Tomás Domínguez Arévalo

Tomás Domínguez Arévalo, 7th Count of Rodezno, 12th Marquis of San Martin (1882–1952) was a Spanish Carlist and Francoist politician. He is known mostly as the first Francoist Minister of Justice (1938–1939). He is also recognised for his key role in negotiating Carlist access to the coup of July 1936 and in the attempt to amalgamate Carlism into the Francoist state party, Falange Española Tradicionalista.

Family and youth

Tomás Domínguez y de Arévalo Romera y Fernández Navarrete was a descendant of two landowner families from the very south and from the very north of Spain. The paternal Domínguez family has been for centuries related to the Andalusian town of Carmona (Seville province). Its first representatives were noted as regidores in the 18th century and intermarried with another distinguished local family, the Romeras. Their descendant was Tomás’ father, Tomás Domínguez Romera (1853–1931), who inherited the local Campo de la Plata estate. He demonstrated political sympathies hardly typical for the region siding with the legitimists during the Third Carlist War and had to leave the country afterwards. Following the amnesty he returned to Spain and at unspecified date he married María de Arévalo y Fernandez de Navarrete (1854–1919), descendant to a Riojan-Navarrese Arévalo family. Her father, Justo Arévalo y Escudero, was a well known conservative politician; in the mid-19th century he served in the Cortes and later as a long-time senator from Navarre (1876–1891). As at the time of the marriage she was already condesa de Rodezno, Tomás Domínguez Romera became conde consorte.

None of the sources consulted clarifies whether the couple initially settled in the Arévalo’s Navarrese estate in Villafranca or in Madrid. In the late 1880s Tomás Domínguez Romera emerged holding major posts within the Madrid Carlist structures, but when unsuccessfully running for the Cortes in the 1890s, he stood in Haro (Logroño province) He emerged triumphant in 4 successive elections between 1905 and 1914, voted in from the Navarrese district of Aoiz. At that time he was already member of the national Carlist executive; in 1912 he entered Junta Nacional Tradicionalista representing Castilla La Nueva, in 1913 entered comisión de Tesoro de la Tradición and chaired party gatherings interchanging with the likes of Cerralbo, Feliu or de Mella.

It is not clear whether Tomás Domínguez Arévalo spent his early childhood in the capital or in Villafranca. He was then educated in the Jesuit Colegio de San Isidoro in Madrid, at unspecified date commencing law studies at the University of Madrid; he followed classes of the then Carlist political leader, Matías Barrio y Mier. It is during his academic years that Domínguez came to know Jaime Chicharro and Luis Hernando de Larramendi, active in Juventud Jaimista but also in literary and artistic circles. He graduated in 1904; some authors, contemporary press and the official Cortes service refer to him as “abogado”, though none of the sources consulted confirms that he practiced as a lawyer. Urbane and gregarious, in 1917 Domínguez married Asunción López-Montenegro y García Pelayo, descendant to a wealthy aristocratic terrateniente family from Cáceres, with its representatives holding prestigious posts in the city and in the province. The couple settled in Villafranca; they had one child, María Domínguez y López-Montenegro. Following the death of his mother, in 1920 Tomás Domínguez Arévalo inherited the title of conde de Rodezno; following the death of his father in 1931 he became marqués de San Martín.

Early political career

There is almost no information on Domínguez’s public activity in the first decade of the 20th century; he was probably active in Juventud Jaimista and Juventud Hispanoamericana. In 1909 he published his first work, a booklet dedicated to medieval rulers of Navarre, followed by articles in scholarly reviews focusing on history of the province and short biographical studies, also anchored in history of Navarre. Domínguez also tried his hand in Pamplona dailies as a literary critic. Some authors claim that his first public assignment was mayorship of Villafranca, but when first running for seat in the Cortes, he was referred to by the press only as “joven abogado y escritor”.

