Josep de Suelves i de Montagut, 9th Marquis of Tamarit (1850–1926) was a Spanish Carlist politician. He served in the lower house of the Cortes during 4 terms in 1896–1899, 1901-1903 and 1907–1910; his term in the upper chamber, the Senate, covered the period of 1899–1900.

Family and youth

Paternal ancestors of Josep de Suelves i de Montagut came from two distinguished aristocratic Catalan families.see geneanet service here; also (less complete) geneallnet service here Representatives of the Montserrat line are recorded in the Middle Ages already;Joan Prats i Salas, Carlisme i caciquisme: Josep de Suelves, marquès de Tamarit, cap carlí de les comarques de Tarragona (1891-1918), [in:] Estudis altafullencs 16 (1992), p. 124; Salvador-J. Rovira i Gómez, Antoni Martii Franques i l'Altafulia del seu temps (1750-1832), Altafulla 1982, pp. 32-37, Carmen de Suelves y de Goyeneche, Orígenes de la casa de Montserrat de los marqueses de Tamarit según datos históricos y originals que obran en el archivo de la casa, Algeciras 1942 Francesc de Montserrat Vives made his name during the siege of Tarragona in the time of the Reapers' War (Guerra dels Segadors) in the mid-17th century and was awarded the marquesado of Tamarit by Carlos II in 1681.Prats 1992, p. 125 In 1794 the title passed along the maternal line to Josep's great-grandfather, Joan Nepomucé de Suelves i Montserrat,Salvador-J. Rovira i Gómez, Els nobles de Tortosa: segle XIX, s.l. 2008, , 9788497913317, p. 159. According to the law, he had to change the name to Joan de Montserrat i de Suelves, see Salvador-J. Rovira i Gómez, Joan de Montserrat Olim de Suelves, sisé marqués de Tamarit (1761-1844), [in:] Estudis Altafullencs 26 (2002), p. 26. By this token, Josep de Suelves i de Montagut is sometimes referred to as Josep (or José) Montserrat Suelves Montagut an anti-liberal Tarragona deputy to Cortes of Cádiz.Prats 1992, p. 125, see also SUELVES Y DE MONTSERRAT, JUAN DE entry at the official Cortes web service here His son, 7th marqués de Tamarit, sided with the legitimist cause during the First Carlist War and was exiled afterwards.returning to Spain in 1844, Prats 1992, p. 125 His grandson, 8th marqués, Antoni de Suelves i d'Ustariz (Josep's paternal uncle), followed the family tradition forming part of Royal Council of the pretender Carlos VIIPrats 1992, p. 125 and since late 1860s participated in preparations to another insurgency. Antoni's younger brother, Joan de Suelves i d'Ustariz, married Buenaventura Montagut Félez, native of Tortosa and daughter of Josep Montagut Salvador, Conde Torre de l'Espanyol.see Joan Ramon Vinaixa Miró, Tortosa en la guerra dels Set Anys (1833-1840), Valls 2006, , 9788497912266, p. 49 The couple had three children.excellent (yet still incomplete) family tree in Salvador-J. Rovira i Gómez, Els Suelves vuitcentistes, [in:] Estudis Altafullencs 31 (2007), p. 124

Josep, the oldest of the siblings, spent most of his childhood in family estates across Catalonia,Prats 1992, p. 126 to complete secondary education in colleges in Reus and Tortosa.Rovira 2007, p. 121 In the late 1860s he studied Derecho y Filosofia in Universidad Central of Madrid.Rovira 2007, p. 121. The study offers no information whether Suelves has actually graduated; the information is based on anonymous Excm. Sr. Dn. José de Montserrat de Suelves y de Montagut, marqués de Tamarit, [in:] La Zuda 45 (1916), p. 192 In 1885Rovira 2007, p. 121 gives Paris as location of the ceremony he married María Goyeneche Puente (1862-1941), daughter of a Peruvian diplomat and Peruvian/Spanish conservative politician Juan Mariano Goyeneche y Gamio, 3rd Conde de Guaqui, by virtue of his family ties related to Navarre and Gipuzkoa.some of the Suelves’ offspring were later allegedly successful as businesspeople in Peru, see unconfirmed information from a royalist forum here When in 1886 despite his two marriages the 8th marqués de Tamarit died without issue,Geneanet service here Josep inherited the marquesado.his father had already deceased at that time; exact date of his death is not known He acquired also part of his uncle's wealth, consisting mostly of numerous landholdings around Tarragonese locations of Tamarit, Ferran and Morell, though also in some more distant municipalities.for development of the Tamarit senyories see also Rovira 2002, pp. 32-39. The heritage was divided among 24 individuals, see Rovira 2007, p. 120; see also Rovira 2008, pp. 176-178

Josep de Suelves i de Montagut and María Goyeneche Puente had 3 children, Juan Nepomuceno Suelves Goyeneche, José Suelves Goyeneche and Carmen Suelves Goyeneche. The oldest, Juan (b. 1887), in 1908 became the 10th marqués de Tamarit as his father renounced the title.the process started in 1903, when Josep de Suelves changed his name to Josep de Montserrat, ABC 05.04.26; the title was officially granted to his son in 1908, see Diario Oficial 15.01.1908 He joined the military and served in the cavalry Husares regiment,La Ilustración Española y Americana 08.06.1910; his younger brother also served in the cavalry, Rovira 2007, p. 122 reaching the rank of a comandante during the Moroccan campaigns of the early 1920s.Rovira 2007, p. 123 At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 he joined the insurgents and assumed command of the Carlist Requeté battalion of Tercio de San Ignacio from Gipuzkoa; killed in action in June 1937 in Sopuerta in Biscay.Julio Aróstegui, Combatientes requetés en la Guerra Civil española (1936-1939), Madrid 2013, , p. 483; Alfonso Bullón de Mendoza, Aristócratas muertos en la Guerra Civil española, [in:] Aportes 44 (2000), p. 104 His granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Josep, herself a Peruvian citizen, married the oldest grandson of Franco in 1981.Geneallnet service here

