Niceto Alcalá-Zamora
This article needs additional citations for verification. (January 2007) |
Real Academia Española | |
---|---|
In office 8 May 1932 – 18 February 1949 | |
Preceded by | José Francos Rodríguez |
Succeeded by | Melchor Fernández Almagro |
Personal details | |
Born | Priego de Córdoba, Spain | 6 July 1877
Died | 18 February 1949 Buenos Aires, Argentina | (aged 71)
Political party | Liberal Party (1899–1923) Independent (1923–1931) Progressive Republican Party (1931–1936) |
Spouse | Purificación Castillo Bidaburu |
Children | 3 sons 3 daughters |
Alma mater | University of Granada |
Profession | Lawyer, teacher |
Awards | Order of Isabella the Catholic |
Signature | |
Niceto Alcalá-Zamora y Torres (6 July 1877 – 18 February 1949) was a Spanish lawyer and politician who served, briefly, as the first prime minister of the Second Spanish Republic, and then—from 1931 to 1936—as its president.
Early life
Alcalá-Zamora was born on 6 July 1877 in
A lawyer by profession, from a very young age, he was active in the Liberal Party. Chosen as a deputy, he quickly gained fame for his eloquent interventions in the Congress of Deputies, becoming Minister of Public Works in 1917 and of War in 1922, and it comprised part of the governments of concentration presided over by García Prieto. He was also Spain's representative in the League of Nations.
Second Republic
Disappointed by the acceptance on the part of King
Confirmed as Prime Minister in June, he resigned on 15 October, along with Miguel Maura, the minister of the interior. Both men opposed the writing of Articles 24 and 26 of the new Constitution, which consecrated the separation of church and state and allowed the dissolution of the religious orders that were considered dangerous by the state. Alcalá-Zamora and Maura said that the articles injured their religious feelings as well as those of the Catholic electorates that they represented.
Nevertheless, on 10 December 1931, Alcalá-Zamora was elected president by 362 votes out of the 410 deputies present (the Chamber was composed of 446 deputies).
In 1933, he dissolved the
The dissolution triggered new elections to the Cortes. The left-wing Popular Front won a narrow majority. The Left majority in the new Cortes then applied a constitutional loophole to oust Alcala-Zamora. The Constitution allowed the Cortes to remove the president from office after two early dissolutions, and while the first (1933) dissolution had been partially justified because of the fulfillment of the constitutional mission of the first legislature, the second one had been a simple bid to trigger early elections. Deeming such action "unjustified", the newly elected Cortes dismissed the President on 7 April 1936 and elected Manuel Azaña to the position. Azaña was detested by the right, and Zamora's removal was a watershed moment since many Spaniards gave up on parliamentary politics.
Final years and death
The beginning of the Spanish Civil War surprised Alcalá-Zamora, who was then on a trip to Scandinavia. He decided to stay away from Spain when he found out that militiamen of the Popular Front government had illegally entered his home, stolen his belongings and plundered his safe-deposit box in the Madrid Crédit Lyonnais bank, taking the manuscript of his memoirs.
When
Alcalá-Zamora died in Buenos Aires in 1949. His body was returned to Spain in 1979 and was interred in Madrid's Cementerio de la Almudena.
Marriage and family
He was married to María de la Purificación Castillo Bidaburu, and had children:
- Niceto Alcalá-Zamora y Castillo (1906–1985), married to Ernestina Queipo de Llano y Martí, the daughter of Sevilla, 9 March 1951), 1st Marquessof Queipo de Llano, and wife (m. 4 October 1901) Genoveva Martí y Tovar, and had issue:
- José Alcalá-Zamora y Queipo de Llano, married to Aurora Horfelina Fernández y Mier (1 October 1942 – 29 May 2008), daughter of Vicente Isidro Fernández y Bascarán (14 February 1909 – 23 December 2003), 1st Brigadier General of the Spanish Army, and wife María Marcela Mier y López, and had issue:
- Gonzalo Alcalá-Zamora y Fernández-Mier
- Lucía Alcalá-Zamora y Fernández-Mier
- José Alcalá-Zamora y Queipo de Llano, married to Aurora Horfelina Fernández y Mier (1 October 1942 – 29 May 2008), daughter of Vicente Isidro Fernández y Bascarán (14 February 1909 – 23 December 2003), 1st
See also
References
- ^ a b Payne 2017, p. 1.
Bibliography
- ISBN 978-1-78284-399-3.