Antonio María de Oriol y Urquijo (1913–1996) was a Spanish politician and businessman. Politically he supported the Traditionalist cause, first as a Carlist militant and then as a Francoist official. In 1955–1977 he was a member of Cortes Españolas; in 1957–1965 he headed the welfare department in the Ministry of Interior; in 1965–1973 he served as the Minister of Justice; in 1973–1978 he was a member of the Council of the Realm and in 1973–1979 he presided over the Council of State. As businessman he was active in companies controlled by the Oriol family, holding executive positions in Iberdrola, Patentes Talgo and other entities.
Family and youth
Antonio Oriol was born to a family of Catalan origins, its first members noted in the history of Spain in the 17th century.Pablo de Oriol y Lecha from Flix was recorded as "Ciudadano Honrado de Cataluña", Alfonso Ballestero, José Ma de Oriol y Urquijo, Madrid 2014, , p. 23 Buenaventura Oriol Salvador sided with the legitimists during the First Carlist War. In recognition of his merits the claimant awarded him with Marquesado de Oriol in 1870;Ballestero 2014, p. 23. The marquesado, awarded in 1870, was not recognized by Alfonsist kings of Spain. It was Francisco Franco who in his capacity of head of state officially acknowledged the title and confirmed Jose Luis Oriol as the 2nd marquis of Oriol he was elected to the Cortes in 1872.Ballestero 2014, p. 25 The son of his brother and Antonio's paternal grandfather, José María Oriol Gordo (1845–1899),see José María Oriol Gordo entry at the Geni genealogical service, available here a native of Tortosa, joined Carlos VII during the Third Carlist War and served as Jefe de Ayudantes of general Dorregaray.Joseba Agirreazkuenaga, Mikel Urquijo (eds.), Bilbao desde sus alcaldes: Diccionario biográfico de los alcaldes de Bilbao y gestión municipal en la Dictadura, vol. 3, Bilbao 2008, , p. 189 Following the amnesty he settled in Bilbao and married descendant to a local high bourgeoisie Urigüen family.Gorka Pérez de la Peña Oleaga, Los Ensanches del muelle nuevo de Portugalete: (1869–1917), [in:] Cuadernos de sección. Historia-Geografía Donostia 21 (1993), p. 189 His son and Antonio's father, José Luis Oriol Urigüen (1877–1972), in the mid-1930s emerged as a Carlist political mogul in Álava. He wed Catalina de Urquijo y Vitórica, descendant to an oligarchic familydespite politically liberal leaning of her family Catalina was very religious, donating to construction of Cerro de los Angeles, see Agirreazkuenaga, Urquijo 2008, p. 190 which controlled much of the Biscay finance.for details see Onésimo Díaz Hernández, Los marqueses de Urquijo: el apogeo de una saga poderosa y los inicios del Banco Urquijo, 1870–1931, Pamplona 1998, In the early 20th century Oriol Urigüen replaced his father-in-law as CEO of Hidroeléctrica EspañolaJuan Carlos García Adan, Yolanda Diego Martín, El archive historic de Iberdrola y la industria eléctrica en España: fondos para la investigación histórica, [in:] Congreso de Historia Económica, Santiago de Compostela 2005, p. 9, also Francisco Cayón García, Hidroeléctrica Española: un analis de sus primeros años de actividad (1907–1936), [in:] Revista de Historia Económica 20 (2002), pp, 308–311 and later developed a number of other businesses; he is considered one of the most important Spanish entrepreneurs of the 20th century.Francisco Cayón García, Miguel Muñoz Rubio, José Luís de Oriol y Urigüen (1877–1972), [in:] Eugenio Torres Villanueva (ed.), Los 100 empresarios españoles del siglo XX, Madrid 2000, , pp. 255–258
José Luis and Catalina initially lived in a family estate in Getxo, the affluent suburb of Bilbao and hub of the oligarchic Basque bourgeoisie; however, they soon moved to Madrid. The couple had 8 children, all brought up in great wealth but also in a fervently religious ambience;Antonio Oriol remained very religious throughout all of his life; always carried a rosary on him, Alfonso Torres Robles, La prodigiosa aventura de los Legionarios de Cristo, Madrid 2010, , p. 37 Antonio was born as the fourth son; he had also a younger brother.see Antonio Maria de Oriol y Urquijo entry, [in:] Geneallnet service, available here It is not clear whether like at least one of his older brothers, he frequented a Jesuit high school in the capital.Ballestero 2014, p. 54 At unspecified time though probably in the early 1930s he enrolled at Department of Law at the Madrid university and graduated in juridical sciences in 1935.ABC 23.03.96, available here He prepared to join the family business but did so no sooner that after the Civil War.
