He is known mostly as political leader of Carloctavismo, a branch of Carlism which during early Francoism advocated a claim to the Spanish throne raised by Carlos Pio Habsburgo-Lorena y Borbón.

Specializing in crew contracting issues[7] he grew to teniente coronel auditor[8] and as head of Cuerpo Jurídico de la Armada[9] became a distinguished figure in the entire Galicia, not infrequently reported in societé columns of the local press.

[15] It is not known when the adolescent Cora completed his Ferrol education; he than moved to Madrid and enrolled at Universidad Central, pursuing law studies at Facultad de Derecho.

[35] On July 12, 1936 Cora with his wife left Madrid for his native Viveiro; none of the sources consulted identifies him as involved in military conspiracy and the press acknowledged that he was to commence summer holidays.

[51] Retaining his General Auditor rank he was officially assigned "a las órdenes del señor Ministro",[52] and continued with honorary duties as consejero togado of Consejo Supremo de Justicia Militar[53] into the early 1960s.

It is not clear when he engaged in Unión Patriótica, but in the late 1920s he grew to mid-range positions of the Madrid organization; in 1928 active in its Sección de Propaganda,[60] in 1930 he entered the UP executive of the Congreso district.

In the first months of the Republic he was already Jefe of the Madrid provincial organization of the Jaimist Partido Católico Monárquico,[62] in early 1932 re-united with offshoot branches in Comunión Tradicionalista.

Cora joined the group led by Juan Pérez Nájera, which vehemently opposed sorting the dynastical crisis by an agreement with the Alfonsinos and instead advocated appointing an heir during Alfonso Carlos' lifetime.

[69] However, in late 1932 he emerged as their key theorist, publishing a legal analysis of the Carlist succession law titled El futuro Caudillo de la Tradición Española – Estudio Jurídico, Histórico y Político.

[70] The theory presented by Cora referred to an earlier 1914 interpretation, which read that in case of all male branches extinguished or excluded, heritage rights might be transmitted to her son by an oldest daughter of the last legitimate king.

The group - already known as the Cruzadistas - focused on Doña Blanca, setting their sights on her youngest son, Barcelona-resident Carlos Pio Habsburgo-Lorena; they started to call for a grand Carlist assembly, which would settle the succession issue.

In the 1933 electoral campaign to the Cortes he was to enter a joint Right-wing local Galician alliance known as Unión Orensana de Derechas, standing as representative of an Agrarian-Traditionalist grouping.

However, the mainstream Carlist faction, locally known as "oficialistas",[73] objected to his candidature;[74] as a result, Cora withdrew from the list[75] and he let the steam off by writing bitter letters to the press.

The group, now reduced to a minor secessionist Carlist branch though enjoying some support also in other regions, refused to budge; moreover, they assumed a challenging if not provocative name of Núcleo de la Lealtad.

Though he did not speak to caudillo himself, he agreed with his Jefe de la Casa Civil, Julio Muñoz Aguilar, that public promotional campaign of the royal claim of Don Carlos might commence across Spain.

By voicing their support to the Carlist claim of Carlos VIII, Cora and other Carloctavistas openly breached loyalty to the regency of Don Javier; hence, they were again expulsed from mainstream Carlism by its political leader, Manuel Fal.

[90] Don Carlos started to organize own structures: Comunión Católico-Monárquica and Juventudes Carlistas, carefully styled not to challenge the Francoist ban on political parties except FET;[91] in late 1943 he appointed Cora his secretario general.

[93] Though some high-positioned collaborative Carlists like the Cortes speaker Esteban Bilbao were leaning towards cautious support for Carlos VIII, it was Cora y Lira who emerged as the most distinguished partisan of the cause.

[99] Though it was Cora who laid out initial reading of the Carloctavista claim, in the 1940s as legal expert he withdrew to the back seat; his 1932 booklet was replaced as key theoretical work first by an anonymous pamphlet issued in 1948[100] and then by a lecture published by Antonio Lizarza in 1950.

[102] Featuring "Viva Franco y Carlos VIII" as the slogan, he accompanied the claimant in his numerous tours across the country, apart from close meetings punctuated by public gatherings styled as "concentraciones patrióticas".

He played down setbacks like the 1948 Franco's agreement with Don Juan[104] and at some points believed that official nomination of Carlos VIII as the future jefe de estado was near.

[108] However, 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.

[117] In more practical terms, Cora represented his king as a lawyer, fighting nobility-related legal battles before Spanish courts; in the early 1960s they were mostly about the duque de Madrid title, traditionally claimed by Carlist pretenders and at that time coveted also by another hopeful from the Javierista branch, Don Carlos Hugo.

In the early 1960s Cora was leaning towards some sort of reconciliation between all Carlist offshoot branches which parted during the previous 20 years: Rodeznistas, Carloctavistas, Sivattistas and the recently separated politicians like Francisco Elías de Tejada or José Luis Zamanillo.

[127] He died 3 months before his lifetime efforts crashed definitely with the July 1969 nomination of Don Juan Carlos as Principe de España and the future king of Spain.

[151] Cora's interest in social issues is marked by his Traditionalist approach, entrenched in enmity towards laissez-faire liberalism – let alone Marxist and revolutionary ideas - and based on Catholic and gremialist solutions.