José Benigno Sánchez Marco (1865-1949) was a Spanish Traditionalist politician, associated mostly with a branch known as Integrism and operating as Partido Católico Nacional, though active also within the mainstream Carlism. He is recognized as one of the longest-serving Integrist deputies to the Cortes, his 4 consecutive terms lasting between 1905 and 1916. He also presided over a number of Navarrese Catholic and landowners’ organizations.
Family and youth
The Sánchez family originated from the Southern-Eastern part of Navarre, known as Ribera Baja. José's grandfather, Estanislao Sánchez, owned landholdings near Milagro and Cadreita.El Siglo Futuro 14.03.08, available here He married a girl from Aragón and possibly lived for some time in Catalonia, as their son and José's father, Francisco Sánchez Asso (1831-1904),El Siglo Futuro 11.04.04, available here was born in Sant Feliú de Guixols in the province of Gerona. Francisco settled in Tudela, where he practiced as lawyer and served as mayor.Angel Garcia-Sanz Marcotegui, El ayuntamiento de Pamplona ante la "crisis obrera", [in:] Gerónimo de Uztariz 3 (1989), p. 29 At unspecified time he married María Antonia Marco Rodrigo, a native of Bello (Teruel province) and member of a well known Aragonese family. Her father, Mariano Marco Catalan, served as captain of the hussars in the War of Independence;Luis Negro Marco, El general carlista Marco de Bello, [in:] Xiloca 8 (1991), p. 92 her paternal uncle, Juan Francisco Marco Catalan, earned his name as cardinal, growing to Governor of Rome and vice-camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church.see Marco y Catalan, Juan Francisco entry, [in:] Florida International University service, available here Her older brother, Manuel Marco Rodrigo, was a military who earned his name during the Third Carlist War. Growing to commander of the Carlist Aragón troops and widely known as Marco de Bello, he became sort of an iconic figure in the movement.see his monograph, José María Jaime Lorén, Manuel Marco y Rodrigo: Marco de Bello, Teruel 1992,
Francisco and María Antonia lived in Tudela; the couple had at least two children,El Siglo Futuro 14.12.34, available here though exact number is not clear. The young José left his family home in 1874, entering the Jesuit Colegio del Salvador in Zaragoza, where he graduated in 1880.El Siglo Futuro 14.03.08 At unspecified time he enrolled at Facultad de Derecho of the Zaragoza University, pursuing civil and canonical law; he graduated in both in 1887.El Siglo Futuro 14.03.08, Victor Manuel Arbeloa, Navarra y los estatutos de autonomía (1931 - 1932), Madrid 2015, , page unavailable, see here The same year he entered the local Colegio de Abogados in Tudela, but did not commence his own practice at the time. Instead, he moved to Pamplona; until 1893 he served as abogado fiscal in the local Audiencia Provincial, the same year entering also Colegio de Abogados of the Navarrese capital.El Liberal Navarro 06.03.93, available here He inherited an estate of some 250 ha, located in the Ebro bend near Milagro,Juan Jesús Virto, Victor Manuel Arbeloa, La cuestión agraria navarra (1900-1936), part 3, [in:] Príncipe de Viana 171 (1984), p. 257. The area counted among the most secularized in Navarre; in the late 1920s some 500 inhabitants did not observe Easter, Javier Dronda Martínez, Con Cristo o contra Cristo: religión y movilización antirrepublicana en Navarra (1931-1936), Tafalla 2013, , p. 178 and is referred to also as "propietario".both in historiography and contemporary press, see e.g. Arbeloa 2015 and La Correspondencia de España 28.05.20, available here
At unspecified time José Sánchez Marco married Soledad Doussinague Casares (1870-1943),ABC 07.10.43, available here; more information on her family, including many photographs, in Ignacio Miguéliz Valcarlos, Fotografía navarra. La colección del marqués de la Real Defensa, Tafalla 2014, , available here descendant to a petty bourgeoisie family; her father, Pedro Doussinague Adema, was related to a textile manufacturing business in the Gipuzkoan town of Laskurain.Marco Segurola Jiménez, Evolución del espacio industrial en Tolosa, [in:] Vasconia 24 (1996), p. 204 The couple had five children,according to some sources 6, see Jisé Benigno Sánchez Marco entry, [in:] Geneallnet service, available here who changed their name to Sánchez-Marco Doussinague;instead of "Sánchez Doussinague", which would have been normally adopted two sonsAntonio and Francisco Sánchez-Marco Doussinague and three daughters.María, Josefa and Carmen Sánchez-Marco Doussinague Known locally in Navarrese realm, none of them became a nationally recognized figure;ABC 09.05.63, available here Antonio volunteered to the Carlist requeté during the Civil War;Pensamiento alaves 19.11.36, available here though not a military, he commanded a platoon in Tercio María de las Nieves battalion.listed as Antonio Sánchez Doussinague, Julio Aróstegui, Combatientes Requetés en la Guerra Civil española, 1936-1939, Madrid 2013, , pp. 407, 421 Later on he served as concejal in the Pamplona ayuntamiento.José Miguel de Mayoralgo y Lodo, Movimiento nobiliario. Año 1936, [in:] Real Academia Matritense de Héraldica y Genealogía service, p. 131, available here María became a nun.El Siglo Futuro 29.07.25, available here José's grandson Carlos Sánchez-Marco Mendizabal is a historianspecializing in medieval history of Navarre, see his Historia Medieval del Reyno de Navarra, Madrid 2005 , La Lengua en el Crisol Navarro, Tafalla 2007, , and Navarra mon amour, Tafalla 2010, and the moving spirit behind Fundación Lebrel Blanco, dedicated to culture and history of the province;see the Fundación Lebrel Blanco website, available here another one, Javier Sánchez-Marco Mendizabal, made his name as an entrepreneur.ABC 01.12.12, available here