In 1940 Antonio Oriol married María de la Soledad Díaz de Bustamante y Quijano (died 1990).María Soledad Díaz de Bustamante y Quijano entry, [in:] Geneanet service, available here She descended from a wealthy Cantabrian family of entrepreneurs,her paternal grandfather, Domingo Díaz de Bustamante, originated from a Cantabrian village of Herrera de Ibio; in 1817, at the age of 14, he migrated to Cuba. He returned as a rich man in 1856 and married Felisa Campuzano Rodríguez from the nearby Corrales de Buelna; she was sister to Conde de Mansilla. Domingo bought part of the Mansilla estate, Donata Díaz de Bustamante, De Ibio a Corrales de Buelna, [in:] LinkHome service, available here though her father – who married into another industrial fortuneFelipe Díaz de Bustamante y Campuzano (1866–1932) married María Quijano de la Colina, the oldest daughter of José María Quijano Fernández-Hontoria, a Cantabrian lawyer and pioneer of ferrous metallurgy in Spain. The coupled lived mostly in Madrid, Donata Díaz de Bustamante, De Ibio a Corrales de Buelna, [in:] LinkHome service, available here – lived already in Madrid.by profession an agronomy engineer, Felipe tried his hand also in letters; his attempted romance novel, Romance de la serenisima y gloriosa infanta Dª Sancha Alfonso, Comendadora de la Orden Militar de Santiago, hija del Rey de León don Alonso el Nono, was completed in 1948 by his son, see Amazon service, available here The couple settled at the grand Oriol family estate near Majadahonda;covering some 800 ha, the estate remains subject to controversy and various claims until today, see e.g. Ana Sánchez Juárez, El pueblo vs. los nobles: la guerra por las 800 hectáreas del Monte del Pilar, [in:] Vanitatis service 17.02.16, available here it was shared with Antonio's brothers, two of them – Lucas and especially José María – growing to high Francoist officials and business tycoons.José María was mayor of Bilbao during early Francoism, but he became known as one of key figures in the Spanish power industry of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Lucas grew to president of VALCA and Prensa Económica SA; he was intellectually the most ambitious of all the brothers and his company published iconic reviews Punta Europa and Finisterre. Luis Fernando died in combat in 1936. Ignacio did not become a public figure. Among the sisters Magdalena Sacramento married José de Palacio y Palacio, marqués de Villarreal de Álava and marqués de Casa Palacio; Catalina became a Carmelite nun Antonio and Soledad had seven children;born in the 1940s and 1950s, they were in sequence: María, Soledad, Antonio, Catalina, Felipe, Luis Javier and Isabel Oriol Díaz Bustamante. See e.g. Diaz Bustamante entry, [in:] RepertorioFamiliar service, available here. Brief notes on many of his offspring in Astrid Antuña Llorens, La niña a la que nadie quiso: ¿Era realmente la hija ilegítima del Marqués de Linares?, Madrid 2018, all the sons became high corporate executives,Antonio Oriol Díaz de Bustamante grew to high posts in Iberdrola; he ceased in 2006, Oriol Díaz Bustamante Antonio María entry, [in:] InfoEmpresa service, available here; Felipe became a successful entrepreneur running his own companies, Felipe Oriol Díaz de Bustamante entry, [in:] MarketScreener service, available here; Luis Javier engaged in multiple businesses, Luis Javier María Oriol Díaz Bustamante entry, [in:] Expansion service, available here. He married a painter Carmen Spinola, Julia Saéz-Angulo, Carmen Spínola, pintora, discípula de Guillermo Muñoz Vera, mecenas y presidenta de la Fundación Arauco, [in:] EuroMundoGlobal service, available here but they did not engage in politics. The daughter María married Miguel Primo de Rivera y Urquijo, grandson of the dictator and later one of key people behind the Spanish transition to democracy.María de Oriol y Díaz Bustamante entry, [in:] Geneanet service, available here. Another of Antonio Oriol's daughters, Isabel, remains active as president of various organizations fighting cancer, see e.g. Isabel Oriol Díaz de Bustamante entry, [in:] CirculoDeOrellana service, available here Among 39 of Oriol's grandchildrenDiaz Bustamante entry, [in:] RepertorioFamiliar service, available here; they descended from the branches of Primo de River Oriol, Diez de Rivera Oriol, Oriol Allende, Becerril Oriol, Oriol Miranda, Oriol Spinola and Jaureguizar Oriol the best known is Rocio Primo de Rivera Oriol, author of few fiction and history books;see assortment of her works at the Amazon servicem available here her brother Fernando gained attention in 2019 when claiming ducado de Primo de Rivera.the title was created by Franco in 1948; see e.g. Consuelo Font, Fernando Primo de Rivera, el próximo en ostentar el ducado que Franco concedió a su tío abuelo, [in:] El Mundo 18.09.19, available here Most of the grandchildren are well set in the world of Spanish societé and business;see e.g. Tómas Jaureguizar Oriol entry, [in:] LinkedIn service, available here, or Juan Díez de Rivera Oriol, [in:] LinkedIn service, available here in 2020 the Oriol family clan was listed as the 180. richest family in Spain.180. Familia Oriol. Accionistas de Talgo y terratenientes, [in:] El Mundo service, available here
Early public engagements and civil war (before 1940)
Antonio's mother descended from a well known Basque family of liberal convictions, but four generations of his paternal ancestors were related to Traditionalism, even though his father adhered to a generic conservative monarchism and politically engaged in Carlism only in his 50s. Like his three older brothers, Antonio inherited legitimist preferences from forefathers and during his student years in Madrid he was active in the Carlist academic organisation, Agrupación Escolar Tradicionalista; none of the sources consulted provides information on any roles he might have performed.Antonio María de Oriol y Urquijo, ex ministro de Justicia y ex presidente del Consejo de Estado, [in:] El País 23.03.96, available here According to one author already in his teens he enlisted to the paramilitary Requeté organisation and remained involved in its ranks throughout all of the Republic years.Don Antonio Mª de Oriol y Urquijo, [in:] Ya 08.07.65, available here Officially he was noted in the press as donating to Catholic charityPensamiento Alaves 05.12.33, available here and in secondary roles during some Carlist rallies in Madrid.El Siglo Futuro 20.12.35, available here