Marcial Augusto Justino Solana González-Camino (1880–1958) was a Spanish scholar, writer and politician. In science he is best known as historian of philosophy and author of a monumental work on 16th century Spanish thinkers, though he contributed also to history, theory of law and theology. In politics he is recognized chiefly as a Traditionalist theorist of state, apart from his rather modest militancy within Integrism and Carlism. Throughout all his life he was also active in various lay Catholic organizations.

Family and youth

The Solana family was first recorded in the 13th century as related to Liaño, a village currently situated on the outskirts of Santander;Aurelio González de Riancho Colongues, Marcial Solana y Gonzalez-Camino, [in:] LXXV Aniversario del Centro de Estudios Montañeses. Setenta y cinco años de historia (1934-2009), Santander 2009, , p. 161 members of the local hidalguia,Tradición 01.03.1933, available here its representatives were later many times noted as civil and religious servants in the region.González de Riancho Colongues 2009, pp. 161-162 In the mid-18th the Solanas held already a mayorazgo in the Liaño quarter of Socabarga; the first to settle in the nearby Villaescusa was Marcial's great-grandfather, Roque de Solana Río. In the early 19th century he already held a number of estates in the province and grew to the Cortes deputy in the 1810s.González de Riancho Colongues 2009, p. 161 His son, Pedro Solana Collado (1801-1868),most detailed work on Solana Collado is a booklet by his grandson, see Marcial Solana y González-Camino, Notas sobre la vida militar de Don Pedro Solana y Collado, coronel de Infantería (1801-1868), Madrid 1945. For an earlier and smaller version see Marcial Solana y González-Camino, El Coronel don Pedro de Solana, [in:] Tradición 01.03.33, pp. 136-139 served as infantry colonelAntonio de los Bueis Güemes, Marcial Solana. Una vida en la tradición, Santander 2015, , p. 42 and sided with the Carlists during the First Carlist War; exiled, in the 1840s he returned following the amnesty, but engaged in Carlist conspiracy of 1855.some details might differ in various accounts. When discussing his post-war fate, Solana González-Camino does not mention further service in the Isabelline army and focuses on the 1955 plot. Another scholar claims Solana Collado resumed military service in 1848, Melchor Ferrer, Historia del tradicionalismo español vol. 13, Madrid 1941, p. 51 Married in 1846,González de Riancho Colongues 2009, pp. 161-2. His wife and Marcial’s paternal grandmother was Narcisa Trinidad González-Camino, Bueis Güemes 2015, pp. 374, 412 he built a house on the Rosequillo estate in La Concha de Villaescusa.Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 42, Antonio de los Bueis Güemes, Marcial Solana. Estudio crítico, Madrid 2014 (no ISBN), p. 9 His son and Marcial's father, Marcial Rufo Solana González-Camino (1847-1885), multiplied the family wealth trading flour in Cuba; upon return to Spain in 1879Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 64 he married a cousin,the mother of Marcial Rufo, Narcisa González-Camino, and the father of Elvira Irene, Nicolás González-Camino, were siblings, Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 64 Elvira Irene González-Camino de Velasco (1861-1939),González de Riancho Colongues 2009, p. 162 herself descendantmaternal grandparents of Marcial were Nicolás González-Camino and Concepción Velasco Villanueva, Bueis Güemes 2015, pp. 375, 412 to a well-to-do Cantabrian bourgeoisie family.the family owned stakes in a number of local companies: Ferrocarril Cantábrico, Banco Mercantil, Nueva Argentífera, Santanderina de Navegación, Ferrocarril Astillero-Ontaneda, Nueva Montaña, Sociedad Abastecedora de Aguas, Electra del Besaya, Compañía de Vapores Esles, Sociedad de Seguros La Alianza de Santander, Minas Heras, etcétera, Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 65

Though Marcial Rufo and Irene held a number of estates, they lived mostly at calle Calderon 5now calle Ataulfo Argenta in Santander.Bueis Güemes 2014, p. 9 They had only two children, Marcial's sister born posthumously;Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 42 the siblings were raised in a fervently Catholic ambience.Bueis Güemes 2015, pp. 41-42 In 1890 Marcial took entry exams to Instituto de Segunda Ensañanza of Santander,now named to Instituto de Ensañanza Secundaria Santa Clara, Benito Madariaga, Celia Valbuena, El Instituto de Santander (Estudio y Documentos), Santander 1971, pp. 112-113 but for unclear reasons he pursued curriculum with the Jesuits in Orduña;full name Colegio Nuestra Señora de la Antigua de Orduña he obtained bachillerato, confirmed by Instituto de Bilbao, in 1896.Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 42, Bueis Güemes 2014, p. 10 The same year he entered the Jesuit Deusto institute;at that time known as Colegio de Estudios Superiores de Bilbao, now known as Universidad de Deusto in 1899 he graduated sobresalienteDeusto’s diplomas were not recognized automatically and its graduates had to take exams in state-ran institutions; in this case, Solana was examined in Universidad de Salamanca, Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 43 Bueis Güemes 2014, pp. 11-13 in Filosofia y LetrasBueis Güemes 2014, p. 10 and in 1902, also sobresaliente, in law.Bueis Güemes 2015, pp. 44-45 Spared military serviceat turn of the centuries Solana received draft notes to the army, but there is neither any indication of him serving nor a clear exemption note; scholars speculate that he might have been exempted as half-orphan, a student or as „soldado de cuota”, Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 48, Bueis Güemes 2014, p. 18 he commenced doctoral research in Madrid. In 1904 Solana obtained PhD laurels – sobresaliente – in law,the dissertation title was Exposición de la teoría penal clásica, Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 48 and in 1906 he paired it – always sobresaliente – with the one in philosophy, also in Madrid.the dissertation title was La verdad trascendental según la Filosofía Escolástica, Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 48, Bueis Güemes 2014, p. 19

