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• English translation;
• Alejandro Pidal y Mon was born on August 26, 1846 in Madrid, son of Pedro Jose Pidal and Carniado (first Marquis of Pidal) and Manuela Mon (Mon and sister Alejandro Menendez, who chaired the Council of Ministers and was ambassador to Rome, Paris and Vienna), brother of jurist and second Marquis of Pidal Luis Pidal (academic, deputy ambassador in Rome, Minister of Development and President of the Senate on several occasions), and uncle of Ramon Menendez Pidal, philologist and director of the Spanish Royal Academy. Among their children include Pedro Pidal (Marquis of Villaviciosa) and Roque bibliophile Pidal.

Biography

• Asturian family, although born and raised in Madrid, always felt deeply Asturian. He studied at the San Isidro Institute in the capital and at the Central University, which ended the career of law. He joined the group of neo-Catholics with other young people like Enrique Perez Hernandez, Carlos Maria Perier, the Marquis de Heredia or the Count de Llobregat with the weekly magazine he founded the Crusade in 1867. In 1868 he married Ignacia Bernaldo de Quirós y Gonzalez-Cienfuegos, daughter of the Marquis de Camposagrado, with who had fifteen children of those who survived thirteen, among whom we should mention Pedro Pidal, Marquis de Gijon, and Roque Pidal, a prominent biblófilo.

Political career

• On August 24, 1872 was elected deputy in the Cortes amadeístas first Villaviciosa the district (district of Oviedo). He had various interventions in relation to church affairs and the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico. Not elected on the Constituents of the First Republic, but in the first of the Restoration, January 20, 1876. From that time until his death in 1913 will always be a deputy for the same district and constituency in a total of fifteen elections, always sign deeply conservative and ally the more Vatican Catholicism, making enemies among progressives as well as the writer Leopoldo Asturian Alas, "Clarin."
• In 1874 he founded The Catholic Spain, which became in 1875's Spain. On 8 and 9 March 1876, due to the response to the Speech from the Throne, has Pidal intervention against Cánovas which he accused of "making sterile restoring the Spanish monarchy, putting that restoration of service revolution. " It also attacks the Minister Romero Robledo, "which has no authority to direct an election", and finally, criticizes the censure of the Catholic press and concludes noting the impossibility of reconciling the revolution with the restoration of the monarchy. According Aureliano Linares Rivas, Pidal "will be the speaker who made his name famous in the first diatribe against Canovas del Castillo and his government."
• The same year 1876 participated in the constitutional debate. Your initial approach is that the Constitution of 1845 remains in force, as there could be abolished by the manifesto of Sandhurst. And that the text will link to the moderates and the Liberal Union members not involved in the revolution of 68 to the extent it does not recognize the doctrine of national sovereignty, such as the 1812 and 1837. Criticism, finally, the existence of a table of rights in the Constitution of 1876. It follows a major impact in the debate on Article 11 of the draft constitution, manifesting boldly against religious freedom and demanding their political and family history. Pidal defends confessionalism of the State as a national issue, while Canovas understands that should not be considered as one and the same philosophy and politics.
• On May 17, participates in the debate on the conferring of degrees, keeping non-exclusive jurisdiction of the State Universities favor of Catholic inspiration that were created at that time. On 18 this month defending the religious orders. On July 17, takes an active part in the debate on the abolition of privileges Basques. According Pidal y Mon is a "law of retaliation" against the Carlists, so that votes against.
• In 1877 enters the controversy over an article that blamed Azcarate Gumersindo of religion and the Inquisition of scientific backwardness of Spain stating that "religious intolerance and the Inquisition favored, rather than cut, the freest flight of science" (The Spain, March 24, 1877). Gumersindo Laverde and Menendez Pelayo mark distances to Pidal, which would expand over the years.
• In 1881 he founded the Catholic Union, which advocates the unity of all Catholics who want to work through legal means to religious and social purposes. The bishops are the presidents of the association in his diocese. On January 2, 1882 sees the light its organ of expression, La Union. On June 6, 1887 another newspaper will appear linked to the same organization with the name of the Catholic Union.
• In 1883 Congress manifested against the law of civil marriage. On 29 April this year joined the Royal Spanish Academy, occupying the chair vee capital that once occupied the Asturian Jovellanos. His inaugural speech is about Luis de Granada and the philosophy of eloquence.
• In December 1883 he traveled to Rome in the company of Sanchez Toca. Pope Leo XIII encouraged participation in public life, although not necessarily with their own party, but swelling the party "more akin". A month earlier he had met with King Alfonso XII, interested in attracting Catholics to its cause.
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