Josep de Suelves i de Montagut

Josep de Suelves i de Montagut
Born Josep de Suelves i de Montagut
1850
Tortosa, Spain
Died 1926
Madrid, Spain
Nationality Spanish
Ethnicity Catalan
Occupation politician
Known for politician
Political party Carlism
Religion Roman Catholicism

Josep de Suelves i de Montagut, 9th Marquis of Tamarit (1850–1926) was a Spanish Carlist politician.

Family and youth

Tamarit castle, Tamarit

Paternal ancestors of Josep de Suelves i de Montagut came from two distinguished aristocratic Catalan families.[1] Representatives of the Montserrat line are recorded in the Middle Ages already;[2] Francesc de Montserrat Vives made his name during the siege of Tarragona in the time of the Guerra dels Segadors in mid-17th century and was awarded the marquesado of Tamarit by Carlos II in 1681.[3] In 1794 the title passed along the maternal line to Josep’s great-grandfather, Joan Nepomucé de Suelves i Montserrat,[4] an anti-liberal Tarragona deputy to Cádiz Cortes.[5] His son, 7th marqués de Tamarit, sided with the legitimist cause during the First Carlist War and was exiled afterwards.[6] His grandson, 8th marqués, Antoni de Suelves i d’Ustariz (Josep’s paternal uncle), followed the family tradition forming part of Royal Council of the pretender Carlos VII[7] and since late 1860s participated in preparations to another insurgency. Antoni’s younger brother, Joan de Suelves i d’Ustariz, married Buenaventura Montagut Félez, native of Tortosa and daughter of Josep Montagut Salvador, Conde Torre de l'Espanyol.[8] The couple had three children.[9]

Josep, the oldest of the siblings, spent most of his childhood in family estates across Catalonia,[10] to complete secondary education in colleges in Reus and Tortosa.[11] In late 1860s he studied Derecho y Filosofia in Universidad Central of Madrid.[12] In 1885[13] he married María Goyeneche Puente (1862-1941), daughter of a Peruvian diplomat and Peruvian/Spanish conservative politician Juan Mariano Goyeneche y Gamio, 3rd Conde de Guaqui, by virtue of his family ties related to Navarre and Gipuzkoa.[14] When in 1886 despite his two marriages the 8th marqués de Tamarit died without issue,[15] Josep inherited the marquesado.[16] He acquired also part of his uncle’s wealth, consisting mostly of numerous landholdings around Tarragonese locations of Tamarit, Ferran and Morell, though also in some more distant municipalities.[17]

oldest son, 1910

Josep de Suelves i de Montagut and María Goyeneche Puente had 3 children, Juan Nepomuceno Suelves Goyeneche, José Suelves Goyeneche and Carmen Suelves Goyeneche. The oldest, Juan (b. 1887), in 1908 became the 10th marqués de Tamarit as his father renounced the title.[18] He joined the military and served in the cavalry Husares regiment,[19] reaching the rank of a comandante during the Moroccan campaigns of early 1920s.[20] At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 he joined the insurgents and assumed command of the Carlist Requeté battalion of Tercio de San Ignacio from Gipuzkoa; killed in action in June 1937 in Sopuerta in Biscay.[21] His granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Josep, herself a Peruvian citizen, married the oldest grandson of Franco in 1981.[22]

War and exile

Suelves and his king, ca 1874

Upon the outbreak of the Glorious Revolution and deposition of Isabella II, the Carlists geared up their preparations to military action. Antoni de Suelves as advisor to Carlos VII arranged for his nephew to be called to the legitimist camp. In 1868 Josep de Suelves left Spain to join the personal entourage of the claimant[23] and contributed to buildup of the insurgency.[24] Four years later, as the Third Carlist War actually commenced, they crossed the border in Gipuzkoa, after few days withdrawing back to France. In 1873 Carlos VII entered the insurgent Vascongadas again. Despite that his uncle was appointed royal commissioner for the native – though barely captured – provinces of Tarragona and Lerída,[25] Josep de Suelves remained on the Northern Front; he accompanied the pretender when setting a capital of the Carlist state in Estella.

