The Requeté played a major role in Spanish history in early months of the Civil War, when its units were critical for ensuring Nationalist advantage on some key frontline sections.

They started to emerge in the early 1900s as branches of various political movements; in 1903, a first youth socialist group appeared in Bilbao, and in 1906, Federación de Juventudes Socialistas staged its national congress.

Groups named Batallones de la Juventud were recorded in Madrid (1902) and Barcelona (1903) when staging marches and parades, apparently intended to demonstrate prowess of Traditionalism and perhaps also to intimidate political enemies.

[8] These gangs were easily suppressed by forces of order, yet their emergence demonstrated a new phenomenon: mostly urban Carlist militancy, independent of official movement structures and oriented towards street violence.

[10] Mushrooming and loosely organized groups of Juventud engaged in military drills; they also got increasingly involved in street clashes with hit-squads related to left-wing politics, especially the Radicals and the Anarchists.

[46] Though the draft rulebook envisioned only boys as members, photos demonstrate that there were also girls present,[47] some sources refer to "requeté de damas blancas"[48] and adolescent females served even as standard-bearers.

[97] Members of the group were supposed to practice to become good Christians, e.g. they were expected to take holy communion at least monthly;[98] however, there is no explicit information identified on abstinence vows taken, e.g. these related to tobacco or alcohol.

[104] Marching in organized, disciplined and military-like formations with standards and at times with accompanying music,[105] the members walked to sanctuaries like Montserrat[106] or Poblet;[107] single individuals embarked on longer journeys.

[115] Since 1909, the Republican press reported numerous incidents of requeté-related violence, ranging from insulting other juveniles[116] to provocative marches,[117] assaults on the premises of left-wing newspapers[118] and organizations[119] or attempts to stop tram circulation in order to enforce observance of religious holidays.

[159] It seems that at the time Requeté was increasingly getting formatted as a paramilitary organization, as news on related violence clearly prevail over information on cultural,[160] leisure[161] or charity[162] activities, dominant in the early part of the decade.

[173] During a popular feast in Barcelona they assaulted participants who carried cartoons mocking the Kaiser[174] and in 1917 some politicians already suggested that the organization was actually financed by Germany;[175] as there has never been a shadow of evidence unearthed, the claim was most likely entirely unsubstantiated.

There is information suggesting that fairly frequently requeté appeared uniformed, though it seems also that police or Guardia Civil approached half-military gear as threat to public order, and organized groups of adolescent boys were permitted to operate – e.g. to exercise marches – only when unarmed and in plain clothes.

While in 1923 Catalonia saw another surge of violence bordering collapse of public order, requeté contributed little; at times noted for clashes of their organized squads with the police,[192] they were increasingly frequently on the defeated end during skirmishes with left-wing hit-squads.

[206] When the 1930 fall of the Primo regime removed limitations on public activity the Carlists voiced their relief after the end of "seis añox largos de silencio impuestos por una Dictadura".

The information available suggests the organization languished as few isolated and rather inactive cells, engaged mostly in resumption of party propaganda and religious activities;[209] there were attempts to return to the old format with renewed excursionist[210] or sporting bids.

Historians speculate that as the situation in Spain was getting increasingly fragile, the claimant acted with a view to future violent developments;[214] some maintain that "revitalization of shock groups was key concern" for him at the time.

A study on Catalan Carlism of the early 1930s does not contain a single paragraph on any attempt to revitalize the requeté structures in the region in 1930–1931;[216] the only evidence of focus on the organization was Cruz de la Legitimidad Proscrita, the high Carlist honor the claimant conferred upon Beltrán.

Some scholars claim it was to act "para impulsor un eventual movimiento insurreccional"[219] and to become volunteer army able to rise and control some territory in "the old 19th-century style";[220] however, there is also opinion that the organization was to maintain "eminently defensive character".

[240] In early 1934 the party executive formed Frente Nacional de Boinas Rojas,[241] the attempt to create a hierarchical[242] national Requeté structure,[243] detached from local Carlist juntas.

[259] In contrast to urban-oriented action groups "primarily accustomed to street fighting and pistolerismo", maintained by other parties,[260] Requeté was a "genuine citizen army" capable of performing small-scale tactical military operations.

In 3 out of 4 regions of highest Carlist militancy, Catalonia, Levante and Vascongadas, the military coup failed and requeté rebels fell prisoners, went into hiding or fled to the Nationalist zone.

[262] However, in Navarre the organization was powerful enough[263] to seize control over the region almost single-handedly;[264] moreover, it contributed to the rapid capture of Western Aragón,[265] and in the late summer of 1936 it proved crucial for Nationalist takeover of Gipuzkoa.

[330] There are no membership numbers available, though the organization played little role in the Carlist machinery; when in the mid-1950s the party abandoned its opposition strategy and replaced it with cautious collaboration with the regime, Requeté was not involved and remained on the sidelines of the decision-making process.

In 1959 the Navarrese jefé Francisco Javier Astraín complained about eternal dissent within the regional organisation, which "siempre había en la provincia para encontrar un jefe de requeté"; he suggested appointment of a new, strong-hand, military leader.

The group envisioned that the organisation "debía tener una misión más social y política"[353] and that Márquez de Prado be ousted;[354] brother of another Huguista partisan, Juan Zavala Castella, was proposed as new delegado nacional.

[355] The same year Márquez de Prado asked Valiente for the opposite, namely consolidation of his own powers; some considered it a pre-emptive strike inspired by Zamanillo, already expulsed from the Comunión.

[380] The Traditionalist faction abandoned any attempt to regain control over the organization and focused on struggle to retain influence in the ex-combatant Requeté hermandad, since 1965 headed by another Huguista, Ignacio Romero Osborne.

In 1971 Romero set up a competitive organisation based in France,[384] while various other Hermandades pursued own political paths, usually centred around late Francoist structures and Don Juan Carlos;[385] in 1972–1973 some of them acted as intended but failed centers of revitalized, anti-Huguista Carlist movement.

[403] Asociación Juvenil Tradicionalista, a feeble and shadowy structure associated with Don Sixto which emerged in the late 1970s, its members appearing on right-wing feasts in khaki uniforms and red berets, went out of sight as well.

[424] Individuals who sign these notes assume a military tone,[425] appear to be aligned with the claimant Don Carlos Javier, lecture competitive Traditionalist groupings on rights to use the Requeté symbols or uniforms and imply that the organization is still operational.