Antonio Iturmendi Bañales (1903–1976) was a Spanish Carlist and Francoist politician. He is best known as the Minister of Justice, serving in 1951–1965, as the Cortes speaker, serving in 1965–1969; he held the parliamentarian ticket between 1949 and 1976. He is also noted as briefly a civil governor and Tarragona and Zaragoza provinces in 1939. Though not counted among key decision-makers of the Francoist regime, he is considered instrumental in thwarting the Falangist attempt to re-define the system in the mid-1950s, and in the process of implementing the Alfonsist restoration in the 1960s.
Family and youth
The Iturmendi family originated from the Navarrese town of Morentín was first noted in the mid-16th century. It got very branched, though none of its representatives got particularly distinguished. The best-known family member was Emeterio Celedonio Iturmendi Barbarín (1812-1883), a military who became an icon of Carlist insurgency; he took part in all three Carlist wars (1833-8, 1849, 1873–6) and grew to general. He was also the brother of Antonio's great-grandfather. Either the grandfather or the father of Antonio moved to Baracaldo on the Biscay coast; the latter, José Iturmendi López (1873-1955), was educated in jurisprudence and worked as a lawyer for almost half a century. In the mid-1920s he was president of Consejo Judicial of Banco Vasco and as such was involved in negotiations over Concierto Económico, periodical financial arrangements between the provincial Biscay self-government and Madrid. In the mid-1930s he became the dean of Colegio de Abogados of the Biscay province, the position held until death. Iturmendi López married Julia Bañales Menchaca (1881-1962); the couple had 11 children, 7 sons and 4 daughters.
Like his siblings, Antonio was raised in a profoundly Catholic ambience; he started education at the Doctrina Cristiana and Sagrados Corazones schools, where he obtained the baccalaureate. At unspecified time though probably around the year of 1920 he entered facultad de derecho at Universidad de Deusto, the prestigious Bilbao-based high school founded by the Jesuit Order. It is at Deusto that he graduated in law; exact date is not clear and probably fell on the mid-1920s. In 1924 Iturmendi settled his affairs with the army and in 1926 he was nominated abogado de estado, the state juridical service. The same year he successfully passed entry exams to Instituto Reus and commenced law practice in Delegación de Hacienda in Castellón, though already in 1927 he was transferred to Logroño. At unspecified time in the late 1920s Iturmendi returned to his native Biscay when posted to Bilbao.
In 1927 Iturmendi married Rita Gómez Nales (1900-1983), a Mexico-born girl from an indiano family; none of the sources consulted provides any information on her family except that they resided in Madrid. The couple settled in Bilbao. Antonio and Rita had 5 children: María Teresa, María del Pilár, María de los Angeles, Antonio and Javier Iturmendi Gómez Nales. None of them became a public figure, though Maria Teresa married Alfonso Osorio García, a Francoist and later a Christian-Democrat politician, deputy prime minister in the Suarez government. Some of Antonio's grandchildren, especially from the Osorio Iturmendi and the Iturmendi Mac-Lellan families, are high corporative executives. One Iturmendi's brother was a locally recognized lawyer and another was a military. Antonio's nephew, José Iturmendi Morales, became a scholar in jurisprudence and for 20 years until 2008 served as dean of the Law Department at Universidad Complutense in Madrid, considered one of key Spanish iusnaturalists. Antonio's niece, Juana Iturmendi Maguregui, is a Partido Popular politician and served in the Senate during the 2009–2011 term.