Domínguez’s entry into politics was facilitated by memory of his late maternal grandfather and especially by standing of his father, one of the most distinguished politicians of Navarre; his position is dubbed as “cacicato” and the Aoiz district was considered his personal fiefdom. It is not known why he decided not to renew his mandate in the 1916 campaign. Initially Domínguez Romera was to be substituted as Jaimista candidate by Joaquín Argamasilla, but in unclear circumstances the latter was replaced by Domínguez Arévalo. Argamasilla stroke back with a pamphlet, lambasting alleged alliance with the liberals and charging his substitute with flexibility bordering opportunism. Though resident of another Navarrese district of Tafalla, Domínguez Arévalo was also presented as a cuckoo candidate. Despite the critique, he was narrowly elected; he renewed his ticket, though also marginally, in the 1918 campaign in the same district.

At that time Carlism was increasingly paralyzed by tension between its top theorist Vazquez de Mella and the claimant Don Jaime; Domínguez was counted among supporters of the former. According to some historians he considered orthodox Carlism a dead-end street given the Carlist dynasty was already certain to extinguish. He shared de Mella’s vision of a grand extreme-right coalition, which would be new possibilist reincarnation of Traditionalism; he also considered sort of transfer of legitimist rights to the Alfonsine dynasty. However, at the 1919 moment of breakup he decided to stay loyal to Don Jaime, even given discrepancies between him and his king were already public.

In the 1919 campaign Domínguez Arévalo presented his bid in Aoiz, but lost to a Maurista candidate by the smallest margin possible. In 1920 the same two hopefuls competed in the same district; this time Domínguez, already conde de Rodezno, lost more decisively, the visible sign of increasingly loose Carlist grip on Navarre. A mere week after the defeat he presented his candidature to the Senate. As indirect elections to the upper chamber were more about behind-the-stage party dealings rather than about seeking popular vote, the Jaimistas managed to negotiate Rodezno’s success. He was also re-elected for the successive term in 1922. His activity as recorded in the Senate archive was insignificant. One of his few interventions referred to tariffs on cork exports, the issue he was personally interested in as there was cork produced on his Andalusian Carmona estate.

Dictatorship

Advent of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship suspended Rodezno’s parliamentarian career. Having lost his senate mandate he abandoned politics and is not listed as active in any of the primoderiverista institutions, be it either Somatén, Unión Patriotica or any other organization. However, he did not withdraw from public life. Rodezno took part in various Christian activities, contributed to cultural initiatives, remained engaged in Carlist structures and pursued his career as author and historian, at the same time dedicating his time to family and business.

A member of the Catholic aristocracy, Rodezno was active in the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and remained on good terms with Spanish hierarchy and the papal nuncio. He forged particularly good relationship with Pedro Segura, welcoming the new bishop in Caceres, 6 years later greeting him as new archbishop of Burgos during the homage celebrations in the same city, and in 1928 taking part in Toledo celebrations following Segura’s ascendance to the primate of Spain. On the more practical side, adhering to Segura’s knack for social action he co-organized Acción Social Diocesana in Caceres and gave lectures during various initiatives like Semana Social, organized by Acción Católica.

Rodezno’s cultural activities were strongly flavored by Carlism. In Pamplona he organized anniversary homage celebrations to veterans of the Third Carlist War, in San Sebastián he took part in works of Sociedad de Estudios Vascos when preparing “La exposición de las Guerras Civiles” of the 19th century, and in Madrid he co-organized fundraising and himself donated large sums to the planned monument of Vazquez de Mella. However, he became most noted for his historical effort. Apart from inedita, in 1928 he published La princesa de Beira y los hijos de D. Carlos and in 1929 Carlos VII, duque de Madrid, monographs dedicated to already mythical Carlist figures; both books were widely discussed on literary pages of the Spanish press of the day. Though they pursued a personal approach of the author, both remain quoted and referenced also by present-day scholars.

