Víctor's paternal family originated from France; his grandfather, Juan Pradera Martinena, lived in the Basque town of Sare (Labourd province),[1] but moved across the Pyrenees and settled in Endara de Etxalar.

As a youngster he emigrated to America and spent 16 years in Cuba;[3] enriched, he returned to Navarre[4] and married a pamplonesa,[5] Filomena Larumbe,[6] descendant to a petty bourgeoisie family.

Her father, Ángel Larumbe Iturralde,[7] sided with the legitimists during the First Carlist War and narrowly escaped execution, later to settle in Vera de Bidasoa and to practise as a notary.

[17] Reportedly successful as a manager, Pradera later amalgamated the family enterprise into the Papelera Española trust of Rafael Picavea and became a shareholder of this company,[18] involved in its activities until the early 20th century.

[26] Víctor's grandson, Javier Pradera, made his name as a well-known anti-Francoist journalist and publisher, dubbed watchman of the Spanish transition to democracy.

Raised in a liberal ambience and – apart from his maternal grandfather – with no family antecedents, in the 1890s he neared Carlism as a result of his lectures; unlike most Traditionalists who inherited their outlook from forefathers, Pradera considered himself a “scientific Carlist”.

In course of the 1910 electoral campaign he sought rapprochement with the mauristas and supported a stand-alone candidate;[44] both were expelled from the party by its Gipuzkoan jefe, Tirso de Olazábal.

[58] During final years of Restauración he was in vain lured by both partidos turnistas, offering him safe place on electoral lists and ministerial jobs;[59] Pradera remained the PCT party jefe in Gipzukoa.

[63] Pradera decided to go his own way, taking a number of mellistas with him;[64] de Mella himself, plagued by health problems and with both his legs amputated,[65] gradually retired into private and intellectual life.

[70] Most scholars suggest it was principally inspired by social theories of Leo XIII,[71] at that time advanced in Spain mostly by the Zaragoza school of Salvador Minguijon;[72] it was supposed to confront the rising socialist tide.

Asked by Primo for an interview,[85] Pradera suggested that the new regime should ban all parties,[86] introduce corporative representation, build a presidentialist government and construct a regionalist state,[87] a vision developed further on in 4 memoranda, supplied to the dictator.

Member of the Proyectos de Leyes Constitucionales section,[91] he strived to institutionalize the system by working on a new constitution, conceived in line with his corporativist vision.

[94] Pradera was disturbed by the perceived self-adulation of Primo, preserving liberal features of the ancient regime, and generally inertia prevailing over a decisive change.

[98] It was only long after the regime's fall that Pradera started to view it as a delusive spell of stability between bewilderment of the late Restauración and chaos of the Republic.

[99] During the first republican electoral campaign of 1931 Pradera was supposed to join lista católico-fuerista, but eventually he refused to form ranks with the despised Basque nationalists and withdrew.

[102] It was only after the death of Don Jaime that in 1932 Pradera decided to lead his followers and the orphaned mellistas[103] to the united Carlist organization, Comunión Tradicionalista,[104] entering its executive.

[115] Pradera continued confronting accidentalist Christian-democracy; his campaign against CEDA was so virulent that Carlist leaders felt pressed to call for moderation.

[116] Initially, Pradera's drive towards a monarchist alliance was shared by the party leaders; it was rather the rank-and-file who saw no purpose mixing with debris of the hated liberal dynasty.

As the growing feeling was that Alfonsinos were gaining the upper hand in Bloque Nacional, Fal decided to withdraw and Pradera hesitantly complied; he focused on fighting secularization, democracy, socialism, nationalism and all perceived evils of the republic as an author, publishing press articles and books.

[139] Indeed, many scholars consider Pradera one of caudillo's masters,[140] pointing to his prologue to the 1945 re-edition[141] and later references;[142] to them, Estado Nuevo is a forerunner of Francoist state and its clear theoretical lecture.

[160] In his political vision the regions,[161] with their specific legal, economic and social establishments, were among key entities forming a nation, and his recommendations to Primo endorsed a strongly regionalist state.

[176] He remained restless denouncing what he considered invented nationalist myths[177] and proving that the Basques had neither formed a unitarian cultural entity nor had ever possessed a common political self.

[179] Pradera's contribution to anti-Republican coup consisted chiefly of conducting talks with the would-be Alfonsist allies in Navarre and in the Basque provinces, though exact scale of his engagement remains unknown.

[180] In February 1936 he declined Franco's proposal to join him on Canary Islands;[181] fully aware of the forthcoming coup and anxious not to be called a coward, he cancelled a formal visit to France, scheduled on July 13 as part of Tribunal de Garantias duties, and remained in San Sebastián.

Most studies claim he was trialed by a makeshift Tribunal Popular and was sentenced to death;[188] other works suggest that as the city was already under the nationalist siege, the Republican militia units stormed the prison fearing the detainees might be soon set free.