[15] Since early childhood consuming sophisticated books[16] and gifted with excellent memory,[17] the young Francisco was first educated in the Jesuit college of Nuestra Señora de Recuerdo in the Madrid quarter of Chamartin.

[45] Having obtained PhD laurels thanks to a thesis on Jerónimo Castillo de Bobadilla, in 1939 Tejada returned to Madrid as Professor Ayudante[46] to assist Nicolás Pérez Serrano[47] at Derecho Político.

[48] In 1940 he applied for chair of philosophy of law in Seville and Oviedo, but during the routine contest he was defeated by counter-candidates; referees described him as erudite and brilliant speaker, but also disoriented, immature, not adhering to the point, lacking reflexive spirit, excessively lyrical and repetitive.

[66] Though member of a number of scientific institutions around the world,[67] recipient of a few doctor honoris causa titles,[68] a vastly prolific author and during his lifetime himself subject of 4 PhD dissertations,[69] Tejada did not make it to the top elite of Spanish law scholars and did not enter Real Academia de Jurisprudencia y Legislación.

Some claim that he was universally highly regarded as doctrinally intransigent but pro-student[70] open-minded, tolerant scholar,[71] as demonstrated by his supervision of PhD bid of Enrique Tierno Galván, the future key PSOE politician.

[75] Tejada is considered member of the natural law school and its key representative during the Franco era,[76] influenced by early modern Spanish jurists like Francisco Suarez[77] but mostly following the Aquinas; he regarded own work merely a gloss to the opus of St.

He is considered not a mere follower but a scholar who developed Thomist juridical philosophy, credited for attempting a synthesis with existentialist school;[88] some even view him as representative of legal Catholic Existentialism, a definition not accepted universally.

[95] Though some scholars point to some confusion as to the terms used,[96] most agree that for Tejada law was "la norma política con contenido justo", colloquially described as where politics and ethics overlapped,[97] a sovereign normative system related but clearly separate from religion.

Tejada's vastly erudite[107] opus magnum,[108] a systematic in-depth lecture gathering all his ideas on law theory was Tratado de filosofia del derecho, published in Seville in two volumes respectively in 1974 and 1977.

[111] As historian of political ideas Tejada clearly focused on broad Hispanic realm: he published studies on Castile,[112] Catalonia,[113] Navarre,[114] Vascongadas,[115] Extremadura,[116] Valencia[117] and Galicia,[118] produced works intended as synthetic accounts for Spain[119] and Portugal,[120] dedicated separate works to Franche-Comté,[121] Sardinia,[122] Naples,[123] Sicily, Flanders and Malta[124] and wrote on Hispanic Florida, Texas and California, Portuguese holdings in Africa and Asia,[125] the Philippines, Chile, Brazil,[126] Colombia[127] and Latin America in general.

However, his comparatistic zeal made him discuss history of political thought also beyond the Lusitanic and Hispanic realm, e.g. in England, Arabic and Sephardic traditions, Germany, Greece, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Hungary, Japan, Thailand, Borneo, Ethiopia, Mozambique and elsewhere.

[135] According to Tejada Hispanidad was born in the Middle Ages, climaxed during the early España de los Austrias[136] and declined due to centralist French tradition imported by the Borbones.

[147] Another frequently applied personal comparison was that to Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo: the two shared passion for Hispanic patrimony,[148] massive erudition, reconstructive profile and Traditionalist leaning;[149] Tejada's approach is dubbed "menéndezpelayismo".

[165] Some scholars highlight 1938-1940 works and consider him "superfascista",[166] most students tend to downplay caudillaje-related writings[167] and focusing on the 1942-1978 period see Tejada as a Traditionalist;[168] few advance an in-between option of "franquismo neotradicionalista".

[172] Tejada perceived Traditionalism as a unique Spanish response[173] to the 1515-1648 rupture in European political thought;[174] the latter afterwards degenerated into absolutism, liberalism, totalitarianism,[175] and most recently into secular, parliamentarian, free-market, nation-state[176] democracies.

