Álvaro Figueroa Torres

Álvaro Figueroa Torres, 1911

Álvaro de Figueroa y Torres-Sotomayor , Count ( Conde ) de Romanones (born May 9, 1863 in Madrid ; † October 11, 1950 ibid) was a Spanish politician and Prime Minister of Spain ( Presidente del Gobierno ) .

Life

Degree, MP and Mayor of Madrid

The son of the wealthy landowner and mine owner Ignacio de Figueroa y Mendieta, Margrave ( Marqúes ) de Villamejor, studied law at the Universidad Central de Madrid after attending school , from which he graduated in 1884 . He then obtained a doctorate in law from the University of Bologna , but renounced the practice of a lawyer in favor of family business and politics.

He began his political career with the support of his father-in-law, the MP and Minister Manuel Alonso Martínez, on April 4, 1886 with the first election as Member of Parliament ( Congreso de los Diputados ). As a member of parliament until October 9, 1933, he mainly represented the interests of the constituency of Guadalajara and at times also of Cuba , Murcia , Ciudad Real , Zamora and Canarias . During his political career he was mainly a member of the Liberal Party ( Partido Liberal ) founded by Práxedes Mateo Sagasta in 1880 .

As early as January 30, 1893, he was raised to the nobility as Count ( Conde ) de Romanes and as such was one of the grandees from 1909 .

He was also a member of the City Council ( Consejal ) and mayor ( Alcalde ) of Madrid from 1894 to 1895 and 1897 to 1899 .

Minister and President of Parliament

On March 6, 1901, he was appointed for the first time as Minister for Public Education and Fine Arts ( Ministro de Instrucción Pública y Bellas Artes ) of Sagasta in a government. He was a member of this cabinet, which was also the last government led by Sagasta, until December 6, 1902. During his tenure, teachers' salaries were incorporated into the state budget .

Prime Minister Eugenio Montero Ríos appointed him Minister of Agriculture , Industry , Trade and Public Works in his cabinet on June 23, 1905 . On October 31, 1905, as part of a government reshuffle, he took over the post of Minister of Development ( Ministro de Fomento ), which had emerged from the previous Ministry of Agriculture, Industry, Trade and Public Works. In the subsequent government of Segismundo Moret Prendergast he was from December 1, 1905 to June 10, 1906 Minister of the Interior ( Ministro de Gobernación ).

Although he was a Catholic himself , he was an opponent of religious intolerance and the influence of the clergy and was often criticized by the religious authorities for this attitude. An example of its open attitude towards the religions was the regulation in the Civil Marriage Act of 1905 ( Ley de Matrimonio Civil ) that spouses did not have to declare their religious affiliations. He later campaigned for the resumption of diplomatic relations with the Holy See , despite his ardent support for the separation of church and state .

On July 6, 1906, he was appointed by Moret Prendergast's successor, José López Domínguez, Minister for Appeals for Mercy and Justice ( Ministro de Gracia y Justicia ) and held this post until the end of his term on November 30, 1906. Five days later he was named Minister of the Interior was appointed to the government of Antonio Aguilar Correa and was a member of it until January 25, 1907.

He was then a member of the Senate for the Province of Guadalajara for the term from 1907 to 1908 .

After he had not belonged to any government for several years, he took over again on February 9, 1910 in the cabinet of José Canalejas Méndez as Minister of Public Education and Fine Arts. However, he resigned from this office on June 10, 1910 and instead became first interim president on June 16, 1910 and then president of the Congress of Deputies from June 30, 1910 to November 18, 1912.

Prime Minister

Figueroa Torres was appointed the new Prime Minister of Spain ( Presidente del Gobierno ) on November 14, 1912 after Manuel García Prieto's interim cabinet, which had only been in office for two days, as the successor to José Canalejas Méndez, who was murdered on November 12, 1912 . As such, he formed a government that remained in office until October 27, 1913, in which he also assumed the office of Minister for Appeals for Mercy and Justice from May 24 to June 13, 1913. During this time he also became chairman of the Liberal Party . In addition, the treaties with France on the political situation of Morocco were negotiated during his first term in office .

During the First World War he was again Prime Minister from December 9, 1915 to April 19, 1917. At the same time he held the office of Acting Foreign Minister ( Ministro de Estado Interino ) from February 25 to April 30, 1916 . As Prime Minister he pursued a pro-French government policy that brought him into conflict with the neutrality policy officially declared by his predecessor Eduardo Dato Iradier and the pro- German policy of the conservative parties . Later, after the torpedoing of Spanish ships by submarines, he came even closer to the Allies . However, he did not succeed in solving the social problems, so that he had to resign after attacks by the pro-German conservative opposition.

In July 1917 he handed over the office of chairman of the Partido Liberal to Manuel García Prieto .

On March 22, 1918, Prime Minister Antonio Maura Montaner appointed him Minister for Appeals for Mercy and Justice in his third cabinet. As part of a government reshuffle, Maura Montaner appointed him Minister for Public Education and Fine Arts on October 10, 1918, before becoming Foreign Minister in the cabinet of his successor García Prieto on November 9, 1918.

On December 5, 1918, he succeeded García Prieto as Prime Minister of Spain for the third time and again took over the post of Foreign Minister in his government. This reign was particularly marked by the autonomist agitation in Catalonia and by labor disputes. On April 15, 1919, he had to resign because of the so-called eight-hour working day decree (“Decreto de la jornada de ocho horas”) and hand over the office of Prime Minister to Maura Montander.