Rodezno and his wife held land estates scattered across Spain: in Navarre, Extremadura and Andalusia. Some authors refer to him as “grande terrateniente” “cacique terrateniente”, “grandee proprietor” or “prominent landowner”, an exemplary case of link between landownership and power, though exact size of his holdings is unclear and probably did not exceed 500 ha combined. He was head of Federacion Catolico Agraria de Navarra, co-founder of Asociación de Terratenientes de Navarra and member of Asociacion de Propietarios de Alcornocales. On behalf of some of these pressure groups he held talks with various ministers, publishing also analytical studies on agricultural credit and land ownership. In his opinion in terms of rural property the Navarrese structure was close to ideal, almost reaching the objective “que todos los agricultores fueran propietarios”.

Jefe

Though mostly dormant in times of the dictatorship, during dictablanda Carlism assumed more active stance. In June 1930 the new Navarrese junta with Rodezno its member was set up, an attempt to enforce more cautious policy towards Basque nationalism and to shift focus from foral to religious issues. The move might have backfired following declaration of the Republic, as the Carlists decided to forge electoral coalition with PNV; when concluded as “lista católico-fuerista” it enabled Rodezno, elected from Navarre, to resume his parliamentary career in 1931. In the Cortes he was the least-Basque minded among Carlist deputies; he ceased to support the autonomy draft when it turned out that it would not allow autonomous religious policy and started to toy with the idea of an exclusively Navarrese statute.

Already in the late 1920s advocating reconciliation with the Mellistas, Rodezno welcomed re-unification of three Traditionalist streams in Comunión Tradicionalista. Early 1932 he was appointed to its Supreme National Junta, intended to assist the ailing Jefe Delegado, marqués de Villores. After his death in May that year Rodezno was nominated its president, effectively becoming the Carlist political leader.

Rodezno’s leadership was marked by rapprochement strategy towards the Alfonsinos, exercised by means of alliances within Acción Popular, Renovación Española and Bloque Nacional, but not within CEDA; its objective was sort of dynastical union on Traditionalist platform. Though always consulted with the claimant it was popular only among the party professional politicians; among the rank-and-file it first caused grumblings and then increasingly open protest against mixing with “debris of the fallen liberal monarchy”. When sitting in executive bodies of the organizations mentioned, Rodezno and Pradera were getting detached from the mainstream Carlist feeling.

Rodezno was acutely sensitive to threat of revolution and convinced that democracy could not contain it; he responded warmly to authoritarian nationalism, covering in his opinion a broad spectrum from fascist Benito Mussolini's regime to Ramsay MacDonald’s National Government. Hostile especially to militant republican secularism and agrarian reform, he remained vehement opponent in the parliament and was once hit by a flying glass in return. Touring the country he boasted that “Carlist shock troops are ready to defend society against Marxist threat”. However, he was not among those pressing an insurgent strategy. Aware of the planned Sanjurjo coup he steered clear of direct collaboration, which did not spare him expropriations administered by the government afterwards.

Rodezno’s term as the leader emphasized politics and propaganda rather than organization and militancy; some scholars claim that obsolete structures of Communión, favoring “placentera y anárquica autonomia”, could not bear the weight of dynamically growing movement. This, combined with internal protest against pro-Alfonsist advances and his “tactica transaccionista y el gradualismo”, brought about a major challenge. When former Integrists suggested that Manuel Fal becomes president of the Junta, Rodezno proposed he rather becomes personal secretary to the claimant. As Don Alfonso Carlos at that time decided to abandon plans of dynastic reconciliation, in April 1934 Rodezno agreed to step down from leadership.

Conspiracy and coup

Though Rodezno’s supporters complained about “fascistización” of the Communion under the new leadership of Fal, Carlism firmly changed course from political negotiations to organizational build-up. Rodezno was not appointed head of any of the newly created sections, nominated to Consejo de Cultura instead. Re-elected to the Cortes in 1933 and 1936, he was permitted to pursue talks with the Alfonsinos on the private business basis; in 1936 these contacts started to take shape of negotiating a joint insurgency. According to one source he was on the target list of the hit-team which, in his absence, shot Calvo Sotelo instead.