The actual role and function of Josep de Suelves is unclear. In later Carlist propaganda he was presented as member of the claimant’s General Staff,[26] though his young age and total lack of either military training or military experience suggest he was not in charge of any major duties. If indeed forming part of Estado Mayor, he was rather serving as liaison officer or adjutant to Carlos VII.[27] Though awarded a number of orders and promoted to teniente coronel, it is not clear whether he served one time or another in combat units. Upon the Carlist defeat in 1876 Josep Suelves kept escorting the claimant and left for France. As a reward for service Carlos VII conferred upon him the title of Vizconde de Montserrat, officially recognized by the Spanish state during the Franco era in 1954.[28]

Don Cossacks, 1876

Pressed by the French authorities, the pretender boarded a ship in Boulogne and left for Britain; Suelves travelled with him, accompanying Carlos VII also in course of further voyages across the Atlantic to the United States and Mexico.[29] In 1877 the claimant and his entourage returned to Europe and headed for the Balkans; in the Romanian Ploiești they met the Russian Tsar Alexander II and agreed taking part in the commencing Russo-Turkish War. The four Spaniards[30] were assigned to the Russian IX. Corps, probably first to 34th and later to 9th Cossack regiments;[31] they witnessed the siege of Nicopolis, crossed the Danube, joined the headquarters of prince Carol I of Romania and took part in two battles of Plevnia.[32] It is not clear whether Suelves accompanied the claimant during the rest of his bon vivant period[33] and in successive journeys to Britain, again the United States, India, Africa and South America in late 1870s and early 1880s,[34] though some sources indicate that his wedding of 1886 took place in Peru.[35]

Cacique

Altafulla residence

As in 1886 Suelves assumed marquesado de Tamarit after his deceased uncle, he started to visit Spain. Living intermittently in Paris and in his Catalan family castle of Altafulla, he permanently settled in the latter residence in early 1890s.[36] Following the years of abstention the Carlists for the first time during Restauración officially joined the electoral race in 1891; Suelves fielded the candidature in his native district of Roquetes near Tortosa. He stood no chance against the conservative candidate Alberto Bosch y Fustegueras,[37] quoting political corruption and caciquismo as reasons of his defeat.[38] It is not clear whether he run in the Cortes elections in 1893, though was initially reported by the press to compete in Roquetes again.[39]

Prior to the 1896 campaign Tamarit concluded that challenging candidates of two partidos turnistas in a single-mandate district was a lost cause; instead, he decided to run in the multi-mandate circunscripción of Tarragona. He was successfully voted in and joined the small Carlist minority in the Cortes. During the next 20 years he kept competing in almost all electoral campaigns from the same district, victorious also in 1898, 1901 and 1907. In 1899, when the claimant ordered abstention anticipating another Carlist insurgency,[40] Tamarit did run as independent and lost, but was consoled having been elected to the Senate.[41] In 1903 he lost, possibly suffering from internal conflict within the Tarragona Carlism,[42] and did not compete in 1905.[43] Following the triumph within Solidaritat Catalana in 1907, he failed during re-election campaigns of 1910, 1914 and 1916, losing to Liberal, Republican and Catalanist candidates;[44] his defeat was initially marginal to turn decisive later on.[45] In 1918 he did not compete; Suelves/Montserrat[46] apparently intended to run for Senate, but eventually it was the former deputy from Gerona Dalmacio Iglesías who successfully represented provincial Carlism in the upper house.[47] He acknowledged that it was probably time for political retirement.[48]

Solidaritat Catalana postcard

A present-day scholar considers Tamarit an exemplary cacique, local party boss fundamental to culture of clientelism and political corruption, typical for Spain of that period;[49] he is also pictured as representative of this branch of Carlism which perfectly accommodated itself to the Restauración political environment.[50] His electoral career was made possible by backstage political negotiations and by flexibility bordering opportunism, as Tamarit excelled in behind-the-curtain deals with whoever was prepared to agree them, regardless of ideological leanings.[51] Since the three-mandate Tarragona district allowed much room for alliance negotiations, Suelves skillfully expoited the opportunity by maintaining good relations with governmental circles, partidos turnistas and parties on the borderlines of the system alike.[52] This is not to say he did not enjoy genuine electoral support at least in some municipalities,[53] though it is unclear whether these were Carlist strongholds or rather strongholds of his political clientele.[54] It seems that in general he was supported by two social groups: most rural peasants and ultraclerical electorate.[55]

