Jump to content

Antonio Maura

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Atchom (talk | contribs) at 01:38, 19 July 2019 (top: Removing non-existent postnominals). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Template:Spanish name

Antonio Maura
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 of Spain
Preceded byAntonio González de Aguilar
Succeeded bySegismundo Moret
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

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 island of Mallorca. Maura studied law in Madrid.[1] In 1878, Maura married Constancia Gamazo y Calvo, 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 as vice president of the Congress of Deputies.

As prime minister, he created the Spanish Institute of Provision and he attempted to carry out a reform plan, but this 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 Tragic Week uprising, provoked a European-wide outcry which contributed to Maura's downfall.

Maura was a hero of a youth movement, the Mauristas, who wanted him as a new head of state of Spain at a time of substantial resentment of King Alfonso XIII. This 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 he 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 King Alfonso XIII. 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 towards authentically democratic institutions.

When he was Prime Minister during the reign of Alfonso XIII, he spent summers at the estate of Can Mossenya, historically part of the Valldemossa Charterhouse in Mallorca. 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 watercolorist, often painting scenes of nature or old buildings from past eras.[citation needed]

He died in Torrelodones, Madrid, in 1925. The International Foundation Can Mossenya named an entrance to its historic estate the "Gate of Friendship – Azorín and Maura" after the men's encounter.[3]

Descendants

See also

Notes

  1. ^ In Place of Splendour, Constancia de la Mora, London, Michael Joseph, 1940, p.13
  2. ^ The International Foundation Can Mossenya Friends of Borges – amigos-de-borges.net
  3. ^ "The International Foundation Can Mossenya", Friends of Borges – amigos-de-borges.net