José Benigno Sánchez Marco (1865-1949) was a Spanish Traditionalist politician, associated mostly with a branch known as Integrism and operating as Partido Católico Nacional, though active also within the mainstream Carlism.

[1] He married a girl from Aragón and possibly lived for some time in Catalonia, as their son and José's father, Francisco Sánchez Asso (1831-1904),[2] was born in Sant Feliú de Guixols in the province of Gerona.

[18] Known locally in Navarrese realm, none of them became a nationally recognized figure;[19] Antonio volunteered to the Carlist requeté during the Civil War;[20] though not a military, he commanded a platoon in Tercio María de las Nieves battalion.

[30] José was entering the Carlist realm in the 1880s; at that time the movement was divided between an intransigent ultra-Catholic faction and a group prepared to recognize political setting of the Restoration.

In the early 1890s Sánchez Marco started to appear in the party press, initially merely as signatory of various venerating addresses[31] and then as author of brief notes, hailing Nocedal.

[33] In 1895 Sánchez Marco is first noted as taking part in a major party gathering in Azpeitia; speaking himself, he praised Gipuzkoa as a Spanish oasis, a province which preserved all traditional virtues of the country and was set to be its salvation ark.

[49] As representative of the party Sánchez Marco was offered a place on the alliance list in Azpeitia, a rural Gipuzkoan constituency which since the early 1890s remained an Integrist stronghold.

[60] Though in the chamber Sánchez Marco remained member of a minuscule, 2-person Integrist opposition minority,[61] he turned a rather restless deputy; he excelled in harassing governments during question sessions, engaging in debates and launching new motions, usually swiftly killed during the legislative process.

His activity was mostly about siding with the Church,[62] promoting religious interests and attempting to thwart liberal designs;[63] its climax fell on the 1910 debates related to the so-called Ley del Candado,[64] when he animated local Junta Católica de Defensa.

[65] He became known also promoting regional establishments[66] and especially official usage of Basque and Catalan, admitting allegiance to "nuestra lengua vascongada" and protesting exclusivity of castellano in the public realm.

[68] Within Integrism Sánchez Marco was active taking part in propaganda gatherings in Navarre[69] and sometimes beyond, mostly in Catalonia,[70] though he withdrew from provincial Navarrese party structures[71] and focused on nationwide executive.

[85] Sánchez Marco's relations with Integrism became somewhat loose; though some scholars refer to him as Jefe Provincial del Integrismo,[86] at that time he was merely an honorary president of the Integrist Navarrese Junta.

[90] In the late 1920s he moved into a new house, designed by a noted Pamplona architect Víctor Eusa, and set in his Dehesa de San Juan estate near Milagro.

[91] The 1923 advent of the Primo de Rivera dictatorship was greeted ambiguously by the Integrists, who welcomed doing away with rotten democracy but abhorred declaration of loyalty to the 1876 constitution, considered original sin of the Restoration system.

The document listed 3 pillars of their outlook: traditional values including religion, indivisible but regionalist state based on an organic constitution and enhancement of Navarrese identity in line with its foral rights.

[98] He signed up to seccion segunda of the Assembly, a committee dealing mostly with foreign policy,[99] and indeed remained active within its ranks;[100] very much like in the Restoration parliament, he also kept protesting invasion of indecency in public life.

Though 25 years earlier he boasted Navarre as part of the Vasco-Navarrese community,[103] at that time he cautiously supported "sane regionalism"[104] and was keen to keep the province out of Basque autonomous schemes.

[110] In mid-1931 Sánchez Marco went to great lengths seeking understanding with the movement he broke away from in 1888; he even made an unprecedented step of initiating vivas to the claimant, Don Jaime.

[111] Referred to as jefe del integrismo navarro,[112] in early 1932 he wholeheartedly engaged in unification activities, which eventually brought the Integrists back to the legitimist camp.

[124] Sánchez Marco remained engaged in Catholic[125] and Carlist propaganda efforts also during the 1933 elections, though compared to the previous campaign his activity was – perhaps due to his age - visibly reduced.

However, nothing is known about any public engagements of Sánchez Marco either at that time or during the entire Civil War;[133] he was rather casually mentioned by the Navarrese press only in relation to his son Antonio, a requeté officer,[134] or in historical notes.