1936 Carlist coup d'état was a plan to topple the Spanish republican government and install a Traditionalist monarchy. It was conceived by top executive of the Carlist organisation, Comunión Tradicionalista, and developed in March and April 1936. Preparations were under way until July 1936, though since June 1936 the plan was gradually being abandoned. The scheme, named Plan de los Tres Frentes, envisioned some 25,000 armed requeté volunteers advancing from Navarre, Maestrazgo and Extremadura towards Madrid, combined with an attempt to seize key governmental buildings by Madrid-based conspirators. The political leader behind the plan was Manuel Fal Conde, the key military planner was general Mario Muslera Planes, and the coup was tentatively to be led by general José Sanjurjo Sacanell. The scheme of a Carlist-only insurgence did not enjoy unanimous support within the CT; it was undermined by a competitive plan of a joint Carlist-military coup, promoted mostly by the local Navarrese executive. Eventually this alternative option prevailed; Plan de los Tres Frentes remained in the preparation phase and there were no attempts to put it into action.

Political background

Carlism has been notorious for its penchant for violence. Since the 1830s the country was multiple times rocked by Carlist attempts to topple the ruling regime, and its principal means when striving for power has usually been a rifle, not a ballot paper."ningún movimiento político de la España contemporánea ha mostrado, como el tradicionalismo carlista, una predisposición tan franca y tan persistente a la violencia, hasta hacerla formar parte indisociable de su praxis política, de su identidad colectiva y de su acervo cultural", Eduardo González Calleja, Aproximación a las subculturas violentas de las derechas antirrepublicanas españolas (1931-1936), [in:] Pasado y memoria 2 (2003), p. 113 Upon emergence of the Second Republic in 1931 initially the Carlist claimant Don Jaime issued statements which might have sounded conciliatory. However, following the wave of anti-religious violence and militantly secular reforms advanced by the government, the movement soon assumed a decisively anti-regime stand. Nevertheless, in the early 1930s the newly united Carlist party, Comunión Tradicionalista (CT), stopped short of embracing insurgent designs. Its paramilitary branch, Requeté, was developed with defensive strategy in mind and its immediate objectives amounted to protecting religious premises or party rallies, even though some might have been contemplating unspecified subversive schemes in the future. At times single highly positioned individuals might have joined right-wing plots and could have pledged requetés' participation in insurgent action – like in case of the 1932 Sanjurjada – but the official CT executive preferred to stay away from rebellious conspiracy plans.during a meeting of military conspirators prior to the August 1932 Sanjurjada a requeté leader Sanz de Lerín offered 6,000 of his men, but scholars dismiss this claim as pure fantasy, Martin Blinkhorn, Carlism and Crisis in Spain 1931-1939, Cambridge 2008, ISBN 9780521207294, p. 90. During Sanjurjada there were 2 Carlists dead during the skirmishes in Madrid; they might have been requeté members, Eduardo González Calleja, Paramilitarització i violencia politica a l’Espanya del primer terc de segle: el requeté tradicionalista (1900–1936), [in:] Revista de Girona 147 (1991), p. 72

The Carlist approach changed in 1934 with assumption of political leadership by Manuel Fal Conde. The new Jefe Delegado was confident that modus vivendi with the republican regime was out of the question, and that violent confrontation was a mere matter of time.Blinkhorn 2008, p. 207 The same year he set up Junta Técnica Militar (JTM), an auxiliary body composed of retired army officers;Roberto Muñoz Bolaños, "Por Dios, por la Patria y el Rey marchemos sobre Madrid". El intento de sublevación carlista en la primavera de 1936, [in:] Daniel Macías Fernández, Fernando Puell de la Villa (eds.), David contra goliat: guerra y asimetría en la Edad Contemporánea, Madrid 2014, ISBN 9788461705504, p. 153 its purpose was to co-ordinate Carlist preparations for future violent action, whatever shape it would assume: a coup, a move to suppress an unfolding revolution, or self-defense against crackdown by state security. Initially the body remained rather dormant. Paramilitary gear-up was managed by Delegación Nacional de Requeté, a sub-unit within Junta Nacional headed by José Luis Zamanillo,Blinkhorn 2008, p. 207 though military training was provided by professional military, first colonel Enrique Varela and since 1935 lieutenant colonel Ricardo Rada. At that time Requeté emerged already as the key branch of the organisation, its budget and role dwarfing these of political, female or youth sections.Blinkhorn 2008, p. 213 The results of the February 1936 elections, Frente Popular rule and radical left-wing turn of the government convinced the Carlist executive that imminent revolution was behind the corner, and that the time for action has arrived.Blinkhorn 2008, p. 233