Prime Minister García Prieto appointed him to his fifth cabinet on December 7, 1922 as Minister for Appeals for Mercy and Justice, but he lost this office as part of a cabinet reshuffle on May 26, 1923.

On May 13, 1923 he was elected senator for the province of Toledo . As such, he was President of the Senate from May 22 to September 15, 1923, and thus also the last President of the Upper House of Parliament before the military dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera . During the subsequent six-year rule by Primo de Rivera, he largely withdrew from politics, except for his membership in parliament. However, he was one of the leading figures in the unsuccessful coup d'état of June 24, 1926 against Primo de Rivera ( La Sanjuanada ), for whose participation he was fined . However, he remained an opponent of the dictator in the following years.

After Primo de Rivera's resignation, he was finally foreign minister again in the government of Juan Bautista Aznar Cabañas from February 18 to April 14, 1931 , the last cabinet during the reign of King Alfonso XIII. .

Second republic and civil war

When the local elections of April 12, 1931 brought a great victory for the republican forces and the people demanded the formation of a republican form of government, he advised King Alfonso XIII. to resign and leave Spain. When the king actually resigned two days later, Figueroa Torres held personal talks with the election winner Niceto Alcalá Zamora and his revolutionary committee about a peaceful change to the Provisional Republican Government ( Gobierno Provisional de la República ) without military intervention while at the same time guaranteeing the personal integrity of the royal family to reach.

In the subsequent Second Republic he remained a member of the Congress of Deputies as a representative of Guadalajara, but his political influence suffered from his previous defense of the abdicated king.

He did not take part in the military revolt of 1936 and at the beginning of the civil war he was in San Sebastián , from where he managed to flee to France shortly afterwards with the support of the French ambassador. The following year he returned to the Nationalist Zone, but refrained from further political activity until his death.

Publications and honorary positions

Figueroa Torres also worked as a journalist and in 1903 founded the political daily Diario Universal as well as publisher of El Globo and co-editor of El Magisterio Español and El Heraldo de Madrid .

He wrote his memoirs during the Second Republic. In addition, throughout his life he published several biographies on Baldomero Espartero , Amadeus of Savoy and Maria Christina of Austria , but also political books and essays such as:

• Las Responsabilidades políticas del Antiguo Régimen (The Political Leaders of the Old Regime)
• Breviario de Política Experimental (Breviary of Experimental Politics)
• Biología de los Partidos Políticos (Biology of Political Parties)
• El régimen parlamentario y los gobiernos de gabinete (The parliamentary regime and the governments of the cabinets), 1886
• Observaciones y Recuerdos , 1912–1921 (observations and memories)
• Notas de mi vida , 1929–1947 (Notes from my life)
• Los cuatro presidentes de la I República (The four presidents of the First Republic)

Because of his political and literary services, he also held numerous honorary positions. On February 10, 1905, he became a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando ( Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando ), of which he was appointed director on December 26, 1910.

On April 25, 1911 he also became a member of the Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas , where he took the armchair ( Sillón ) 22 until his death . Between 1920 and 1922 he was also president of the Ateneo de Madrid , whose first secretary he was in 1887 and second vice-president from 1899 to 1906.

On June 12, 1942 he also became a member of the Royal Historical Academy ( Real Academia de la Historia )

He was also a member of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation ( Real Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislación ).

As a nine year old boy, he was pushed off a carriage by his father, leaving his wrist slack for the rest of his life. This handicap was mercilessly exploited by cartoonists and his political opponents. Figueroa Torres himself later founded a hospital for disabled children because of his disability.

Web links

• Biography on the homepage of the Spanish Prime Ministers ( Memento of October 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish)
• Biography (spanish)
• The governments during the reign of Alfonso XIII. (1902–1931)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ List of Members of Parliament from 1810 to 1977
2. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: List of Spanish nobility titles - Conde de Romanones )
3. ^ Grandes de España during the reign of Alfonso XIII.
4. ^ List of mayors of Madrid 1842–1900
5. ↑ List of Ministers for Public Education and Fine Arts ( Memento of April 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
6. ^ The Senate between 1834 and 1923 - Senators , accessed June 7, 2017.
7. ↑ List of Foreign Ministers ( Memento of December 14, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ The Senate and its Presidents 1834 to 1923 ( Memento from June 27, 2001 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ Rumor v. Fact. In: TIME magazine. February 25, 1929.
10. ↑ García Sepúlveda, María Pilar / Navarrete Martínez, Esperanza: Relacíon de Miembros pertenecientes a la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (1752-1983, 1984-2006). Madrid 2007, p. 367. ( Memento of May 25, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
11. ↑ Members of the Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas - Armchair 22 ( Memento from September 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
12. ^ President of the Ateneo de Madrid ( Memento of September 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
13. ↑ Biography on the homepage of the Ateneo de Madrid ( Memento from January 3, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
14. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: members of the Royal Historical Academy )

predecessor	Office	successor
Manuel García Prieto	Prime Minister of Spain 1912 - 1913	Eduardo Dato Iradier
Eduardo Dato Iradier	Prime Minister of Spain 1915 - 1917	Manuel García Prieto
Manuel García Prieto	Prime Minister of Spain 1918 - 1919	Antonio Maura Montaner