma, Piacenza and the Annexed States. Charles III owed his throne to the support of Austrian troops. He placed Parma under martial law, inflicted heavy penalties on the members of the late provisional government, closed the university, and instituted a regular policy of persecution. His authoritarian policies made him unpopular. After reigning only five years, he was assassinated in March 1854. Early life Charles III was born at the Villa delle Pianore near Lucca on 14 January 1823, the only son of Charles Louis, Prince of Lucca, (later Duke of Lucca, and Duke of Parma) and his wife Princess Maria Teresa of Savoy (daughter of King Victor Emmanuel I of Sardinia). He was given the baptismal names Ferdinando Carlo Vittorio Giuseppe Maria Baldassarre. Until his accession as Duke of Parma in 1849, he was called Ferdinando Carlo or Ferdinando. His family called him Danduccio. At the death of his grandmother, Maria Luisa of Spain, Duchess of Lucca, on 13 March 1824, Ferdinando became the Hereditary Prince of Lucca. Ferdinando Carlo spent much of the first ten years of his life following his parents in their frequent travels to their castles of Urschendorff and Weistropp, near Dresden, and to the court in Vienna. When he was four, the responsibility for his education was entrusted to a Hungarian priest, Zsigmond Deáki. He was taught Italian history and language by Lazzaro Papi, Director of the Library of Lucca. He learnt Spanish, French, Hungarian, German and English. Until 1833, when he was ten and the court returned to Lucca, Ferdinando Carlo was under the care of his mother in an austere and religious atmosphere. As an only child, Ferdinando Carlo was much loved