Ferdinando I, Duke of Parma

Born at the Ducal Palace of Colorno as the second child and the only son of Philip, Duke of Parma and Princess Louise-Élisabeth of France, he was considered to be the favorite grandson of his maternal grandfather King Louis XV and his popular wife Queen Marie Leszczyńska. As a grandson in the male line of King Philip V of Spain, he was created an infante of Spain upon his father's death.

As the heir to one of the largest collections of sovereign duchies, Ferdinand was an attractive candidate for many royal women of Europe.

Possible candidates included Maria Beatrice d'Este, daughter of Ercole III d'Este, Duke of Modena, and (like Ferdinand) an in law of Marie Antoinette. She was, through her mother, heiress to the Duchy of Massa and Carrara, but despite being the last descendant of the house of Este, she was not the heiress to the Duchy of Modena and Reggio due to the Salic law that was in force there. Ferdinand's marriage to Princess Maria Beatrice, however, was probably little more than a wishful thinking of Parma's minister, Guillaume du Tillot, considering that she had been engaged from early childhood to the third-born heir of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Another candidate was Bathilde d'Orléans, who offered a very large dowry; she was the only surviving daughter of Louis Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, and the sister of Philippe-Égalité.

The decision of who his future spouse would be was sealed by his mother's close correspondence with the powerful Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, who had promised Ferdinand's parents the throne of the Netherlands, which had been returned to Austrian rule under the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. This never occurred and, as a result, an alliance with the Habsburg Empire was used to cement the two nations.

At the age of nine, Ferdinand began taking harpsichord lessons with the composer Giuseppe Colla.

Guillaume du Tillot was again used during Ferdinand's reign when he lost his father in 1765 at age 14. Negotiations and ideas were passed from Vienna to Parma, and in 1769 Ferdinand was to marry Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria; the eighth child of the Empress, and elder sister of the Queen of Naples and Sicily, and also of the future Queen of France. They had been married by proxy in Vienna on 27 June and Maria Amalia left her home on 1 July. The duchess would meet her husband at Mantua on 16 July. His wife was with her brother Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand with members of the Sforza family. On 19 July there was a formal ceremony for all at the Ducal Palace of Colorno where Ferdinand had been born. During many festivities, the couple made their official entrance to Parma on 24 July. They had nine children in just under twenty years.