page_title: Ramón Altarriba y Villanueva
section_title: Mid-Restauración
hierarchical_section_title: Ramón Altarriba y Villanueva / Mid-Restauración
caption_attribution_description: English: Don Carlos de Borbón (1848 - 1909), pretender to the Spanish throne. Español: Don Carlos de Borbón (1848 - 1909), pretendiente carlista al trono español.
context_page_description: Ramón Altarriba y Villanueva, 1st Count of Altarriba, 24th Baron of Sangarrén, was a Spanish Carlist politician, landowner, publisher, and soldier. During the Third Carlist War he commanded battalion-size legitimist units. He represented the party in the lower chamber of the Cortes during 2 terms of 1879-1881 and 1886-1890. In the 1890s and early 1900s he served as the party leader in the region of Old Castile, though as one of the largest landholders in Gipuzkoa he exerted also enormous influence in the province.
context_section_description: Having lost the parliamentary ticket Sangarrén could dedicate more time to his private business, geographically scattered from Vascongadas across Castille and on to Andalusia. Apart from managing family estates in Gipuzkoa, he invested in mining and metalworking industry. He co-owned exploration rights to a copper mine in the Sierra de Guadarrama location of Colmenarejo, North of Madrid. In 1893 he took control over the "La Fe" mineral springs in the nearby Moralzarzal, renaming the site "Mudarra" and exploiting it until 1900, when he renounced the concession. He held stakes in paper mill business in Pyrenaic parts of the Lérida province and was vice-president of Derecha del Rio Genil, a Granada-based company engaged in irrigation works.
  As the Carlist fuerista principles envisaged that a politician should only represent the region where he lives, within the party command structures Altarriba formally headed Castilla la Vieja. Though due to his terrateniente status he exercised largest influence in Gipuzkoa, Vascongadas was first headed by Valde-Espina, then by Salvador Elío y Ezpeleta and later by Tirso de Olazábal. Altarriba's contribution to Gipuzkoan Carlism, however, remained crucial; local landowners were key to mobilising rural support and maintaining – if not straightforwardly financing – provincial party structures. Partially as a result of his contribution, in the 1880s and 1890s Gipuzkoa emerged as a Carlist stronghold; in provincial and general elections the party was striving for domination.
  In the early 1890s fellow Traditionalists approached Altarriba cautiously as one of "fractious Carlists". Some sources report him as championing a militant "de armas tomar" group, consisting mostly of the Navarros and the Gipuzkoanos. Other episodes seem to counter this thesis indicating that he worked closely with the non-belligerent de Cerralbo, together travelling across Spain during innovative political tours and delivering harangues, also jointly with Carlist pundits like Vazquez de Mella; residing in Madrid he customarily appeared in events staged in the capital. As the colonial crisis of 1897 unfolded, he initially seemed leaning towards a bold action; he welcomed general Weyler, dismissed from Cuba, amongst the crowd shouting "Viva Cuba Española", but also a somewhat more ambiguous "a caballo mi general". However, during the Spanish–American War Sangarrén was busy denouncing widely circulating rumors about another Carlist insurgency forthcoming as "a fable", though it is not clear whether it was a pre-agreed propaganda smoke-screen or a genuine effort. During La Octubrada, the series of minor Carlist revolts of October 1900, he was in Paris, which did not spare him detention by Guardia Civil the following month in Bilbao. Also during persistent rumors of mid-1902 Altarriba spoke publicly against a Carlist military action. The press reported him as an agreed Carlist candidate in the 1903 elections, but he was not mentioned as running later on. None of the sources consulted mentions him politically active after that date; obituaries claimed he had been suffering from an unidentified longtime "enfermedad crónica"; his funeral was attended by the then Carlist political leader, Matías Barrio y Mier.
caption: Carlos VII
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