War and exile

Upon the outbreak of the Glorious Revolution and deposition of Isabella II, the Carlists geared up their preparations to military action. Antoni de Suelves as advisor to Carlos VII arranged for his nephew to be called to the legitimist camp. In 1868 Josep de Suelves left Spain to join the personal entourage of the claimantPrats 1992, p. 126 and contributed to the buildup of the insurgency.his uncle was already active in Britain during the so-called Junta de Londres, see Begoña Urigüen, Orígenes y evolución de la derecha española: el neo-catolicismo, Madrid 1986, , 9788400061579, pp. 309-310; it is possible that Suelves along his uncle took part also in Junta de Vevey in 1870, see Vizconde de Esperanza, Le bandera carlista en 1871, vol. 1., Madrid 1871, p. 471 Four years later, as the Third Carlist War actually commenced, they crossed the border in Gipuzkoa, after few days withdrawing back to France. In 1873 Carlos VII entered the insurgent Vascongadas again. Despite that his uncle was appointed royal commissioner for the native – though barely captured – provinces of Tarragona and Lerída,Prats 1992, p. 125 Josep de Suelves remained on the Northern Front; he accompanied the pretender when setting a capital of the Carlist state in Estella.

The actual role and function of Josep de Suelves is unclear. In later Carlist propaganda he was presented as member of the claimant's General Staff,see this propaganda postcard though his young age and total lack of either military training or military experience suggest he was not in charge of any major duties. If indeed forming part of Estado Mayor, he was rather serving as liaison officer or adjutant to Carlos VII.Rovira 2007, p. 121, Prats 1992, p. 126, Isidre Molas, Els senadors carlins de Catalunya (1901-1923), Barcelona 2009, p. 6; Francisco de Paula Oller, Album de personajes carlistas con sus biografías, s.l. 1887, p. 54, mentions him as "oficial de órdenes" Though awarded a number of orders and promoted to teniente coronel, it is not clear whether he served one time or another in combat units. Upon the Carlist defeat in 1876 Josep Suelves kept escorting the claimant and left for France. As a reward for service Carlos VII conferred upon him the title of Vizconde de Montserrat, officially recognized by the Spanish state during the Franco era in 1954.Fundación Cultural de la Nobleza Española here

Pressed by the French authorities, the pretender boarded a ship in Boulogne and left for Britain; Suelves travelled with him, accompanying Carlos VII also in course of further voyages across the Atlantic to the United States and Mexico.de Paula 1887, p. 54 In 1877 the claimant and his entourage returned to Europe and headed for the Balkans; in the Romanian Ploiești they met the Russian Tsar Alexander II and agreed taking part in the commencing Russo-Turkish War. The four Spaniardsaccording to Salvador Bofarull, Un príncipe español en la Guerra Ruso-Japonesa 1904-1905, p. 55, accessible here, the team consisted of Carlos VII, Suelves and two anonymous "asistentes españoles"; de Paula 1887, p. 54, mentions, apart from the claimant, only Suelves and a “general Boet” were assigned to the Russian IX. Corps, probably first to 34th and later to 9th Cossack regiments;Bofarull p. 55, claims they joined the 13th Corps and served in the 9th and 34th Cossack regiments; initial Russian OdB as presented by Quintin Barry, War in the East: A Military History of the Russo-Turkish War 1877-78, Oxford 2012, , 9781907677113, p. 456 lists only 34th Don Cossack Regiment as forming part of the IX. Corps under general Krudener; a "XIII. Corps" is not listed at all; a later OdB (p. 470) indeed lists 9th Don Cossacks [regiment?] as part of the IX. Corps; another OdB available here lists neither 9th nor 34th Cossack regiment and claims that the IX. Corps was composed of two infantry divisions each with one divisional cavalry regiment; the Russian Kazachii Krug website lists 9th Don Cossack Regiment as taking part in a number of battles during the war, but gives no information on its location within the corps structure they witnessed the siege of Nicopolis, crossed the Danube, joined the headquarters of prince Carol I of Romania and took part in two battles of Plevnia.de Paula 1887, pp. 54-55 It is not clear whether Suelves accompanied the claimant during the rest of his bon vivant periodthe years of 1876-1882 are considered the period of political disorientation and personal disarray - including sex scandals - in life of Carlos VII, see Javier Real Cuesta, El Carlismo Vasco 1876-1900, Madrid 1985, , p.7 and in successive journeys to Britain, again the United States, India, Africa and South America in the late 1870s and early 1880s,de Paula 1887, pp. 55-62 though some sources indicate that his wedding of 1886 took place in Peru.see Rolando Rivero Lavayén, Los Moscoso. Su descendencia en el Peru y Bolivia, [in:] Genealogías Bolivianas, p. 67 available here

Cacique