Carlist politician

Carlist standard

Upon his return to Spain in 1893 Tamarit was nominated the movement leader for the province of Tarragona.[56] At this post he contributed to transformation of Carlism into a modern structured organization,[57] engineered by the national Jefe marqués de Cerralbo. Dubbed “l’home fort”,[58] Suelevs threw himself into organizing local network, resulting in Tarragona province boasting more circulos and juntas than Navarre.[59] In 1896-1897 he participated in preparatory works to Acta de Loredan.[60] Scale of his contribution is unclear; the document cautiously endorsed papal social teachings, while Suelves nurtured definitely ultraconservative and reactionary views.[61] As a politician perfectly well accommodated within the Restoration system and close collaborator of the non-belligerent Cerralbo,[62] he voiced against violence during the La Octubrada crisis,[63] though he probably formed part of a clandestine Tarragona junta collecting funds and arms for a would-be coup.[64] He was spared any governmental repression afterwards.[65]

In the first decade of the 20th century Tamarit emerged as one of the national Carlist leaders, though formally he headed the provincial Tarragona organization only,[66] subordinated to the regional Catalan jefe.[67] In 1901-1903, when poor health threatened leadership of the national Carlist leader Matías Barrio y Mier, Carlos VII intended to relieve the latter of some duties by creating an auxiliary Junta Central; Tamarit was nominated its member representing Catalonia and Aragon before the body was dissolved shortly afterwards.[68] During the Ley de Jurisdicciones crisis Suelves advocated entering the Solidaritat Catalana alliance with Republicans and Nationalists in 1907,[69] though his stance resulted from shrewd analysis of decreasing Carlist strength in the province and his natural penchant for alliances rather than from sympathy for Catalanism. Tamarit was always keen to defend traditional regional establishments, but voiced decisively against the Catalan nationalism.[70]

