[4] Either the grandfather or the father of Antonio moved to Baracaldo on the Biscay coast; the latter, José Iturmendi López (1873-1955), was educated in jurisprudence and worked as a lawyer for almost half a century.

[5] In the mid-1920s he was president of Consejo Judicial of Banco Vasco and as such was involved in negotiations over Concierto Económico, periodical financial arrangements between the provincial Biscay self-government and Madrid.

[10] Like his siblings, Antonio was raised in a profoundly Catholic ambience; he started education at the Doctrina Cristiana and Sagrados Corazones schools, where he obtained the baccalaureate.

[15] The same year he successfully passed entry exams to Instituto Reus[16] and commenced law practice in Delegación de Hacienda[17] in Castellón,[18] though already in 1927 he was transferred to Logroño.

None of them became a public figure, though Maria Teresa married Alfonso Osorio García, a Francoist and later a Christian-Democrat politician, deputy prime minister in the Suarez government.

[28] Antonio's nephew, José Iturmendi Morales, became a scholar in jurisprudence and for 20 years until 2008 served as dean of the Law Department at Universidad Complutense in Madrid, considered one of key Spanish iusnaturalists.

An apparently well-known Iturmendi was recorded as involved in Acción Popular in the Biscay countryside, though it is not clear whether the person is question was Antonio, his father or any other family member.

In August 1936 José Iturmendi showed up in Burgos and publicly declared adhesion to the military Junta, yet a corresponding press note did not mention Antonio as accompanying his father.

[37] He reportedly accepted the Unification Decree of April 1937 and was among these Carlists who readily joined the new Francoist state party, Falange Española Tradicionalista,[38] though the first confirmed information on his whereabouts comes from December 1937.

Recommended by Esteban Bilbao, Iturmendi was nominated into a 3-member Comisión Liquidadora;[39] once the Nationalists scrapped all separate provincial Biscay arrangements, especially Concierto Económico, the body was entrusted with engineering their legal handover to the central administration and it completed the task within few months.

Furious about the archbishop's neutralist stance, Franco was determined to prevent his return to Tarragona;[47] Iturmendi helped to outmaneuver the provisional papal nominee, Francesc Vives, and greatly contributed to final defeat of the Vatican's diplomacy in their struggle to reinstate Vidal.

[71] In late 1942 Iturmendi was not re-appointed to the new Consejo Nacional[72] and he found himself on the sidelines of official politics; according to some scholars he commenced the period of "largo ostracismo", which was to last until the end of the decade.

[75] However, almost at the same time Iturmendi was reportedly engaged in drafting a political manifesto of the Alfonsist claimant Don Juan; it materialized in 1946 as Bases Institucionales de la Monarquía Española.

As part of the Francoist plan of reaching full economic independence, FEFASA was tasked with launching production of synthetic fiber; though based on German technology, the bid was not successful before Iturmendi ceased as president.

[102] Some scholars claim that Iturmendi's Traditionalist leaning contributed to further restrictions on public morality, like the 1956 regulations which officially delegalized prostitution or the 1958 law aimed against homosexuals.

[105] When discussing his governmental career many scholars do not focus on Iturmendi's ministerial work but single out his stand during the 1956 crisis, when Falange hardliners led by Arrese produced the last serious attempt to convert the regime into a totalitarian system.

[107] Then as minister of justice he wrote to Franco arguing against the proposal once it had already landed on dictator's desk;[108] Iturmendi claimed that if accepted, it would build a Soviet-style regime like these of the USSR, Poland, Yugoslavia or China.

[109] He declared that only the monarchy might prevent "tyranny of inorganic democracy"[110] and presented his own set of legislative proposals, aimed to build "Estado do Derecho";[111] according to some scholars they were drafted by López Rodo.

[112] Forming a common front with the monarchists and the military Iturmendi emerged successful; the climax led to the cabinet reshuffle, sidetracking of Arrese and adoption of a vague Ley de Principios del Movimiento Nacional.

[118] However, others note that Iturmendi remained entirely loyal to the dictator and was even prepared to lead a new Carlist organisation sponsored by the regime and with the sole purpose to distract and fragment the Traditionalists.

[127] Many scholars suggest that in the late 1950s Iturmendi was already firmly in the Juanista camp and that his talks with the Javieristas were merely intended to make them accept Don Juan as the Carlist heir.

[130] Historians speculate that at unspecified time in the late 1950s Iturmendi joined "Operación Salmón", a long-term informal monarchist campaign to impress upon Franco the idea of crowning Don Juan Carlos.

[131] The campaign lasted for some 10 years and during the crucial period of 1962-1964 it was co-ordinated by sort of a general staff, composed of 3 ministerial heavyweights: Manuel Fraga (Information), Camilo Alonso Vega (Interior) and Iturmendi (Justice).

As minister of justice Iturmendi was crucial in countering efforts to obtain Spanish citizenship either for the prince[133] or for his father;[134] he also worked to restrict the Carlohuguista campaign in the media.

[149] It is clear that he kept opposing the syndicalist hardliners; during 1967 works on Ley de Representacion Familiar he blocked the Falangists from entering the draft committee and ultimately ensured liberalization of the electoral law.

[150] He also remained on ice-cold terms with Carlohuguista supporters; when two of their MPs faced legal action related to so-called Cortes Transhumantes activity Iturmendi refused any assistance.

[151] His monarchist efforts were finally crowned in 1969, when Don Juan Carlos was nominated the future king of Spain; Iturmendi played a personal role in the ceremony since it was in front of him as president of the Cortes that the royal hopeful swore fidelity to the Francoist leyes fundamentales.

However, in the early 1970s he was noted for joining forces with Traditionalist Carlists in an attempt to build Hermandad de Maestrazgo, an organization supposed to counter the progressive Carlohuguista bid to control Carlism.

In general works dealing with Francoism he is usually acknowledged as a noticeable, but second-rate figure, a man who held two important jobs but who did not qualify among key policy-makers of the regime.

[177] Some scholars suggest that the likes of Rodezno, Bilbao and Iturmendi were instrumental in shaping Francoism as they infused Traditionalist spirit into the corporative organicist concepts of the early regime,[178] some rather underline his role in relation to the Alfonsist restoration and the ultimate crowning of Don Juan Carlos,[179] and some tend to present him as an opportunist who did not let "Carlism get in the way" of his career.