page_title: Francisco Martín Melgar y Rodríguez
section_title: Unofficial secretary: service to Jaime III
hierarchical_section_title: Francisco Martín Melgar y Rodríguez / Unofficial secretary: service to Jaime III
caption_attribution_description: Español: Fotografía tomada en uno de los salones de la Villa Arbelaiz (San Juan de Luz), propiedad de Tirso de Olazábal. De izquierda a derecha: Joaquín Llorens y Fernández de Córdoba, marqués de Córdoba; Tirso de Olazábal y Álvarez de Eulate; Tirso de Olazábal y Lardizábal, conde de Arbelaiz; Jaime III de Borbón, duque de Madrid; y Francisco de Melgar, conde de Melgar del Rey.
context_page_description: Francisco de Asís Martín Melgar y Rodríguez Carmona, 1. Count of Melgar del Rey, was a Spanish Carlist politician. He is known as political secretary of the Carlist king Carlos VII and one of the late 19th century party leaders. He is also noted as author of memoirs, which together with his massive personal archive are invaluable source on Carlist history of the era.
context_section_description: Having promised on departure that during his king's lifetime he would neither settle in Spain nor re-enter politics, Melgar returned to Paris and resumed his never entirely abandoned career of a press correspondent; he also maintained private links with some Carlist politicians. His fortunes changed in 1909, when Carlos VII died and the Carlist claim to the throne was assumed by his son, Jaime III. The new king since his early childhood was used to constant Melgar's presence. Also during his adolescence the relations between the two were very good; the prince appreciated that when in love with Mathilde of Bavaria, Melgar supported the marriage plans, eventually cancelled by opposition of his father and especially stepmother. In 1910 Melgar was invited to Don Jaime's residence in Frohsdorf, where during a few months of stay their relationship was refreshed and enlivened; apparently Melgar helped Don Jaime to sort out paperwork, partially inherited from his late father and partially related to his own ascendance to the throne.
  From that moment Melgar resumed duties of political secretary and partially advisor to the Carlist king, to some degree again acting in-between the monarch and Carlist politicians in Spain. However, format of the service was somewhat different compared to the 1880-1900 period. It was carried out on de facto rather than formal basis, it was periodical and occasional rather than systematic and until 1919 it was performed remotely, though when Don Jaime settled in Paris, the two resumed close direct personal links. Another key difference was that unlike his father, Jaime III used to go into long periods of inactivity, which permitted Melgar to exercise more personal influence on party politics. On the other hand, similarly to the first spell of Melgar's activity also the second one was marked by intrigues and personal schemes.
  Carlist politics of the 1910s developed mostly as a conflict between the key party theorist, Juan Vázquez de Mella, and the claimant. Already in the 1890s highly skeptical of de Mella, since 1910 Melgar was waging a secret guerilla war against him. A carefully crafted plot intended to compromise de Mella backfired and in 1912 the Mellistas were reinstated in the Carlist Spanish executive; at that time de Cerralbo, increasingly under the influence of de Mella, was already approached by Melgar with well camouflaged hostility. Around the same time Melgar was also engaged in unclear maneuvers which by some scholars are interpreted as vaguely testing a possibility of enforcing Don Jaime's abdication in favor of his uncle, which would probably leave the party in hands of Cerralbo and Melgar. He went on confronting the Mellistas; posing as Cerralbo's friend he provoked his 1913 resignation. In the same document Cerralbo suggested that Melgar replaces him as royal representative in Spain, but the question proved pointless as the resignation was not accepted by the king.
caption: with Jaime III and others, 1910s
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