Don Jaime as Russian hussar colonel

When Juan Vázquez de Mella emerged as the leading Carlist theorist and most dynamic politician, former marques de Tamarit appreciated his intellectual and rhetorical skills, though he was skeptical as to his leadership potential[71] and remained perplexed by him apparently sidetracking the official party leader Bartolome Feliu Perez and the new claimant, Don Jaime.[72] On the other hand, some sources suggest that in 1911 Tamarit conspired against Feliu, though not as part of the unfolding Mellista plot, but out of his support for Cerralbo.[73] During the mounting conflict between Mella and Don Jaime Suelves sided with the pretender.[74] In 1917 he was entrusted with reorganization of the Tarragona branch,[75] handing over shortly to Victor Olesa Fonollosa, former member of the local Diputació Tarrgona.[76] In 1919, when most Catalan Carlist leaders joined the breakaway Mellistas, Suelves/Montserrat remained loyal to Don Jaime.[77] During the Primo de Rivera dictatorship he did not hold any official positions, limiting himself to propaganda activities like gatherings of the ever-smaller group of combatants of the Third Carlist War.[78]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ see geneanet service here; also (less complete) geneallnet service here
  2. ↑ Joan Prats i Salas, Carlisme i caciquisme: Josep de Suelves, marquès de Tamarit, cap carlí de les comarques de Tarragona (1891-1918), [in:] Estudis altafullencs 16 (1992), p. 124; Salvador-J. Rovira i Gómez, Antoni Martii Franques i l'Altafulia del seu temps (1750-1832), Altafulla 1982, pp. 32-37, Carmen de Suelves y de Goyeneche, Orígenes de la casa de Montserrat de los marqueses de Tamarit según datos históricos y originals que obran en el archivo de la casa, Algeciras 1942
  3. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 125
  4. ↑ Salvador-J. Rovira i Gómez, Els nobles de Tortosa: segle XIX, s.l. 2008, ISBN 8497913310, 9788497913317, p. 159. According to the law, he had to change the name to Joan de Montserrat i de Suelves, see Salvador-J. Rovira i Gómez, Joan de Montserrat Olim de Suelves, sisé marqués de Tamarit (1761-1844), [in:] Estudis Altafullencs 26 (2002), p. 26. By this token, Josep de Suelves i de Montagut is sometimes referred to as Josep (or José) Montserrat Suelves Montagut
  5. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 125, see also SUELVES Y DE MONTSERRAT, JUAN DE entry at the official Cortes web service here
  6. ↑ returning to Spain in 1844, Prats 1992, p. 125
  7. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 125
  8. ↑ see Joan Ramon Vinaixa Miró, Tortosa en la guerra dels Set Anys (1833-1840), Valls 2006, ISBN 8497912268, 9788497912266, p. 49
  9. ↑ excellent (yet still incomplete) family tree in Salvador-J. Rovira i Gómez, Els Suelves vuitcentistes, [in:] Estudis Altafullencs 31 (2007), p. 124
  10. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 126
  11. ↑ Rovira 2007, p. 121
  12. ↑ Rovira 2007, p. 121. The study offers no information whether Suelves has actually graduated; the information is based on anonymous Excm. Sr. Dn. José de Montserrat de Suelves y de Montagut, marqués de Tamarit, [in:] La Zuda 45 (1916), p. 192
  13. ↑ Rovira 2007, p. 121 gives Paris as location of the ceremony
  14. ↑ some of the Suelves’ offspring were later allegedly successful as businesspeople in Peru, see unconfirmed information from a royalist forum here
  15. ↑ Geneanet service here
  16. ↑ his father had already deceased at that time; exact date of his death is not known
  17. ↑ for development of the Tamarit senyories see also Rovira 2002, pp. 32-39. The heritage was divided among 24 individuals, see Rovira 2007, p. 120; see also Rovira 2008, pp. 176-178
  18. ↑ the process started in 1903, when Josep de Suelves changed his name to Josep de Montserrat, ABC 05.04.26; the title was officially granted to his son in 1908, see Diario Oficial 15.01.1908
  19. ↑ La Ilustración Española y Americana 08.06.1910; his younger brother also served in the cavalry, Rovira 2007, p. 122
  20. ↑ Rovira 2007, p. 123
  21. ↑ Julio Aróstegui, Combatientes requetés en la Guerra Civil española (1936-1939), Madrid 2013, ISBN 9788499709758, p. 483; Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza, Aristócratas muertos en la Guerra Civil española, [in:] Aportes 44 (2000), p. 104
  22. ↑ Geneallnet service here
  23. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 126