Preceded by caudillaje-oriented brochures of the late 1930s,[201] the main body of his Traditionalism was laid out mostly in the 1950s, following activity in Academia Vázquez de Mella; its most complete and straightforward lecture was La monarquía tradicional (1954),[202] though some, like El tradicionalismo político español, remained in manuscript.

[203] The vision was further refined in details in the 1960s, especially during Congresses of Traditionalist Studies[204] and systematically revisited in the early 1970s, mostly as result of political struggle taking place within Carlism: a lengthy manuscript was reduced into a manual-styled script - officially co-authored with Rafael Gambra Ciudad and Francisco Puy Muñoz[205] - ¿Qué es el carlismo?

[212] Francisco himself claimed he had joined Comunión Tradicionalista at the age of 15, remained a Carlist during his adolescence[213] and in 1936 returned from Germany to enlist to the Nationalist army responding to the call of his king, Alfonso Carlos,[214] though he provided also conflicting or confusing accounts.

[222] Though he had no chance to publish writings lambasting the system as anti-Catholic tyranny,[223] Tejada made little secret of his views and in the Salamanca law faculty he voted against granting Franco doctorado honoris causa.

First commencing co-operation with their periodicals,[227] in the Madrid cafes he mixed with Carlists of different persuasions, including the pro-collaborationist Carloctavistas[228] and the intransigent orthodox Javieristas; he also took part in their minor public manifestations against the regime.

[229] In unspecified circumstances, though most likely acting in agreement if not on request of the then Carlist political leader Manuel Fal Conde, Tejada ventured to co-organize a semi-official Traditionalist cultural network, which materialized as the Madrid Academia Vázquez de Mella; in the late 1940s he was among its most active lecturers.

[233] The period of vacillation ended in 1950, when Tejada aligned with the Javieristas[234] and accepted seat in their national executive, in 1951 nominated by Don Javier commissioner of Comunión Tradicionalista external affairs.

He lambasted the dissenting Carloctavistas,[236] complained to Fal about permissive, increasingly Christian-Democratic profile of a semi-official Carlist daily Informaciones,[237] and advocated that Don Javier goes bold by terminating the long overdue regency.

[257] Though he knew some, especially their leader Ramón Massó, from the Academia Vázquez de Mella years of the 1940s,[258] Tejada developed grave doubts about Carlist orthodoxy and genuine intentions of the hugocarlistas,[259] suspecting them of pursuing a hidden agenda.

[272] In the first half of the 1960s Tejada emerged as chief ideologue of Juntas de Defensa del Carlismo, network mushrooming across the country and united by opposition to hugocarlismo;[273] he also contributed to launch of a new periodical, Siempre.

[274] In mid-1960s Tejada was firmly established among leaders of loosely organized[275] followers of orthodox Traditionalism;[276] his activity was increasingly leaning towards vague dynastical compromise,[277] intended to block the Borbón-Parmas;[278] this strategy led him close to Carloctavistas and Sivattistas.

[284] On the Carlist front, his 1971 last-minute doctrinal summary, ¿Qué es el carlismo?,[285] made the Traditionalist position crystal clear, but failed to prevent transformation of Javierismo into the socialist-dominated Partido Carlista.

[299] In the post-war Spain Tejada gained prominence principally as a theorist of law; present day scholars either suggest that Francoist setting provided a favorable background for domination of iusnaturalismo against other schools,[300] or bluntly claim that Neoescolástica was the regime's means of auto-legitimization,[301] enforced and disguised as "pluralism".

[303] During and after the Second Restoration[304] Tejada's opus went dramatically out of fashion; already by the end of his life he was invoked in the press as a ridiculous fanatic who did not even merit a response,[305] while later – among occasional courteous references[306] – he was venomously denounced as "distinguida personalidad del franquismo".

[311] Two institutions he set up, Centro Zumalacárregui[312] and Asociación "Felipe II",[313] are active until today, organizing conferences and issuing own publications;[314] some of these initiatives are supported financially[315] by Ministry of Education[316] and Real Academia de Ciencias Morales y Políticas.