Quick Facts
Biography
Don Fernando Primo de Rivera y Sobremonte, 1st Marqués of Estella, 12th Count of Peña Vélez, 17th Count of Torres Rovellas, 23rd Count of Sobremonte (24 July 1831 – 23 May 1921) was a Spanish politician, and soldier.
Fernando Primo de Rivera was the son of Antonio Hermenegildo Primo de Rivera y Sobremonte, 22nd Count of Sobremonte (1787-1833) and his wife Ana María de Torres Rovellas y Peña Vélez (1811-1865); she was the daughter of Miguel de Torres Rovellas y Peña Vélez, 13th Count of Torres Rovellas, 8th Marquis of Peña Vélez (1764-1851). His grandfather was Bértrand Primo de Rivera (1741-1813), 21st Count of Sobremonte: he was a Spanish general under the Spanish Resistance against Napoleon Bonaparte.
He served in several wars, including the 1848 and 1866 Madrid insurrections and the second Carlista War. When forces under his command in the second Carlist War captured Estella, he was named Marquess of Estella. He was the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines from 1880 to 1883. In 1897, he again became the Spanish Governor-General of the Philippines. He temporarily suspended hostilities in the Philippine Revolution through negotiations with Emilio Aguinaldo in the Pact of Biak-na-Bato and acted briefly as Governor-General of the Philippines. He was a Minister and the 70th Prime Minister of Spain for one day between 30 and 31 December 1874. He was created the 1st Marquess of Estella on 25 May 1877, the 1,124th Knight of the Spanish Order of the Golden Fleece and the 287th Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Our Lady of the Concepcion of Vila Viçosa of Portugal in 1879.
He married in Sevilla on 18 June 1857 María del Pilar Arias-Quiroga y Escalera (Sevilla, Alcolea del Río, c. 1835 – 10 May 1894), 745th Dame of the Royal Order of Queen María Luisa, daughter of Juan Arias-Quiroga y Mejías, 7th Marquess of Arias-Quiroga and wife María Manuela de Escalera y Fernández de Peñaranda, daughter of Roberto de Escalera y Fernandez de Peñarada, 46th Lord of Peñarada, by whom he had no issue. He was also the uncle of Miguel Primo de Rivera, the Spanish dictator.