  24. ↑ his uncle was already active in Britain during the so-called Junta de Londres, see Begoña Urigüen, Orígenes y evolución de la derecha española: el neo-catolicismo, Madrid 1986, ISBN 8400061578, 9788400061579, pp. 309-310; it is possible that Suelves along his uncle took part also in Junta de Vevey in 1870, see Vizconde de Esperanza, Le bandera carlista en 1871, vol. 1., Madrid 1871, p. 471
  25. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 125
  26. ↑ see this propaganda postcard
  27. ↑ Rovira 2007, p. 121, Prats 1992, p. 126, Isidre Molas, Els senadors carlins de Catalunya (1901-1923), Barcelona 2009, p. 6; Francisco de Paula Oller, Album de personajes carlistas con sus biografías, s.l. 1887,p. 54, mentions him as "oficial de órdenes"
  28. ↑ Fundación Cultural de la Nobleza Española here
  29. ↑ de Paula 1887, p. 54
  30. ↑ according to Salvador Bofarull, Un príncipe español en la Guerra Ruso-Japonesa 1904-1905, p. 55, accessible here, the team consisted of Carlos VII, Suelves and two anonymous "asistentes españoles"; de Paula 1887, p. 54, mentions, apart from the claimant, only Suelves and a “general Boet”
  31. ↑ Bofarull p. 55, claims they joined the 13th Corps and served in the 9th and 34th Cossack regiments; initial Russian OdB as presented by Quintin Barry, War in the East: A Military History of the Russo-Turkish War 1877-78, Oxford 2012, ISBN 1907677119, 9781907677113, p. 456 lists only 34th Don Cossack Regiment as forming part of the IX. Corps under general Krudener; a "XIII. Corps" is not listed at all; a later OdB (p. 470) indeed lists 9th Don Cossacks [regiment?] as part of the IX. Corps; another OdB available here lists neither 9th nor 34th Cossack regiment and claims that the IX. Corps was composed of two infantry divisions each with one divisional cavalry regiment; the Russian Kazachii Krug website lists 9th Don Cossack Regiment as taking part in a number of battles during the war, but gives no information on its location within the corps structure
  32. ↑ de Paula 1887, pp. 54-55
  33. ↑ the years of 1876-1882 are considered the period of political disorientation and personal disarray - including sex scandals - in life of Carlos VII, see Javier Real Cuesta, El Carlismo Vasco 1876-1900, Madrid 1985, ISBN 8432305103, p.7
  34. ↑ de Paula 1887, pp. 55-62
  35. ↑ see Rolando Rivero Lavayén, Los Moscoso. Su descendencia en el Peru y Bolivia, [in:] Genealogías Bolivianas, p. 67 available here
  36. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 126. He moved permanently to Madrid in late 1890, Rovira 2007, p. 122
  37. ↑ see official Cortes service here
  38. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 131
  39. ↑ La Iberia 24.02.1893 lists him as standing in Roquetes; this information is repeated also in Agustín Fernández Escudero, El marqués de Cerralbo (1845-1922): biografía politica [PhD thesis], Madrid 2012, p. 249 (though he wrongly located Roquetes in the province of Almeria instead of Tarragona); Prats 1992 and Rovira 2007 do not mention Tamarit running in 1893 at all
  40. ↑ José María Remirez de Ganuza López, Las Elecciones Generales de 1898 y 1899 en Navarra, [in] Príncipe de Viana 49 (1988), p. 32
  41. ↑ with 115 votes out of all 211 compromisarios, Prats 1992, p. 132; see also the official Senate service here
  42. ↑ Prats 1992, 132,
  43. ↑ According to Prats 1992, p. 132, he feared another defeat and preferred to stay out
  44. ↑ mostly Josep Nicolau i Sabater and Julià Nougués i Subirà
  45. ↑ see tables in Prats 1992, pp. 137-138
  46. ↑ as in 1903 Josep de Suelves changed his name to Josep de Montserrat, ABC 05.04.1926
  47. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 135, see also the Senate service here
  48. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 135
  49. ↑ this vision was shared also by the contemporary press; though Tamarit’s initial success of 1896 was received by a sympathetic daily El Correo de la Provincia as victory of rural hard-working people over the parasite bureaucrats, during the 1903 race he was lambasted by Lo Camp de Tarragona for having lost touch with the Carlist electoral base and joining the "caciques and cacicons", quoted after Prats 1992, p. 131-132; also some fellow Carlists complained about Tamarit who "considera a la provincia como feudo suyo", quoted after Canal 1998, p. 298
  50. ↑ Prats 1992, pp. 123-124. Historians who see Carlism as a popular movement of social protest indicate that it was periodically taken over by outsiders (monarchists, conservatives, religious fundamentalists, aristocrats), though they do not mention Suelves personally, compare Josep Carlos Clemente, Historia del Carlismo contemporaneo, 1935-1972, Barcelona 1977, ISBN 8425307600, pp. 7-18
