According to one source the Oreja family originated from Orexa, a mountainous hamlet in the province of Gipuzkoa;[1] according to another they were related to Arribe-Atallu, a neighboring small municipality in Navarre.

His paternal grandfather Martin Oreja Arzadun[3] served as a rural physician; in the mid-19th century he was recorded in the Gipuzkoan branch of Sociedad Mutua General de Socorros Mutuos[4] but was noted also as related to Amoroto (Biscay) and Lanciego (Álava).

[5] His son and the father of Ricardo, Basilio Oreja Echániz (1851-1914),[6] was also a doctor; at least since the late 1870s he settled in the Biscay town of Ibarrangelu[7] and in the early 20th century he served as its mayor.

[8] At unspecified time but prior to 1878 he married Cecilia Elósegui Ayala (born 1853),[9] a girl from Villafranca de Ordizia and descendant to a much branched Gipuzkoan family.

In 1916 he again entered the examination process,[18] passed to successive stages[19] and was eventually nominated the state lawyer; he ranked 18th on the list, topped by José Calvo Sotelo.

[34] In the 1910s the party was increasingly divided between supporters of the claimant Don Jaime and followers of the key theorist, Juan Vázquez de Mella; the points of contention were the question of broad right-wing alliances and Spanish stand during the First World War.

It is not clear whether he took part in the grand Asamblea de Zaragoza of 1922, already controlled by the Praderistas; representatives of “mellismo ortodoxo” accused him of “imprudencia política tradicionalista”.

Having obtained Pradera's authorization in early 1923 Oreja co-founded Partido Social Popular; together with Salvador Minguijón, Angel Ossorio Gallardo and Manuel Simó Marín he entered its Directorio.

[45] In 1923 he renewed his bid for the Cortes mandate; he again stood in Tolosa and again emerged victorious,[46] running on a broad traditionalist ticket;[47] in the chamber he was one of two deputies still associated with increasingly shadowy Mellismo.

Their manifesto welcomed the dismantling of inefficient, corrupted liberal regime and repeated all earlier reform proposals,[51] accompanied by some new points like institutional support for small property, both urban and rural.

[52] In December 1923 the general PSP assembly openly declared full co-operation with directorio militar and proclaimed that support for Primo was a measure of patriotism.

Apart from usual admin tasks he was noted as engaged in primoderiverista propaganda[61] and remained busy building the Union Patriótica structures in Cantabria;[62] by virtue of his governor role he presided over the provincial Caridad de Santander.

[65] His photos were published in numerous magazines when in 1926 Alfonso XIII inaugurated the automated Telefónica Nacional phone switchboard by placing a call to Oreja's office in Santander.

[66] When in 1927 Oreja was released from the governor post[67] the press speculated that he would assume some prestigious position in Asamblea Nacional Consultiva, sort of primoderiverista quasi-parliament;[68] however, nothing is known of his appointment.

[74] Following the fall of Primo in 1930 Oreja engaged in Unión Monárquica Nacional, formed part of its secretariado[75] and spoke at some UMN rallies, e.g. in Bilbao.

[76] The dictablanda regime initially intended to organize general elections; in early 1931 Oreja was rumored to stand in Tolosa and to compete against a Jaimista candidate, Roman Oyarzun.

[84] First confirmed information on Oreja's return to Carlist engagements is from 1935; early that year he took part in a mass in Madrid, which was about dedication of Secretariado de los Diputados Tradicionalistas to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

[85] Few months later he was noted as far as on Balearic Islands on a Carlist propaganda tour, speaking along such party activists like Luis Arellano, José Lamamie de Clairac and Tomas Quint Zaforteza,[86] and in October numerous traditionalists accompanied him during a mass on a first anniversary of Marcelino's death.

In late May of that year the Popular Tribunal of Bilbao, still held by the Republicans, tried him and some other personalities in absentia; they were charged with subversive activities against established legal authorities.

Unión Cerrajera as a large metalworking company which employed some 900 people turned vital for the Nationalist arms industry,[95] and Oreja as president of its board remained heavily engaged in the task of re-shaping the production to suit military needs of the army.

However, the minister of interior Julián Zugazagoitia opposed the plan and suggested that Oreja's wife be held in Madrid awaiting a would-be exchange for a Republican figure in Nationalists’ captivity.

He fielded his candidature in a curia named tercio familiar[111] and formed a list of technocratic professionals, headed by Luis Calvo Sotelo;[112] with 107,835 votes he was comfortably elected.

[117] It might have been related to Oreja's ascendance to a high governmental job; the same year he was nominated sub-secretario, effectively the deputy minister, in Ministerio de Justicia,[118] just assumed by another fellow ex-Carlist Antonio Iturmendi.

However, he stayed clear of independent Carlist politics and remained firmly within the limits of loyalty to caudillo; the only Traditionalist feature he permitted himself was cultivating of the Vázquez de Mella memory.

[134] Little is known about his labors in the chamber except some role in a commission working on Ley de Principios del Movimiento Nacional, the law which thwarted the last Falangist attempt to convert the regime into a totalitarian system.

[148] During late Francoism Oreja mostly withdrew into privacy and was barely active in public, e.g. in 1967 he was noted as the former Ministry of Justice official present during opening of a new ministerial building, the construction of which he reportedly had initiated.

[150] The last moment he appeared in politics occurred in 1969; as the regime expulsed a progressist carlohuguista pretendent prince Carlos Hugo, the administration was eager to demonstrate that caudillo enjoyed unlimited Carlist support.

Oreja headed a group of former Carlist deputies[151] admitted by the dictator who declared their full loyalty to Franco and to the regime; the event received wide public coverage.