[15] Following premature death of Joaquín Elío, result of his engagement in the Third Carlist War, in the late 1870s the widow and children settled in Zaragoza;[16] the family Navarrese property was embargoed and possibly expropriated,[17] while her well-off relatives lived in the Aragón capital.

[36] Bernardo's father Joaquín Elío Mencos prepared the Pamplona rising in 1869;[37] captured and sentenced to death he was eventually condemned to exile on the Mariana Islands, but escaped in Cádiz[38] and commanded a battalion during the Third Carlist War.

[46] As Elío remained among relatively few high aristocrats loyal to Carlos VII, he usually featured among first signatories of various open letters, circulated by the party activists.

[49] The same year Las Hormazas for the first time took part in a meeting of the nationwide Carlist executive in Madrid, headed by the party political leader Marqués de Cerralbo.

[69] His last assignment identified was the 1912 nomination to Junta Provincial de Instrucción Pública;[70] indeed, he demonstrated particular interest in education, animating rallies against secular schools.

[71] At least in 1909 Las Hormazas entered Junta Regional de Aragón;[72] it is not clear whether at the time he was also member of the provincial Zaragoza party executive, though he held vice-presidency of Juventud Tradicionalista in the city.

[77] Elío is not mentioned as engaged in nationwide Carlist politics;[78] historiographic works on Traditionalism of the early 20th century ignore him and it is not clear what – if any – was his position in numerous conflicts tormenting the party at the time, like mounting conflict between the claimant and the key theorist Vázquez de Mella, position versus growing peripheral nationalisms or the question of a broad conservative alliance.

Though resident in Zaragoza and active in the regional Aragón party structures, Las Hormazas maintained links to his native Vasco-Navarrese area; e.g. in 1909 he was noted in San Sebastián taking part in the funeral mass to the late Carlos VII.

[86] However, the Primo de Rivera coup of 1923 brought political life in the country to the standstill; throughout the rest of the decade Elío was recorded in the press only on the societé columns,[87] as he apparently withdrew into privacy.

Few weeks after the fall of Primo, in early 1930, the Gipuzkoan Jaimistas reconstituted their provincial executive; Las Hormazas was temporarily elected its president,[88] the choice confirmed a few months later during a grand rally in Zumarraga.

[89] As provincial jefé in October he issued a manifesto which called to recognize distinct identity of the Vasco-Navarrese provinces, including the Basque language and separate legal establishments,[90] all to be incorporated within “esta hermosa Federación de Naciones”.

[95] When in late 1931 the process was completed with emergence of united Comunión Tradicionalista he saw his powers somewhat diminished; though he remained the provincial jefé of CT, in public it seemed that he co-presided with the former Integrist leader, Juan Olazabal,[96] as the two appeared as peers on many assemblies,[97] especially at the 1931 funeral services to the defunct Don Jaime.

[100] During early stages of debates on Vasco-Navarrese autonomy Elío remained active[101] and called to abolish the government-imposed comisiones gestoras,[102] but in his 1932 addresses he was more ambiguous;[103] historiographic studies do not list him as involved.

Since the Basque government did not deploy autonomous police to protect the building during the unrest,[112] caused by the nationalist bombing raid over the city, the prison was entrusted to the UGT militia unit.