Ferdinand VI of Spain



Biographical information
Gender	Male
Ethnic group	Spanish
Eye color	Black
Hair color	Black
Born	September 23, 1713 Spain
Family	Philip V of Spain (father) Maria Luisa of Savoy (mother) Barbara of Portugal (wife)
Title(s)	King of Spain^[1]
Also known as	The Learnt
Statistics
Affiliation	Kingdom of Spain The Spaniard Spanish royal palace
Behind the scenes
First appearance	On Stranger Tides
Latest appearance	On Stranger Tides
Portrayer	Sebastian Armesto
.

"I have a report. The Spanish have located the Fountain of Youth. I will not have some melancholy Spanish Monarch—a Catholic—gain eternal life!"

―King George II^[src]

Ferdinand VI (Spanish: Fernando VI), sometimes referred to as the Learnt, was King of Spain during the 18th century. He was the third member of the Spanish Bourbon dynasty. A few years after Ferdinand's accession to the throne, an old castaway was rushed to the royal palace. The castaway presented King Ferdinand with the logbook of the Santiago, which told of explorer Ponce de Leon's fabled discovery of the long-lost Fountain of Youth. Upon this unorthodox discovery, Ferdinand sent his most trusted agent, The Spaniard, to find the Fountain and destroy it.

BiographyEdit

Early lifeEdit

Some time after his accession to the throne of Spain in 1746, King Ferdinand took residence the royal palace in Cádiz, Spain.

Quest for the Fountain of YouthEdit

"No, I told you! Ponce de León died two hundred years ago."
"Aye, but he died searching for something, didn't he?"
"The Fountain of Youth...How soon can you sail?"
"With the tide."

―Captain, Fisherman, King Ferdinand and The Spaniard^[src]

In 1750, two fishermen arrived to Ferdinand's royal palace with an old sailor who claimed to have sailed with Ponce de León, a Spanish Conquistador who died two hundred years ago in search for the Fountain of Youth. The sailor gave Ferdinand a logbook of Ponce de León's ship, the Santiago. Looking through the contents of the logbook, Ferdinand discovered an archaic symbol in one of its pages. Right then, he realized that the legends of the Fountain of Youth were true.^[2]

Ferdinandwhatisthis — Ferdinand in his palace.

A devoted Catholic, Ferdinand believed that only a soul should be immortal, not the human body. Realizing how great a damage could occur for the Catholic Church if the Fountain was discovered, he sent his most trusted agent, known as "The Spaniard", to find and destroy the Fountain. Ferdinand gave the Spaniard three galleons and a loyal crew for the task.^[2]

Some time later, King George II would learn of the Spanish's discovery through his ministers and attempted to recruit Captain Jack Sparrow to guide an expedition to the Fountain, which soon failed in the pirate's escape. But King George didn't realize that Ferdinand sent his men to destroy the Fountain, rather than to gain immortality. In the end, Ferdinand's plan was successful, and the Fountain was destroyed by the Spaniard's men, who returned to Spain once their assignment was completed.^[2]

Personality and traitsEdit

King Ferdinand was the young and dashing monarch of Spain, the arrogance of authority.^[3] Sworn enemy of the British Empire, King Ferdinand was all the less like George II of Great Britain: religious and concerned about the welfare of his people, without any apparent interest for exotic food and the collection of very high taxes.^[2]

As a devoted Catholic, when Ferdinand became aware that the Fountain of Youth indeed existed as Juan Ponce de León originally claimed, he immediately send "The Spaniard" to destroy it due his beliefs that only God could grant eternal life instead of the "pagan waters" of the Fountain. In fact, Ferdinand believed that a human body couldn't be immortal: just its soul could be granted with eternal life.^[2]

Behind the scenesEdit

Ferdinand VI was portrayed by Sebastian Armesto in On Stranger Tides.
Ferdinand VI and George II of Great Britain are the first historical monarchs that appear in POTC film series.
In the non-canonical LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game, Ponce de León's logbook was stolen from the Spanish by Angelica, but not before Ferdinand took from it the map with the route to the Fountain of Youth. In the same game, Ferdinand is depicted as having brown hair and no shaven beard.
In Dead Men Tell No Tales and its tie-in materials, the undead Spanish Royal Navy officer Capitán Armando Salazar claims his cruel actions were done "by rule of the King".^[4]^[5] It's unknown if the mentioned King was meant to be Ferdinand or one of his predecessors.