Though scholar in law, Solana did not enter Colegio de Abogados and did not practice,Bueis Güemes 2014, p. 19 all the same some press titles referred to him as "ilustrado abogado".El Diario Palentino 12.10.08, available here He commenced professional career neither.perhaps except a post of a concejal in Banco Santander, held in the 1940s in the 1950s A wealthy manin 1921 Solana was listed as the second taxpayer in Villaescusa, Boletín Oficial de la Provincia de Santander 07.01.21, available here. He retained this position in 1930, see Boletín Oficial de la Provincia de Santander 21.11.30, available here who inheritedhis younger sister died unmarried in 1930, González de Riancho Colongues 2009, p. 162 a number of plots, 56 in the Santander province alone,Boletín Oficial de la Provincia de Santander 13.07.06, available here he lived off the land rent.referred as "rentista", González de Riancho Colongues 2009, p. 162 Owner of a number of mansions dubbed palacios, the key ones in Esles, Socabarga and Villaescusa,Solana’s estates were located mostly in La Concha de Villaescusa, Liaño, Obregón, Villanueva de Villaescusa, Socabarga, Esles (all Santander province) and Vizcaínos de la Sierra (Burgos province), Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 65 Solana lived mostly in Santander, in the last decades of his life spending summers in his favorite estate, Granja Santa María in Vizcaínos de la Sierra, in the Burgos province.Bueis Güemes 2014, p. 38, Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 67 He has never married and had no children.following the 1939 death of his mother was left "profoundly lonely" and remained so until his own death, Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 60 His biographer claims Solana led an austere life,one his contemporaries noted that "he lived poor and died rich”, Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 67 spending money on books, travelling and investments in his rural economy,Bueis Güemes 2015, pp. 65-6 though in the 1920s he was noted as one of few cars owners in the Santander province.a German Brennabor model. There were 32 new cars registered in Santander province in 1929 and his was one among them, Madrid Automóvil March 1929, available here Solana's best known relative was his maternal cousin, José Luis Zamanillo, a Carlist and Francoist politician known mostly in the 1960s and 1970s.

Integrist

There were many Carlist antecedents in Solana's family; his grandfather served in the legitimist troops during the First Carlist War,Marcial’s father, aged 25 at the outbreak of the Third Carlist War, was in Cuba at the time and is not known to have joined the legitmists while his maternal grand-uncle Fernando Fernández de Velasco was a Carlist deputy in the 1860ssee his record at the official Cortes service, available here and soldier during the Third Carlist War.Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 307 In the late 1880s both sided with the secessionist Integrist branch, joined by Marcial's maternal uncle, José Zamanillo Monreal, who in the 1890s became the Integrist leader in Cantabria. In absence of his late father, it was Velascoapart from having been a politician and a soldier, he was also an intellectual, member of Real Academia de la historia; he died in 1912, when Marcial was already 32, Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 307 and ZamanilloBueis Güemes 2015, p. 49. Zamanillo died in 1920. For his brief biography see Zamanillo Monreal, José entry, [in:] Esctirores Cantabricos service, available here who formatted Marcial along the Integrist pattern.e.g. in 1900 Solana with his family travelled to Rome to celebrate Año Santo, Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 46 Initially he did not engage in politics and since academic years got very active in Catholic initiatives;he engaged in Estudios de Deusto and Veladas literarias y artísticas, Apostolado de la Oración, Congregación de la Inmaculada y San Luis Gonzaga, Academia de Literatura Práctica de San Luis Gonzaga, Academia Jurídico-Literaria de San Luis and Congregación Universal de la Casa Santa de Loreto, Bueis Güemes 2015, pp. 45-47 also following return from Madrid to Santander Solana continued on the same path. He entered Adoración Nocturna,and other diocesen initiatives of the lay, animated by bishop Vicente Santiago Sánchez de Castro, Bueis Güemes 2014, p. 20 in 1907 co-founded Centro Católico Electoral,Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 49 was Secretario in Juntas de Acción Católica y Defensa Social,Bueis Güemes 2015, pp. 49-50 presided over Sindicato Católico Agrario,in La Concha, Bueis Güemes 2014, p. 21 engaged in 1908 Jubileo Sacerdotal of Pío X and joined ACNDP.Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 50 In 1908 he entered Federación Agrícola Montañesa.it was intended to counter the socialist influence among the working class; one of its initiatives was Sociedad Cooperativa, entity building cheap houses Bueis Güemes 2015, p. 51, Santiago Díez Llama, La situación socio-religiosa de Santander y el Obispo Sánchez de Castro (1884-1920), Santander 1971, p. 291