Josep de Suelves i de Montagut, 9th Marquis of Tamarit (1850–1926) was a Spanish Carlist politician. He served in the lower house of the Cortes during 4 terms in 1896–1899, 1901-1903 and 1907–1910; his term in the upper chamber, the Senate, covered the period of 1899–1900.
Family and youth
Paternal ancestors of Josep de Suelves i de Montagut came from two distinguished aristocratic Catalan families. Representatives of the Montserrat line are recorded in the Middle Ages already; Francesc de Montserrat Vives made his name during the siege of Tarragona in the time of the Reapers' War (Guerra dels Segadors) in the mid-17th century and was awarded the marquesado of Tamarit by Carlos II in 1681. In 1794 the title passed along the maternal line to Josep's great-grandfather, Joan Nepomucé de Suelves i Montserrat, an anti-liberal Tarragona deputy to Cortes of Cádiz. His son, 7th marqués de Tamarit, sided with the legitimist cause during the First Carlist War and was exiled afterwards. His grandson, 8th marqués, Antoni de Suelves i d’Ustariz (Josep's paternal uncle), followed the family tradition forming part of Royal Council of the pretender Carlos VII and since late 1860s participated in preparations to another insurgency. Antoni's younger brother, Joan de Suelves i d’Ustariz, married Buenaventura Montagut Félez, native of Tortosa and daughter of Josep Montagut Salvador, Conde Torre de l'Espanyol. The couple had three children.
Josep, the oldest of the siblings, spent most of his childhood in family estates across Catalonia, to complete secondary education in colleges in Reus and Tortosa. In the late 1860s he studied Derecho y Filosofia in Universidad Central of Madrid. In 1885 he married María Goyeneche Puente (1862-1941), daughter of a Peruvian diplomat and Peruvian/Spanish conservative politician Juan Mariano Goyeneche y Gamio, 3rd Conde de Guaqui, by virtue of his family ties related to Navarre and Gipuzkoa. When in 1886 despite his two marriages the 8th marqués de Tamarit died without issue, Josep inherited the marquesado. He acquired also part of his uncle's wealth, consisting mostly of numerous landholdings around Tarragonese locations of Tamarit, Ferran and Morell, though also in some more distant municipalities.
Josep de Suelves i de Montagut and María Goyeneche Puente had 3 children, Juan Nepomuceno Suelves Goyeneche, José Suelves Goyeneche and Carmen Suelves Goyeneche. The oldest, Juan (b. 1887), in 1908 became the 10th marqués de Tamarit as his father renounced the title. He joined the military and served in the cavalry Husares regiment, reaching the rank of a comandante during the Moroccan campaigns of the early 1920s. At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 he joined the insurgents and assumed command of the Carlist Requeté battalion of Tercio de San Ignacio from Gipuzkoa; killed in action in June 1937 in Sopuerta in Biscay. His granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Josep, herself a Peruvian citizen, married the oldest grandson of Franco in 1981.
War and exile
Upon the outbreak of the Glorious Revolution and deposition of Isabella II, the Carlists geared up their preparations to military action. Antoni de Suelves as advisor to Carlos VII arranged for his nephew to be called to the legitimist camp. In 1868 Josep de Suelves left Spain to join the personal entourage of the claimant and contributed to buildup of the insurgency. Four years later, as the Third Carlist War actually commenced, they crossed the border in Gipuzkoa, after few days withdrawing back to France. In 1873 Carlos VII entered the insurgent Vascongadas again. Despite that his uncle was appointed royal commissioner for the native – though barely captured – provinces of Tarragona and Lerída, Josep de Suelves remained on the Northern Front; he accompanied the pretender when setting a capital of the Carlist state in Estella.
The actual role and function of Josep de Suelves is unclear. In later Carlist propaganda he was presented as member of the claimant's General Staff, though his young age and total lack of either military training or military experience suggest he was not in charge of any major duties. If indeed forming part of Estado Mayor, he was rather serving as liaison officer or adjutant to Carlos VII. Though awarded a number of orders and promoted to teniente coronel, it is not clear whether he served one time or another in combat units. Upon the Carlist defeat in 1876 Josep Suelves kept escorting the claimant and left for France. As a reward for service Carlos VII conferred upon him the title of Vizconde de Montserrat, officially recognized by the Spanish state during the Franco era in 1954.