Juan de la Cierva y Peñafiel

Juan de la Cierva y Peñafiel (Mula, Murcia, (1864-03-11)March 11, 1864 - (1938-01-11)January 11, 1938) was a Spanish politician and lawyer, who served during the reign of Alfonso XIII as Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, of the Interior, of War, and of Finance and Development, and in the last government of the monarchy as Minister of Development.

This article is about the Spanish politician. For the Spanish engineer and inventor of the autogyro, see Juan de la Cierva.
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is De la Cierva and the second or maternal family name is Peñafiel.

The Most Excellent
Don

Juan de la Cierva y Peñafiel
Personal details
Born(1864-03-11)March 11, 1864
Mula, Murcia
DiedJanuary 11, 1938(1938-01-11) (aged 73)
Madrid
Political partyPartido Liberal-Conservador
Alma materUniversidad de Madrid
ProfessionLawyer and politician

Cierva was the son of lawyer and notary public Juan de la Cierva y Soto, from Murcia. He married a daughter of the banker Eleuterio Peñafiel, who was active between 1860 and 1896.

He graduated in law from the University of Madrid, beginning his political career with the Spanish Partido Liberal-Conservador (English: "Liberal-Conservative Party") as a councillor in 1895, and became the Mayor of Murcia and provincial leader of the Conservatives. In 1896, he was given writ to stand as a deputy congressman for the region of his birth, but failed to be elected.

During the Spanish Civil War he took refuge in the embassy of Norway. Because there was no medicine there, and such a deprivation of provisions, he contracted tuberculosis and suffered severe conditions, dying on the 11th of January, 1938.[1]

Politician
Juan de la Cierva, photograph by Kaulak

From 1902, Cierva built a network of political secret contacts, who maintained absolute power of the people, in exchange for political loyalty to the royal family. This time is known in Murcia as ciervismo. Cierva's political hegemony was strained by the class struggle and the establishment of the Spanish Second Republic.

He was the Minister for Education and the Minister for Arts December 16, 1904 and April 8, 1905, respectively, in separate governments presided by Marcelo Azcárraga Palmero and Raimundo Fernández Villaverde.

Between January 25, 1907 and October 21, 1909, he was the Minister of Interior. He was also Minister of War twice: from 3 November 1917 to March 22, 1918, where he was in the cabinet of Manuel García Prieto, and from 14 August 1921 to March 8, 1922 in Antonio Maura's government.

Under this government, he was also the Finance Minister, from April 15 to 20 July 1919.


References
  1. "Juan de la Cierva y Peñafiel". biografiasyvidas.com (in Spanish). Biografías y vidas. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.