Before King Carlo departed Naples to ascend the Spanish Throne, he abdicated the Crowns of Naples and Sicily in favour of his third-born son, Prince Ferdinando. Shortly beforehand, King Carlo issued a Pragmatic (left) declaring that henceforth any prince entitled to a place in the Spanish succession could not simultaneously lay claim the Crown of the Two Sicilies, or a place in the succession to that Crown.

This law served to forever separate the dynasty of the Two Sicilies from that of Spain.