[49] As part of the job he returned to Spain shortly afterwards;[50] engaged in La Escodada, a failed attempt to stage a rising in Navarre,[51] he fled back to France in 1870.

In April his cavalry unit was shuttled across Gipuzkoa and Álava to Navarre, recording sweeping operations at Oñate, Azcárate and San Vicente-Peñacerrada before fighting at Eraul on May 5.

Made adjutant general of the claimant,[59] during the summer Orbe took part in operations which ensured Carlist takeover of central Navarre, engaged at Ibero,[60] Las Campanas,[61] Estella,[62] Allo,[63] Dicastillo[64] and the siege of Viana.

[70] He designed the plan which involved travelling by train, by coach and accompanying camouflage activities, intended to deceive the French;[71] it all worked out and in the summer via Dancharinea Doña Margarita made it to Estella.

[77] Carlos VII apparently enjoyed his company and wanted Orbe to join him on the voyage to America, but the adjutant asked for the permission to excuse himself; he planned to get married.

[84] As Orbe was hardly known for anything else than his wartime deeds, prestigious parentage and newspaper-published letters,[85] he was banking on popularity of his father when running in local elections to the Biscay diputación from Durango in 1883.

Due to lack of recognized personalities and scarce interest of the others, in 1884 Orbe was considered[88] a candidate to head the entire Biscay organization, but the plan was eventually abandoned.

[95] The year of 1887 was dedicated mostly to accompanying Carlos VII during his another voyage to America; exact details are not clear[96] and it is not known whether Orbe was with his king in Haiti, Barbados, Jamaica, Panama, Chile, Uruguay and Brazil; he was recorded at least in Buenos Aires.

The Orbe family clearly sided with the latter; when Circulo Católico Vascongado, a network serving as Biscay Carlist front organization, was increasingly taken over by the Nocedalistas, their opponents launched a competitive Sociedad Tradicionalista.

In 1887 Orbe entered its Biscay Junta Directiva[98] and following the 1888 Integrist breakup continued to work towards recovery of loyalist structures;[99] within its ranks he rose to jefe of the Marquina district, though its organization remained largely on paper.

In the 1892-1895 period his political activities were reduced to attending party meetings,[109] signing public letters,[110] fathering official statements,[111] occasionally speaking at local gatherings[112] and presiding over formal banquets;[113] though not standing in elections, he contributed to Carlist electoral efforts organisationwise.

[116] By the end of the decade it might have seemed that his younger brother, Candido de Orbe y Gaytán, assumed a more energetic role in politics; also active during Carlist feasts,[117] he was recorded as giving official press statements explaining the party stand,[118] grew to jefé of the San Sebastián branch[119] and was heavily involved in mounting a provincial electoral alliance with the Integrists, the one which ended a decade of virulent hostility and commenced rapprochement between two branches of Traditionalism nationwide.

[129] In 1904 a number of provincial politicians from centre-right parties set up Liga Foral Autonomista, an alliance focused on re-introduction of separate legal Gipuzkoan establishments.

[153] Around 1910 the Catholic public opinion was greatly agitated about the so-called Ley del Candado, Liberal regulations promoted by the Canalejas government and advancing tough policy versus the Church.

[167] His term was not marked by particular controversy, perhaps except a conflict related to a newly constructed railway line, deemed pursuant to Navarrese and Álavese interests at the expense of the Gipuzkoan ones;[168] he is recorded as engaged mostly in standard admin duties, though also aiming at possible independence of provincial education faculties.

[169] Though hardly engaged in nationwide party politics[170] in the 1910s Valde-Espina was already a widely recognized personality within the Carlist realm, nominated honorary president of various bodies, also as far away as in Murcia,[171] referred to as "veterano marqués"[172] or "illustrious patrician",[173] honored with occasional homages[174] and pictured as profoundly moved when recollecting wartime service to Don Carlos 40 years before.

[195] However, proclivity for conservative alliances might have made him closer to the Mellista strategy of forming a grand ultra-Right coalition; moreover, during the Great War Valde-Espina espoused a neutralist – and in effect anti-Entente – stand,[196] very much advocated also by de Mella.

When the conflict between the party pundit and the claimant exploded in early 1919 the Gipuzkoan jefé initially adopted an ambiguous position,[197] but in the spring he was already widely suspected of defecting to the breakaway Mellsta camp.

[200] Times when the family name mobilized popular support were long gone; historians consider some moderate backing, enjoyed by the breakaways among the rural Gipzukoan population,[201] hardly resulting from his personal influence.

[202] Assigned a largely theoretical post of provincial jefe in the emerging party ranks[203] he engaged in preparations to the grand assembly, supposed to launch a new organization nationwide.

[204] It materialized in 1922 in Zaragoza, though hardly in format originally envisioned by de Mella; the gathering launched Partido Católico Tradicionalista with Valde-Espina nominated president of its national executive committee.

During dictablanda he signed the Euskaltzaindia appeal for launching consultations on Basque autonomy;[209] the same year he sort of reconciled with the Carlists, recorded in August as present at opening of Círculo Jaimista in San Sebastián.

[210] In 1931-1932 he fully reintegrated within the united Carlist organization, Comunión Tradicionalista;[211] despite his 84 years of age still suspected of anti-Republican conspiracy, in 1932 he got his Astigarraga estate raided by the police again.

[214] At the moment of his death Astigarraga mansion again enjoyed a status of an iconic Traditionalist site;[215] also Ermua was one of few municipios in Biscay which kept resisting the Basque nationalist sway.