Rodezno played vital role in negotiating Carlist role in the military coup. Talks between Mola and Fal stalled as both failed to reach a compromise on terms of the Carlist access; at that point the general opened parallel talks with Navarrese leaders, headed by Rodezno. Bypassing Fal and ready to confront him if needed, they suggested that Navarrese issues are discussed locally and offered requeté support in return for usage of monarchist flag and assurance that Navarre would be left as Carlist political fiefdom. Facing sort of internal rebellion, Fal considered dismissing the entire Navarrese junta. He was finally outmaneuvered when Rodezno and the Navarros assured conditional support of claimants’ envoy, Don Javier; Mola and Fal decided to act together on the basis of a vague letter, sent by pre-agreed leader of the insurgency, general Sanjurjo.

During the coup Rodezno was in Pamplona, the city easily captured by insurgents. Though Fal considered him disloyal, in late August he had no option but to include Domínguez in Junta Nacional Carlista de Guerra, a newly constituted Carlist wartime executive; within this body he entered Section of General Affairs heading Delegación Política, a sub-section entrusted with handling relations with military junta and local authorities. Rodezno settled in the emergent military headquarters in Salamanca, but went on pursuing independent policy engineered by a local Navarrese executive, transformed into Junta Central Carlista de Guerra de Navarra. Following death of the claimant and assumption of regential duties by his successor Don Javier, the so-called Rodeznistas were visibly disappointed with Fal’s confirmation as political leader in October 1936.

The Carlists, who initially imagined their position as equals of the military, within few months acknowledged that they were being reduced to junior role, especially that despite mobilization of their supporters, Falange attracted far more recruits. Their attempt to safeguard autonomous standing crashed in December 1936, when following Fal’s decision to set up a Carlist military academy he was summoned to Franco’s headquarters and presented with the choice between firing squad and exile abroad. Some authors speculate whether the unusual overreaction of Franco was not intended to get rid of Fal and replace him with complacent Rodezno. At the Carlist emergency meeting the Rodeznistas enforced the decision to comply with the exile alternative, though later Rodezno himself visited Franco trying to get Jefe Delegado re-admitted.

Unification

With Fal on exile and party leadership assumed by France-based Don Javier, Rodezno emerged as “maxima figura carlista en España”. Starting January 1937 he and other party bigwigs were approached by the military and the Falangists about forming a monopolist state party; the pressure started to mount later on. The Carlist leaders met 3 times to address the challenge: in Insua (February), in Burgos (March) and in Pamplona (April), all attended by Rodezno. He and the faction he headed advocated compliance with political amalgamation, pressed by the military; they were confronted by the Falcondistas, opting for intransigence. As the formal party executive Junta Nacional was getting decomposed and theoretically local, Rodeznista-dominated Junta Central assumed a key role, the balance tipped towards unification. The fusion was presented as means to build a new state, Catholic, regionalist, social and ultimately formatted as Traditionalist monarchy.

On April 22 Rodezno was nominated to Secretariado Político of the new party, Falange Española Tradicionalista, one of 4 Carlists within the 10-member body. He and other Carlists learned of the party program only once its 21 points were announced and immediately demonstrated some unease. His relations with Fal and Don Javier remained extremely tense, though falling short of total breakup; both considered him a fronding rebel. Rodezno’s efforts to elicit authorization from the regent produced no effect. During the next few months he presided over absorption into Falange rather than a fusion, bombarded with queries and protests from Carlist rank-and-file about total predomination and arrogance of camisas azules. Possibly as a result of complaints about the Falangists’ lack of give and take in October 1937 Franco called up theoretically governing structure of the party, the National Council; within its ranks the Carlists were even worse-off, only 11 of them among its 50 members. Despite Fal’s calls to decline, Rodezno accepted the seat and in December 1937 Don Javier expulsed him from Carlism.

