Carloctavismo
[2] Such a perspective triggered protests; the dissenting Carlists claimed that a compromise with the liberal Borbón branch would be an insult to generations of their forefathers, who fought and died to topple the hated dynasty.
[7] Headed by an ex-combatant of the Third Carlist War Juan Pérez Nájera, in February 1932 the group presented their cause in a letter to the claimant,[8] who received them at a meeting in Toulouse[9] but refused to bow to any pressure.
[22] She publicly distanced herself from the enterprise,[23] but her position changed when in January 1936 Don Alfonso Carlos eventually decided to sort the succession issue by appointing a distant relative, Javier de Borbón-Parma,[24] a future regent.
[28] After 1937 Carlos Pio and the Cruzadistas alike refrained from political activity, with key issue on Carlist agenda having been defense of own identity against the Francoist pressure to amalgamate within a new state party.
After 1936 the emerging Francoist state left the monarchist question parked in obscurity;[32] feeble maneuvers on part of the Alfonsists and the Carlists were dismissed on the ground of wartime necessities.
[36] In August Don Juan dispatched another, increasingly bold message, countered shortly afterwards by a note from the Carlist leader, who warned that a future monarchy must be a Traditionalist, not a Liberal one.
[37] In September 1943 Franco faced a serious threat to his rule: majority of the most senior army generals signed a letter, in polite but ultimative terms demanding restoration of the monarchy.
[39] In the early 1940s the Allies were chiefly concerned with preventing Spain from joining the Axis;[40] though unhappy about fascistoid nature of the regime,[41] they could have not afforded ruining their relations with Madrid by challenging Franco's internal policy.
[44] In 1943 the official propaganda of the Allies already marketed a hostile vision of Spain; an American newsreel presented it as a fascist country[45] and anti-Francoist tones in BBC broadcasts elicited protest even from a British press attaché in Madrid.
[47] In late 1943 the Allied demands regarding termination of shipments to the Nazis became ultimative and spelled the threat of total fuel embargo, which indeed early next year would prove its effectiveness by bringing the Spanish economy to its knees in just two months.
As following the so-called Begoña crisis the chief architect of totalitarian state, Ramón Serrano Suñer, was already sidetracked, in 1943 the dictator embarked on first major redefinition of the system.
[54] In his trademark style balancing different political groupings, Franco decided to keep supporters of both dynastical options in check by pursuing two paths at the same time.
Supporters of Carlos VIII advanced a theory, embraced already in 1914 by Vázquez de Mella,[57] that according to the 1713 law an oldest daughter of a legitimate ruler in some circumstances might inherit the succession rights.
[59] The highlight on Doña Blanca shocked many Carlists, convinced that the theory turned Carlism on its head;[60] the movement was triggered by opposition to violation of the 1713 law by Fernando VII, who in 1830 declared his daughter Isabel the future queen.
The Alfonsists were almost entirely united behind their candidate, Don Juan; only minor controversies related to his older brother, who on basis of his disability renounced all heritage rights in 1933 to backtrack in 1941 and to declare himself head of the House of Bourbon and legitimate heir to the French throne.
This campaign, exercised in 1944–1946, was aimed at promoting the pretender without seeking massive adhesions; the Octavista political strategy relied upon supporting the regime and ignoring its differences with the Traditionalist doctrine; many of its leaflets featured the "Franco y Carlos VIII" slogan.
[94] The Carloctavista strength was that many Carlists, tired of semi-clandestine status and envious about open campaign of Don Carlos, were getting increasingly irritated by what they considered inefficient overdue regency.
Don Carlos was from the onset fully supportive of the law and appeared in propaganda campaign related to the 1947 referendum,[112] very cautiously featured in official media like weekly newsreels.
[122] This shattered his image of a model Catholic family man and though he requested the marriage be declared void by the Church so that he could remarry, the perspective of a legitimate male descendant became unlikely either in the near future or at all.
[125] The work advanced a fairly Traditionalist vision, founded on monarchical, Catholic, regionalist and organicist threads; it contained no reference to caudillaje system, by no means endorsed Falangist national-syndicalism and when discussing social issues focused on gremialist structures instead.
What differed it from orthodox Carlism was that modernizing effort prevailed over focus on tradition; it contained even some democratic references stressing total mobility of the society, unheard of in tradition-entrenched typical Carlist outlook.
[133] Any official, semi-official or unofficial endorsement of Don Carlos's claim on part of the regime failed to materialize before in late 1953 he unexpectedly died of cerebral hemorrhage.
[138] Even the popular pro-Alfonsist daily ABC, which maintained almost perfect blackout on Carlos VIII during the previous ten years,[139] now felt it safe to acknowledge his death; a two-page editorial praised his anti-communism and dwelt on trivia like his affection to motor sports, but did not utter a single word about his royal claim.
[145] Most Carloctavista leaders were overwhelmed by this sequence of disasters and sensed that their cause was turning into a grotesque; one of them concluded that "estamos, queridos compañeros, en el más absoluto y completo de los ridículos".
Jaime del Burgo suggested that the oldest daughter of Carlos Pio, a 14-year-old Doña Alejandra, is declared "abanderada provisional" so that she could transmit hereditary rights to her future son.
In the mid 1980s most Carloctavistas, reduced to hardly active minuscule grouplets, merged into a united Traditionalist organization, Comunión Tradicionalista Carlista, which refrained from endorsing any specific claimant or branch.
[170] In some works they acknowledge Cruzadista origins of the movement;[171] in some they present it as almost entirely fabricated by Franco,[172] who pulled his pet claimant out of a hat with the sole purpose to distract the monarchists.
Some see it as rooted in Carloctavista theoretical framework, to a large extent overlapping with the official doctrine, and wrap up by claiming that "with no doubt, Octavism was either Carlism of the Francoists or Francoism of the offshoot Carlists".
[192] Their works relate the origins of the movement to profound dynastical crisis within Carlism, later enhanced by political fragmentation and bewilderment of Traditionalism resulting from different strategies adopted towards Francoism.
[193] One scholar suggests Don Carlos stood a real chance of becoming a king, ruined by his wife, who tarnished his image and deprived him of future male descendency.
