Tirso Julián Francisco José Ramón María de Olazábal y Lardizábal[1] was born into a distinguished and aristocratic Basque family, with many of its members recorded in history of the region.

[16] From his youth he developed keen interest in music, his favourite composer having been Mozart;[17] in the early 1860s he set up 18 local bands across Guipúzcoa, allegedly gathering musicians from all social strata.

Among other properties located in Guipúzcoa (spread over Azpeitia, Beasain, Beizama, Idiazabal and Lazcano), his legacy included the Arbelaiz Palace and its formidable private garden, in Irun, which had remained in the hands of his family since the reign of Philip II of Spain.

Her father (like her grandfather), Rafael María Álvarez de Eulate y Acedo, was a military man; some sources describe him as infantry captain[26] and some claim he was a navy lieutenant.

[40] Already as member of the Guipuzcoan Diputación he took part in homage welcoming Isabel II in Tolosa en route to her usual San Sebastián summer residence;[41] when offered the order of Isabella the Catholic he allegedly declined it as an undeserved honor.

[50] In 1868 Olazábal again welcomed Isabel II during what soon turned out to be her last summer journey to the beaches of Biscay;[51] he painfully acknowledged her deposition in course of the Glorious Revolution later that year.

[61] At the outbreak of hostilities Olazábal was in Switzerland, nominated gentilhombre of the claimant's wife Doña Margarita;[62] his task was to prevent her expulsion from the country, demanded by the Spanish government.

[83] He promptly filed a lawsuit;[84] eager to avoid a diplomatic conflict with the British, the Liberal embassy in London agreed to pay Olazábal a compensation fee, which by far exceeded the original cost incurred.

[100] Exact scale of his engagement is unclear; some authors maintain that Carlists transported arms also from America[101] with English intelligence reporting a wide international delivery network.

[109] In late 1876 Ejército del Norte, the occupation army in Vasco-Navarrese provinces, was put on alert as the news of Carlist war preparations mounted,[110] especially that in 1877 Carlos VII issued a manifesto pledging to defend the fueros, scrapped by the central government.

Almost nothing is known about his public efforts in the early 1880s, his activities having been major financial contribution to Zumalacarregui monument, planned to be erected in Guipúzcoa,[113] press celebrations of pro-Carlist bishop of Plasencia[114] or congratulation letters to El Siglo Futuro on 10th anniversary of its launch.

[116] Though most of the above steps suggest he was on good terms with the Nocedalista faction, none of the studies discussing growing conflict within Carlism lists Olazábal as involved in increasingly bitter rivalry between immovilistas and aperturistas.

[117] In early 1887 the provincial Guipuzcoan Carlist jefe[118] conde del Valle resigned; the claimant appointed Olazábal as his successor,[119] a choice far from obvious since the incumbent resided out of Spain;[120] at that time he was only paying brief visits to the province.

[122] This minor clash was dwarfed by the Integrist secession in 1888; though earlier associated with Neo-Catholics, forming the core of the rebels, Olazábal stayed loyal to Carlos VII[123] and emerged one of key politicians of the shattered Carlism.

[124] In 1889 Olazábal was invited to Frohsdorf to take part in wedding of claimant's daughter, Blanca de Borbón;[125] also the Liberal press kept considering him one of the most insatiable and dangerous exiles, his Saint-Jean-de-Luz residence turned into a Carlist émigré headquarters.

[137] Eventually he confronted Nocedal again and lost again, though initially the Carlist press congratulated him on victory,[138] the difference was mere 17 votes, and it was only following backstage haggling involving the government that in 1894 Olazábal was finally confirmed as defeated.

The trip lasted 37 days[141] and covered a route from San Sebastián to Vitória, Burgos, Santander, Covadonga, Oviedo, León, Madrid, Aranjuez, Toledo, Córdoba, Jerez, Málaga, Sevilla, Granada, Jaen, Valencia, Barcelona and Montserrat.

[146] Recovering from sickness,[147] interviewed in Saint-Jean-de-Luz he declared prior to the 1896 elections that his only aspiration was to get back to health;[148] he soon changed the tone when claimed that in Azpeitia the Jesuits have finally recognised the authority of Carlos VII.

[155] Already the 1896 manifesto made references to problems overseas; since the conflict evolved into war with the United States, Olazábal declared that Carlists planned no trouble and their priority remained integrity of Spain.

[171] As Sûreté reported arms purchases in London, Brussels, Paris and Switzerland, early 1900 Olazábal delivered 300 rifles from Bayonne across the Pyrenees before the French government bowed to pressure from Madrid[172] and in February ordered him to settle North of the Loire.

[181] Whether he was indeed remains unclear; though he contributed to military buildup and harbored political hopes related to potentially rebellious Spanish generals,[182] scholars tend to assume that the rebels acted on their own and with no official order, if not clearly against it.

Among its regular visitors were Don Jaime de Borbón, the former Queen Natalie of Serbia, the Countess of Bardi, Princes and Princesses of Bourbon-Parma, Italian aristocrats, the Duchess of Cadaval, the Counts O'Byrne of Corville and several Carlist politicians.

[189] Tirso is known to have exchanged vast correspondence with other Carlist leaders[190] and upon death of the then Jefe Delegado Matías Barrio in 1909 he was invariably reported by the press as one of his potential successors; though the job went to Bartolomé Feliu instead.

[191] Olazábal was among major Carlist figures at the funeral of Carlos VII in Varese in July 1909;[192] when republican unrest rocked Catalonia later that year, he resumed his now customary arms trafficking role serving the new claimant, Jaime III.

[197] Disguised as farming hardware, railway equipment, agricultural machines or even pianos,[198] having passed carabineros and guardias civiles on the Spanish side they were stored in Zumárraga, Alsasua and Tudela.

[199] As Paris was upset with Olazábal's public criticism of the republican secular education system,[200] in October 1910 he was again ordered to move North of the Loire;[201] his duties were taken over by Urquijo, permitted to stay in the South.

[214] Perhaps the sharpest political turn of his life came in 1919; when the long-developing conflict between de Mella and Jaime III escalated into secession of the so-called Mellistas, Olazábal supported the rebels.

[223] When de Cerralbo strove to build in-depth party structures nationwide, Guipúzcoa was one of the least-dynamic provinces;[224] the number of local juntas grew from 59 in 1892 to 87 in 1896, mere 47% growth rate compared to 63% of Biscay and 257% of Álava.

[226] Olazábal did not appreciate modern means of political mobilisation introduced by de Cerralbo, commenting that his pompous trips across the country served no purpose but arrests of Carlist supporters.

[233] Though Olazábal commenced his political activity under the “Dios y fueros” banner and though he protested to Carlist leaders against breaking with the foral tradition, he is not recognised as particularly concerned with regional rights.