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 March 24, 1849. Charles III became the Duke of Parma, Piacenza and the Annexed States.

Charles III reigned only five years. He owed his throne to the support of Austrian troops and his authoritarian policies made him unpopular. He was assassinated in March 1854.

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-Theresa 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 Uchendorff and Weisstropp, 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.

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