Rodezno’s motives are unclear; apart from partisan claims that he traded Carlist principles for a few Navarrese alcaldias, there are many conflicting interpretations offered. According to one, he feared that internal divisions within the Nationalist camp might lead to defeat in the war. According to another, he has never been a genuine Carlist and is better described as a conservative monarchist. Some scholars claim that he was a possibilist, who realized that Traditionalism was unable to seize power single-handedly and needed coalition partners; one more clue might have been that perceiving Carlism as rooted in family and regional values, he downplayed the issues of organization and structures. Others underline that he considered the emerging system largely in line with the Carlist vision and did not think it worthwhile to be marginalized for the sake of defending second-rate discrepancies. Finally, there are authors who believe that he realized neither gravity of the moment nor totalitarian nature of the new party; Rodezno – the theory goes – imagined the structure either as a new incarnation of Unión Patriotica or as a loose alliance, both permitting Carlism to maintain its proper identity.

Francoism

In January 1938 Rodezno entered the first regular Francoist government as Minister of Justice. At this position he commenced work on revoking the Republican laws, focusing mostly on the laic legislation. Though the task was completed by his successor, it was Rodezno who ensured that the Church re-took a key role in a number of areas, especially education, and that intimate Church-state relations were restored. When setting the direction he had to overcome the Falangist resistance and outmaneuver its key exponents, Jordana and Yanguas. He is best remembered, however, for his role in Francoist repressions. Wartime purges rested on most tortured juridical basis and produced some 72,000 executions; it is difficult to tell to what extent Rodezno might be held liable, especially that most of them were carried out under military jurisdiction and before he assumed office. He started to replace the chaotic practice by laying the foundations of the repressive Francoist judicial system. Its first pillar, Ley de Responsabilidades Políticas, retroactive to 1934, was adopted in 1939, supplemented by many other laws and regulations. There were some 100,000 political prisoners before he stepped down as minister in August 1939.

It is not clear whether Rodezno’s departure from the government was anyhow related to tension between the Falangists and the Carlists, though he was not on good terms with Serrano Suñer and admitted to disappointment with shape adopted by the regime. In 1939 he moved back to Navarre. Though expelled from formally illegal Comunión Tradicionalista he was eager to take part in the movement. Some authors consider him leader of Rodeznistas, the informal collaborative faction, other scholars prefer to name him leader of Navarrese Carlism or even of Spanish Carlism altogether. In the immediate post-war period he tried to support Carlist cultural outposts, either preventing their amalgamation in the Francoist machinery or creating the new ones. Some orthodox Carlists considered him indispensable, as it was with their support that Rodezno was elected vice-president of Navarrese Diputación Provincial in 1940. At this post he took part in provincial battle for power against the Falangists and clashed with some of their leaders also on the national level; it is partially thanks to his efforts that Navarre was, together with Álava, the only province which retained some regional establishments.

Though apparently overwhelmed by actual shape of the unification and contributing to its failure in Navarre, Rodezno kept pursuing the collaborative line even when it became painfully evident that Carlism was entirely marginalized in the new state party. In 1943 Rodezno resigned from the Navarrese government to enter the Francoist quasi-parliament, Cortes Españolas; he was ensured its mandate as member of Consejo Nacional. The term lasted three years and was not renewed in 1946, which suggests that at that time he had already dropped out from the Falangist executive.

Juanista

Already in the 1910s Rodezno timidly advanced the idea of transferring legitimist rights to an appropriate Alfonsist candidate once the Carlist dynasty would extinguish; also during the Republican years he was the most enthusiastic supporter of rapprochement within the monarchist camp and in 1935 proposed that Don Alfonso Carlos names Don Juan his legitimate heir. When the last direct Carlist claimant indeed died in September 1936 Rodezno was the last to acknowledge the regency of Don Javier. At that time he was already considering another regency, this of Franco on behalf of Don Juan, whom he held well familiar with Traditionalist ideas. It is not clear when the two first met; during the Civil War Rodezno and the Alfonsist prince already exchanged friendly correspondence.

