Drawing in followers of the former Prime Minister Antonio Maura and the ultraconservative wings of Social Catholicism and Carlism, the group that developed around this journal promised to revive a strong Catholic monarchy.

[9] AE attracted some leading figures in Spanish society, with members of the group including the poet José María Pemán,[10] the militarist Jorge Vigón Suero-Díaz[11] and the film-maker Ernesto Giménez Caballero.

[12] Members of AE set up a 'conspiratorial committee' in late 1932, meeting at the regularly at the Biarritz home of Juan Antonio Ansaldo to plan a restoration coup.

A substantial amount of money was spent stockpiling arms, whilst Lieutenant-Colonel Valentín Galarza Morante was given responsibility for building up subversive cells in the army.

The organization's co-founder, the famed political theorist Ramiro de Maeztu was summarily executed by a Republican death squad in the early days of the Spanish Civil War.