There were many political antecedents among Liñán's ancestors, most related to conservative realm of the Isabelline era. He seemed poised to pursue career in mainstream politics as well, but things turned out differently. The person who exercised most influence on José was his maternal grandfather José Eugenio de Eguizábal, who by the end of his life joined the and together with them neared the Carlists. Eguizábal managed to shape political outlook of the adolescent Liñán; it was furtherly reinforced by the latter's maternal uncle, José Cavanilles, who served as secretary to the legitimist claimant Carlos VII during the Third Carlist War. Moreover, during his academic period Liñán joined the entourage of Ramón Nocedal, in 1877 growing to vice-president of Juventud Católica of Madrid. As a result, he embraced Traditionalism in the most unusual period: in the aftermath of the war which produced military defeat and profound crisis of Carlism, the time marked by defections rather than by new adhesions. Liñán's 1879 edition of his grandfather's works was already a public declaration of Traditionalism.