Early political career (before 1905)
José inherited Traditionalist outlook from the ancestors. His father was active in the legitimist ranks in the 1860s, by no means a typical path, given Tafalla and Tudela were "distritos de mayor tradición liberal".María del Mar Larraza, Navarra, [in:] José Varela Ortega (ed.), El poder de la influencia. Geografía del caciquismo en España. (1875-1923), Madrid 2001, , p. 437 In 1865 he entered Cortes as a Carlist-Catholic candidate elected from PamplonaBegoña Urigüen, Orígenes y evolución de la derecha española: el neo-catolicismo, Madrid 1986, , p. 251, see also the official Cortes service, also Sánchez Asso, Francisco entry, [in:] the official Cortes service, available here and in the 1880s he remained a Traditionalist militant.El Tradicionalista 02.12.86, available here José's maternal uncle – at that time not yet known as Marco de Bello - served as his godfather, specifically asked to provide spiritual guidance.El Siglo Futuro 14.03.08 José was entering the Carlist realm in the 1880s; at that time the movement was divided between an intransigent ultra-Catholic faction and a group prepared to recognize political setting of the Restoration. During final breakup of 1888 he followed his father and sided with the former, led by Ramón Nocedal; the group became known as the Integrists. In the early 1890s Sánchez Marco started to appear in the party press, initially merely as signatory of various venerating addressesEl Siglo Futuro 10.02.91, available here and then as author of brief notes, hailing Nocedal."defensor de los derechos de Díos y de la Iglesia" At that time his father was member of the Navarrese Integrist executive, Asamblea Regional.El Siglo Futuro 13.07.93, available here
In 1895 Sánchez Marco is first noted as taking part in a major party gathering in Azpeitia; speaking himself, he praised Gipuzkoa as a Spanish oasis, a province which preserved all traditional virtues of the country and was set to be its salvation ark.El Siglo Futuro 07.08.95, available here In 1896 the Integrist Madrid mouthpiece, El Siglo Futuro, published his major elaborate, formatted as a sophisticated discourse of divine role in civilization; he lambasted "absurdities of Rousseau, Kant, Hobbes and Schelling" and in what seemed like a typical lecture of Integrist outlook admitted inspiration by scholastic doctrine of the 16th century.El Siglo Futuro 06.02.96, available here and El Siglo Futuro 07.02.96, available here
In 1896 Sánchez Marco stood as an Integrist candidate for the Cortes from Pamplona.El Siglo Futuro 24.03.96, available here The party entered no alliance in the Carlist-Conservative dominated constituency; it is not clear whether initial reports of his success were genuine or rather formed part of the party propaganda;El Siglo Futuro 07.04.96, available here when eventually declared defeated, he protested electoral fraud.El Siglo Futuro 17.04.96, available here Active in the party ranks, in the late 1890s he grew to vice-president of Junta Regional, the Navarrese Integrist executive.El Siglo Futuro 09.05.96, available here There is no information on his taking part in electoral campaigns of 1898 and 1899. In the early 20th century the Integrists and the Carlists, venomously hostile during the preceding decades, neared each other. As a result, in 1901 they formed a joint Navarrese list and Sánchez Marco was its candidate in Tudela.El Siglo Futuro 01.04.01, available here Unsuccessful again he complained about official detentions of party electoral agentsEl Siglo Futuro 20.05.01, available here and other pucherazos.El Siglo Futuro 25.01.01, available here
Active in Church-sponsored initiatives he embarked on setting up joint workers and owners labor organizations,"evitar que la impiedad y el socialismo los arrastre" defusing conflict by arbitrary boards and insurance funds; at that time he counted as a "respected party member" dealing with representatives of the workers.Angel García-Sanz Marcotegui, Algunas noticias sobre el nacimiento del PSOE en Navarra. La Agrupación Socialista de Pamplona de 1892, [in:] Geronimo de Uztariz 2 (1988), pp. 73, 76. In private he tried to implement his concept on his Dehesa de San Juan estate, where he settled some 30 tenant families; they were provided with some free amenities like firewood, schooling and religious services, apart from a favorable compensation scheme, Juan Jesús Virto, Victor Manuel Arbeloa, La cuestión agraria navarra (1900-1936), part 3, [in:] Príncipe de Viana 171 (1984), p. 257 He did not run in the 1903 general elections and targeted the Pamplona council instead;El Siglo Futuro 09.11.06, available here the same year he was elected to the ayuntamiento.El Siglo Futuro 19.11.06, available here As concejal he lambasted militant proletarian initiatives promoting Catholic groupings;Heraldo de Madrid 20.01.05, available here, Angel Garcia-Sanz Marcotegui, El ayuntamiento de Pamplona ante la "crisis obrera", [in:] Gerónimo de Uztariz 3 (1989), pp. 35-36 as a lawyer he defended priests facing legal problems.El Siglo Futuro 19.03.06, available here
Deputy (1905-1916)