Prince Charles of the Two Sicilies, Prince of Capua (Full Italian name: Carlo Ferdinando, Principe di Borbone delle Due Sicilie, Principe di Capua) (10 November 1811 – 22 April 1862 in Turin, Kingdom of Italy) was the second son of Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his second wife Maria Isabella of Spain. He contracted a morganatic marriage in 1836 and had to live for the rest of his life in exile.

Charles was second-eldest son of Francis I of the Two Sicilies and his second wife Maria Isabella of Spain. Frivolous and more outgoing than his eldest brother King Ferdinand II, he was his parents favorite. Ferdinand II resented this fact and the relationship between the two brothers was strained. At age nineteen he was named Vice-Admiral. Between March and June 1829, the Neapolitan government put forward his candidature to the Greek throne, which fell through due to Metternich's opposition. In 1831 he was a candidate to become King of Belgium. In his youth, the Prince of Capua displayed a restless behavior and a weakness for pretty women. As his brother had yet to produce children, Carlo held a high position at court as heir presumptive to the crown until 1836.

During the winter of 1835 the Prince of Capua fell in love with Penelope Smyth, daughter of Grice Smyth of Ballynatray, Co. Waterford, Ireland, a beautiful Irish woman visiting Naples. Ferdinand II forbade their union as it would be a morganatic marriage. On 12 January 1836 the couple eloped. Ferdinand II forfeit his brother income, denounced Charles departure as illegal and tried to prevent the marriage.

On 12 March 1836 King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies, issued a decree upholding the 1829 decision of the brothers' late father King Francis I of the Two Sicilies that members of the blood-royal of the kingdom, whatever their age, were required to obtain the consent of the sovereign to marry and that marriages made without this consent should be deemed to be null and void

Defying his brother's will, Charles married morganatically Penelope Smyth on 5 April 1836 in Gretna Green. Gretna Green was the first stagecoach stop in Scotland after the border city of Carlisle. It was a popular place for young lovers to marry. There it was sufficed for couples to declare their wish to marry before witnesses. A residence requirement or parental consent was not needed.

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