The Most Excellent
Antonio Maura
Photograph by Kaulak
Prime Minister of Spain
In office
5 December 1903 – 16 December 1904
MonarchAlfonso XIII
Preceded byRaimundo Fernández
Succeeded byMarcelo Azcárraga
In office
25 January 1907 – 21 October 1909
MonarchAlfonso XIII
Preceded byAntonio González de Aguilar
Succeeded bySegismundo Moret
In office
22 March 1918 – 9 November 1918
MonarchAlfonso XIII
Preceded byManuel García Prieto
Succeeded byManuel García Prieto
In office
14 April 1919 – 20 July 1919
MonarchAlfonso XIII
Preceded byÁlvaro de Figueroa
Succeeded byJoaquín Sánchez de Toca
In office
14 August 1921 – 8 March 1922
MonarchAlfonso XIII
Preceded byManuel Allendesalazar
Succeeded byJosé Sánchez-Guerra
Seat U of the Real Academia Española
In office
29 November 1903 – 13 December 1925
Preceded byIsidoro Fernández Flórez
Succeeded byLeopoldo Eijo y Garay
Director of the Real Academia Española
In office
30 October 1913 – 13 December 1925
Preceded byAlejandro Pidal y Mon
Succeeded byRamón Menéndez Pidal
Personal details
Born
Antonio Maura Montaner

(1853-05-02)2 May 1853
Palma de Mallorca (Balearic Islands), Spain
Died13 December 1925(1925-12-13) (aged 72)
Torrelodones (Madrid), Spain
Signature

Antonio Maura Montaner (2 May 1853 – 13 December 1925) was Prime Minister of Spain on five separate occasions.

Early life

Maura was born in Palma, on the island of Mallorca, and studied law in Madrid.[1] In 1878, Maura married Constancia Gamazo y Calvo, the sister of Germán Gamazo. They had several sons and a daughter together, many of whom have been prominent in Spanish and European history.

Political career

He entered the Cortes Generales in 1881 as a Liberal delegate for Majorca but later joined the Conservative Party. In 1886, Maura was elected vice president of the Congress of Deputies.

As prime minister, he created the Spanish Institute of Provision and attempted to carry out a reform plan, but it was opposed by the liberals. He fell from power after his suppression of an uprising in Barcelona in 1909, called the Tragic Week. The execution of Francisco Ferrer, who was charged with leading the uprising, provoked a European-wide outcry that contributed to Maura's downfall.

Maura was a hero of a youth movement, the Mauristas, that wanted him as a new head of state of Spain at a time of substantial resentment of King Alfonso XIII. That and Maura's ambition caused him to fall out with the King. Maura later headed coalition cabinets with other parties (1918, 1919, 1921–22) but did nothing to advance unconstitutional methods. Many of his followers later supported the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera, but he remained aloof from both Primo de Rivera and the King. Maura had first entered the political arena to fight the caciquismo culture, which he considered a cancer of Spanish political culture and the main obstacle to authentically-democratic institutions.

When he was prime minister, he spent summers at the estate of Can Mossenya, historically part of the Valldemossa Charterhouse in Mallorca, and Chopin and George Sand had stayed there in the previous century. Azorín traveled from the continent to meet Maura there.[2] Maura became a prolific watercolourist who often painted scenes of nature or old buildings from past eras.[3]

He died in Torrelodones, a small town in the Guadarrama mountains, north-west of Madrid, in 1925.[4] The International Foundation Can Mossenya named an entrance to its historic estate, the "Gate of Friendship – Azorín and Maura", after the men's encounter.[5]

Descendants

See also

References

  1. ↑ "In Place of Splendour", Constancia de la Mora, London, Michael Joseph, 1940, p.13
  2. ↑ The International Foundation Can Mossenya Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine Friends of Borges – amigos-de-borges.net
  3. ↑ "In Place of Splendour", Constancia de la Mora, [2nd edition], London, The Clapton Press, 2021, p.50
  4. ↑ "In Place of Splendour", Constancia de la Mora, [2nd edition], London, The Clapton Press, 2021, p.97
  5. ↑ "The International Foundation Can Mossenya" Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine, Friends of Borges – amigos-de-borges.net
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