[2] His father, Mariano Hernando Ruiz (1861-1913),[3] originated from Riaza in the province of Segovia; he studied medicine but upon graduating has never practiced;[4] instead, he made a living by trading arts, mostly paintings and sculptures.

[5] Heavily engaged in preparing the Spanish pavilion for the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889, apart from presenting art[6] he also co-ordinated works related to construction of a bullring in the Trocadero park.

Competing against local heavyweights like Melquíades Álvarez and José Manuel Pedregal he stood little chance and lost,[47] afterwards appealing corruption and unfair deployment of Guardia Civil.

[61] In the 1910s Carlism was increasingly paralyzed by internal crisis related to conflict between the claimant Don Jaime and the key party theorist, Juan Vázquez de Mella; both factions competed to control the Madrid-based semi-official Carlist daily, El Correo Español.

[62] Larramendi remained fully loyal to his king; moreover, as a lawyer he helped to transfer the newspaper ownership to marqués de Valldespina and to purge the editorial board from dissenters like Peñaflor.

With propaganda campaign already in full swing, the party candidate in Vitoria, Esteban Bilbao, balked at the official plan and fielded his candidature in Durango; as emergency measure Larramendi was asked to replace him.

[64] In the late 1910s Larramendi was already recognized as an important figure in the party,[65] though he did not rise to executive structures either nationwide or on the regional Castilian basis[66] and was rather considered a young man for the future.

[67] The setting changed dramatically when following the end of World War I the claimant was released from his confinement in Austria and early 1919 arrived in Paris to reclaim party leadership from the Mellistas.

The conflict exploded in expulsion of de Mella and massive defections of his supporters, many of them occupying key positions in Carlist structures; command chain of the party was decimated.

Moreover, as a young militant deprived of own political basis[70] he seemed to have posed no threat to royal leadership; his location in Madrid and profession of a lawyer offered additional advantages.

[71] Don Jaime's special envoy[72] to Madrid returned with good news and in August 1919 the claimant appointed Larramendi his key representative in Spain and effectively the party leader, though not with the title of Jefe Delegado, but as a Secretario General.

[74] He threw himself into a series of hectic meetings with provincial and regional leaders, incessantly touring the country;[75] in some cases, like Catalonia or Valencia, he faced also bitter personal conflicts.

[78] The event was a success as it consolidated the party and helped it to re-gain momentum, even though in none of 3 major issued debated - re-organization, financial problems and marriage of Don Jaime - any key decision was adopted.

[79] In 1920 Larramendi focused mostly on engineering the Carlist electoral campaign; none of the scholarly sources consulted provides information on what strategy he adopted, though he is known to have angrily rejected veiled calls for a low-denomination Catholic right-wing alliance, advocated by emergent accidentalist Christian-Democratic groupings and their mouthpiece, El Debate.

[85] When discussing its background, some scholars claim he was tired of uphill struggle;[86] others point to talks with the Alfonsists and general Don Jaime's detachment[87] or Larramendi's remorse about the 1920 electoral disaster.

[88] Replaced as Carlist political leader by marqués de Villores, Larramendi remained engaged in the party executive; his activity was related to dynastical issues rather than to daily business.

In 1922 he represented Don Jaime's sister, Doña Blanca, in court; wife to a member of the imperial Habsburg house she refused to recognize the Austrian republic and sought shelter in Spain.

In the future the episode would prove of great value for the Carloctavista dynastic claim,[90] but no source clarifies whether in the early 1920s Larramendi considered her sons would-be claimants to the Spanish throne.

It seems that initially Larramendi welcomed the coup as doing away with a long overdue liberal democracy and a stepping stone towards Traditionalist monarchy, position fairly popular among the Carlists; his friend, Víctor Pradera,[93] wholeheartedly engaged in building the regime structures.

He could not understand how Rodezno, his juvenile acquaintance of love-and-hate relationship, could have accepted the Villafranca mayorship "given the circumstances";[96] by his son he was recollected as opposed to Primo and refusing to join either Unión Patriótica or any other primoderiverista structure.

[99] Though in 1930 he took part in Catholic political initiatives of strongly accidentalist leaning, like the Salamanca gathering with Gil-Robles and Herrera Oria,[100] he stood firmly by monarchist views, also during confusion of the last months of the monarchy, at times attracting fire from the young Jaimist hot-heads.

His campaign confronted the anti-clerical and anti-religious tide head on: Larramendi referred to the Church as to a truly popular structure, with priests and friars "la sangre del pueblo más humilde de España".

[116] He claimed that an alliance would turn 100 years of Carlist history, including 80,000 men who gave lives for their king, into a comedy;[117] moreover, such an ambiguous coalition would merely weaken the only force capable of confronting the revolution, namely Traditionalism.

[122] In 1934 Rodezno was replaced as the Carlist leader by Manuel Fal Conde; the new setting suited Larramendi more, and he soon started to assume high positions within the party structures.

[125] A penchant for accord with the Alfonsinos, demonstrated by some Carlists, stemmed from a looming dynastical crisis; the claimant Don Alfonso Carlos was an octogenarian and there was no clear successor in sight.

In early 1936 it was Larramendi, considered totally loyal and an excellent lawyer, who edited the royal decree of Alfonso Carlos; it nominated Don Javier as the future Carlist regent.

[136] In September, together with the victorious Requeté, he returned to San Sebastián and commenced editing a new Carlist periodical, La Voz de España;[137] he is also noted as helping some PNV activists to flee.

Larramendi refused to join Francoist structures and criticized those who did; he verbally assaulted Julio Muñoz Aguilar, co-editor from La Voz de España, for an article supporting Franco.

In 1952 he presided over the Consejo Nacional de la Tradición meeting, discussing how it should be advanced; for health reasons he did not attend the Eucharistic Congress in Barcelona, where Don Javier was effectively introduced as a king.

Tending to solitude, he ran his law office on his own and was getting outpaced by modern legal companies;[175] in terms of politics he built no personal following, relying entirely on his loyalty to the dynasty and trust in Traditionalist doctrine.