In the early 1940s Rodezno turned into an open advocate of Don Juan as a future Carlist king, especially once the latter inherited the Alfonsist title after his late father in 1941. Theoretically this support did not breach the rules of Don Javier’s regency, which permitted forming factions around prospective candidates; in practice this mattered little, as Rodezno was already expulsed from the Comunión. When the new Alfonsist claimant was assembling a team of collaborators, José María Oriol travelled to meet him in Lausanne to suggest (in vain) that Rodezno is nominated the official Alfonsist representative in Spain. In the mid-1940s Fal mounted an offensive offering various Carlist regentialist solutions to Franco; as a response, in April 1945 Rodezno travelled to Portugal to meet Don Juan and prepare ground for his Carlist legitimization. The initiative bore fruit in February 1946, when the Alfonsist claimant signed a Rodezno co-drafted document, intended to confirm his Traditionalist spirit. Known as “Bases institucionales para la restauracion de la monarquia” or simply as “Bases de Estoril”, it outlined the basics of the future monarchy. They very much resembled the Traditionalist principles, though the document fell short of declaring Don Juan the legitimate Carlist claimant.

The 1946 “Bases de Estoril” was the last major Rodezno’s initiative and little is known either about his political views or about his public activity in the very last years of his life. He remained leader of informal but very significant collaborative and pro-Juanista faction of Carlism, the movement which as a whole was rapidly disintegrating into even more branches. Though most Carlist rank-and-file remained utterly hostile to the despised Liberal dynasty, many if not the majority of Carlist pre-war leadership inclined towards accepting Don Juan. Also after Rodezno's death they kept pursuing the idea of Alfonso XIII’s son assuming the Carlist title. Named Rodeznistas, Juancarlistas, Juanistas or Estorilos they officially declared Don Juan the legitimate Carlist heir in 1957, the act considered climax of the earlier Rodezno's policy. In historiography the term “Rodeznistas” is last applied to the year 1959.

Legacy and reception

During Francoism Rodezno was honored by a number of prestigious orders, like Cruz de Isabel la Católica or Cruz de San Raimundo de Peñafort; in the mid-1940s he entered Real Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislación and Real Academia de la Historia, named also hijo predilecto by the province of Navarre and by his native town of Villafranca. Posthumously Franco conferred upon him Grandeza de España, title currently born by his descendants. Some streets and plazas were named upon him, the most prestigious one in Pamplona.

After transition to democracy the perception of Rodezno changed dramatically. In the current Spanish public discourse he is associated mostly with the most repressive phase of Francoism. Naming of the Pamplona plaza was subject to heated public debate in Navarre and elsewhere following adoption of ley de Símbolos de Navarra and ley de Memoria Histórica. The 2008-2009 discussion, involving present-day political parties and related to some present-day political issues, has eventually led to renaming the plaza to “Conde de Rodezno”, an aristocratic title formally not associated with any individual, until in 2016 it was renamed to "Plaza de la Libertad". The former Pamplona mausoleum erected during Francoism to honor the fallen requetés has been renamed to “Sala de exposiciónes Conde de Rodezno” but in public it prefers to be named “Sala de exposiciónes”. In unrestrained cyberspace Rodezno is at times referred to as "fascist to the core". In 2008 Audiencia Nacional, the Spanish high tribunal, launched formal bid to acknowledge Rodezno as guilty of crimes against humanity during his tenure as Minister of Justice and afterwards, but the motion bore no fruit due to procedural reasons. Judge Baltasar Garzón was later charged with perversion of justice for launching the bid, which was defined as an error by the Supreme Court of Spain.

In Traditionalist historiographical narration Rodezno is one of the black characters, among the likes of Rafael Maroto, Alejandro Pidal or Don Carlos Hugo. He is charged with blatant political miscalculation at best and with treason of principles and kings at worst. His vacillating stance during the Mellista crisis in 1914-1919, rapprochement towards the Alfonsinos in the Republic years or bypassing Carlist command when pushing for almost unconditional adherence to the generals’ coup of 1936 are less of an issue; it is Rodezno’s stance on unification and pro-Juanista lobbying which earned him most hostility. Though scholars speculate on his different motives, the opinion which gained particular popularity is that he has never been a genuine Carlist, adhering to the movement mostly out of respect for his father. None of the currently existing organizations claiming Carlist identity, be it either those pursuing a socialist path (javierocarlistas, Partido Carlista) or those attached to Traditionalist values (tronovacantista CTC, sixtinos, carloctavistas) admits deference to his name.