  51. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 140; the same author also considers him "incorruptible antiliberal", see p. 129
  52. ↑ Prats 1992, pp. 138-139
  53. ↑ see tables in Prats 1992, pp. 137-138
  54. ↑ some municipalities benefitted from roads he lobbied for in the Cortes, see Prats 1992, p. 138; there is a number of streets bearing the Tamarit name in the Tarragona area (though they might refer to the castle, the village, the marquesado or to a specific marqués). It might be interesting to note that in 1939-1940 in Tarragona, the building at calle Tamarit 107 hosted headquarters of the clandestine anti-Francoist Carlist organisation named "La Legión Pirenáica", see Manuel Martorell Pérez, La continuidad ideológica del carlismo tras la Guerra Civil [PhD thesis], Valencia 2009, p.215
  55. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 136
  56. ↑ Prats 1992, pp. 126. In 1901 Tamarit handed the post over to Joaquín María de Castellarnau y Lleopart, a native of Tarragona and recognized biology scholar, see here, see also Prats 1992, p. 128, Molas 2009, p. 6
  57. ↑ Jordi Canal i Morell, El carlisme catala dins l'Espanya de la restauracio: un assaig de modernització politica (1888-1900), Barcelona 1998, ISBN 9788476022436, p. 97
  58. ↑ Molas 2009, p. 6
  59. ↑ during the 1890-1899 period there were 132 circulos and 27 juntas set up, see Francisco Javier Caspistegui, Historia por descubrir. Materiales para estudio del carlismo, Estella 2012, ISBN 9788423532148, pp. 32-33; Prats 1992, p. 127 gives slightly different figures of 123 juntas and 22 circulos; for personal leadership of district Tarragona province juntas see Canal 1998, p. 97
  60. ↑ Eduardo González Calleja, La razón de la fuerza: Orden público, subversión y violencia política en la España de la Restauración (1875-1917), Madrid 2008, ISBN 8400077784, 9788400077785, p. 183
  61. ↑ Escudero 2012, p. 325, Prats 1992, p. 130
  62. ↑ when de Cerralbo resigned in 1899, Tamarit did not conceal he wanted him to come back, see Escudero 2012, p. 374
  63. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 123 writes that Suelves, though he has not lost the perspective of a violent revolt out of sight, has adjourned it until an undefined future; Escudero 2012 pp. 361, 383 claims that Tamarit made it clear to the claimant that Carlists did not want civil war
  64. ↑ Canal 1998, p. 295
  65. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 127
  66. ↑ on the on and off basis, see Prats 1992, p. 128
  67. ↑ in 1887 it was Francisco Cavero Sorogoyen, de Paula 1887 p. 63, in 1896 it was Luis María de Llauder Dalmases, Escudero 2012, p. 285
  68. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 128, Rovira 2007, p. 122
  69. ↑ against some other Catalan Carlist leaders who opposed siding with the Catalanists, like Joaquín Avellá, later expulsed from the party, see Prats 1992, p. 139
  70. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 130. The position of Tamarit towards the Catalan autonomy is unclear. At one point Prats claims he supported autonomous regulations (p. 128), at another he writes that Suelves "conforme a la tónica dominant en els dirigents carlins, no hi trobem altra cosa que vagues allusions a la justa reivindicació dels furs o llibertats catalanes, peró aixó sí, reduïdes a la seva accepció més esbravada" (p. 130)
  71. ↑ he observed shrewdly: "Ya sabe Vd. cual es mi opinión sobre Mella, al que consider un hombre de un talento inconmensurable, pero creo haría un estadista muy mediocre, porque los pueblos no se gobiernan por abstracciones filosóficas", see Juan Ramón de Andrés Martín, El caso Feliú y el dominio de Mella en el partido carlista en el período 1909–1912, [in:] Historia contemporánea 10 (1997), ISSN 1130-0124, p. 101
  72. ↑ "El Sr. Feliú que presidió el acto y que tenía que hacer el resumen, al oír a Mella y las delirantes ovaciones que se le tributaban,enmudeció de repente y se sintió afónico, resultando que no se oyó la voz de nuestro Jefe", quoted after Andrés Marin 1997, p. 101
  73. ↑ Escudero 2012, p. 437
  74. ↑ compare a 1908 photo in Biarritz ABC 24.09.1908, accessible here
  75. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 128
  76. ↑ see Diputació Tarragona website accessible here
  77. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 128
  78. ↑ Prats 1992, p. 128

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