Requeté

Requeté was an organisation set up in 1907 and it has gone through various phases, from juvenile section dedicated to culture, sports and leisure to urban hit-squads. In the early 1930s CT tried to turn it into sort of a party militia, but with rather poor results; the branch consisted of no more than few thousand young males in groups scattered across some cities, mostly in Catalonia and Levante. However, since 1932 the organisation underwent major change; apart from increased recruitment, it re-focused on smaller towns and villages, moved its centre of gravity to Navarre, got re-structured in paramilitary terms, and its members were undergoing weekend countryside trainings in infantry tactics and usage of firearms. Eventually in 1934 it was united under a nationwide command, no longer functioning as add-ins to local CT círculos. In 1935 it gained a convincingly military character which it had previously lackedBlinkhorn 2008, p. 221 and grew to some 20,000 men.Blinkhorn 2008, p. 220 Vague plans for military action were prepared, though until 1936 they were still intended as counter-revolutionary defense rather than as insurrectional coup.González Calleja 1991, pp. 74. The assumption was that requeté units would report to local military commanders and offer assistance, González Calleja 2011, p. 262 December 1935 produced first case of Requeté on alert awaiting the order to rise.in December 1935 Catalan Requeté were put on alert following Gil-Robles’ departure from the Ministry of War and anticipated turmoil; some requeté commanders spent 3 days in secret locations waiting for an order to rise, Robert Vallverdú i Martí, El carlisme català durant la Segona República Espanyola 1931–1936, Barcelona 2008, ISBN 9788478260805, pp. 284–285

One major problem of the organisation was that it remained dramatically short of competent NCOs and there were few professional officers involved, usually these forced to early retirement during the Azaña reform. Some 150 of mid-level volunteer commanders underwent few-week military training in Fascist Italy,in the summe of 1934 summer first 15 Carlists travelled to Rome to receive training in La Dispoli base in Furbara. Other groups soon followed. The instruction covered usage of modern arms (like machine guns and mortars) and infantry tactics (like manouvre or fire management), Eduardo González Calleja, Contrarrevolucionarios. Radicalización violenta de las derechas durante la Segunda República 1931–1936, Madrid 2011, ISBN 9788420664552, p. 198, Blinkhorn 2008, p. 214 but it barely sufficed. Another issue of major concern became weapons, so far reduced mostly to privately owned hunting rifles, old units stockpiled from earlier violent attempts, and firearms obtained by smuggling from abroad or procured illegally in Spain. To some extent the efforts to arm the paramilitary were successful; in 1935 the organisation owned 450 machine-guns.José Manuel Martínez Bande, Los años críticos: República, conspiración, revolución y alzamiento, Madrid 2011, ISBN 9788499207469, p. 194. Prior to WW2 a British infantry battalion was to operate 50 LMGs, so theoretically the number of machine-guns accumulated by the Carlists would have been sufficient to equip at least 1 infantry division, see Organization of the British Infantry Battalion. In case of less technologically advanced armies, including the Spanish one, there were 25-30 LMGs per infantry battalion, and the Carlist arsenal would have been enough to equip even 2 divisions Another problem was uneven geographical distribution; the organisation numbered some 6,000 men in Navarre, 4,000 in Catalonia, 4,000 in Levante, 3,000 in Vascongadas and 1,000 in Old Castile, but in other regions there were only few hundred volunteers on its rolls.the requeté army was heavily dependent on Navarre, Blinkhorn 2008, p. 220. According to various authors the Navarrese troops amounted to 5,400 men – González Calleja 2011, p. 264, 6,000 men – Blinkhorn 2008, p. 224, or 5,694 men – Jordi Canal, El carlismo, Madrid 2000, ISBN 8420639478, p. 322. Other regions with highest militancy were Catalonia (4,000 men), Levante (at least 3,700 men, data for Valencia missing), Vascongadas (at least 2,500 men, data for Biscay missing), Old Castile (1,380 men), Madrid (740 men), Andalusia (at least 640 men, data for Eastern provinces missing). The total was around 20,000 men, Vallverdú i Martí 2008, p. 257. Other scholers provide data also for Aragón (some 150 men), Julio Aróstegui, Combatientes Requetés en la Guerra Civil española, 1936–1939, Madrid 2013, p. 84 In early 1936 and according to its own statistics Requeté grouped 10,000 armed and trained men plus 20,000 in auxiliary pool.González Calleja 2011, p. 373, Blinkhorn 2008, p. 224 In contrast to urban-oriented action groups "primarily accustomed to street fighting and pistolerismo", maintained by other parties,some scholars note that in mid-1936 the total number of Requeté volunteer was not much more than those in Falange's Primera Linea, but that they were definitely better armed and trained; as the result, no other militia was even close compared to military performance and potential of Requeté, González Calleja 2011, p. 373 Requeté became a "genuine citizen army" capable of performing small-scale tactical military operations.Blinkhorn 2008, p. 224, also Antonio Lizarza Iribarren, Memorias de la conspiración. Cómo se preparó en Navarra la Cruzada. 1931–1936, Pamplona 1953, pp. 66, 83, Joaquín Arrarás, Historia de la Segunda República Española, Madrid 1965, p. 494

Forming of insurgency command