José María de Selva y Mergelina Mergelina y Llorens, 5th Marquess of Villores (1884–1932) was a Spanish Carlist politician.
Family and youth
José María de Selva y Mergelina Mergelina y Llorens was a descendant of two Levantine landowner families of Selva and Mergelina. Both have been dominant in the Alicantine town of VillenaLa casa de los Selva, [in:] Villena cuéntame available here and inter-married a few times over the centuries. His ancestors and relatives can be traced back to the 16th century, some of them notable figures in Spanish history.Joaquín de Mergelina Selva was a Spanish naval officer who took part in the battle of Trafalgar, see Antonio de la Vega, Joaquín de Mergelina Selva, un marino desconocido, [in:] Revista de Historia Naval 7 (1989)/27, pp. 19-32, available here His paternal grandfather Rafael Selva López de Oliver (1820-1878)see geneanet service here served as alcalde of the town.1954: dońa Virtudes Selva y Mergelina cumple cien años de edad, [in:] Villena cuéntame here states that Rafael Selva was alcalde of Villena during the rule of Fernando VII, which seems unlikely given he was born in 1820 The family supported the Carlists since the First Carlist War;See de la Vega (1988), p. 31 José's father, Enrique Selva Mergelina López de Oliver y Selva (1852-1923),geneanet; the obituary in La Epoca 22.03.23, available here, also a blog here was in the late 19th century a vice-president of the Valencian Carlist Junta Provincial.El Cabecilla 08.02.90, p. 3, see here José's mother, María de la Trinidad Mergelina Llorens (1851-1924),geneanet was cousin of the Carlist Valencian leader Joaquín Lloréns FernándezTrinidad Mergelina Llorens was a daughter of Trinidad Mergelina y Cerver and Juana Llorens Bayer; the latter was a daughter of Joaquin Llorens Chiva and sister of José Llorens Bayer, who was in turn the father of Joaquin Llorens Fernandez and related to a number of noble families.See Rafael Bernabeu Galbis, Apéndice documental, [in:] Los escudos nobiliarios de Ontinyent, available here
Like his 6 siblings José Maríathe only source which gives his daily date of birth claims he was born in 1884, see geneanet here; other sources claim he was born in 1885, see Francisco Javier Paniagua Fuentes, José Antonio Piqueras Arenas (eds.), Diccionario biográfico de políticos valencianos, 1810-2003, Valencia 2003, , 9788478223862, p. 520, or Federico Martínez Roda, Valencia y las Valencias: su historia contemporánea (1800-1975), Madrid 1998, , p. 190 was brought up in a fervently Catholic ambience. Following initial home schooling, as an older child he frequented Colegio de San José, a prestigious Valencian institute established in 1870 by Agustin Cabré and run by the Jesuits;El Colegio de los padres Jesuitas, [in:] Asociación Antiguos Alumnos Jesuitas – Valencia, available here he completed the teenage education there in 1900.see Buscador de Alumnos [in:] Asociación Antiguos Alumnos Jesuitas – Valencia available here Selva continued his scholarship at Universidad de Valencia to study law, philosophy and letters,Fuentes, Piqueras 2003, p. 520 claim that he studied "Derecho y Filosofia y Letras"; Germán Perales Birlaga, El estudiante liberal. Sociología y vida de la comunidad escolar universitaria de Valencia 1875-1939, Madrid 2009, , p. 291 claims that Selva was "alumno de derecho y filosofía". Probably he studied at two faculties, Derecho and Filosofia y Letras having graduated in 1905.Perales 2009, p. 291
José Selva married María Josefa Salvador y Núñez Robres (1909),ABC 10.05.09, available here descendant of an aristocratic Valencian family holding a number of estates across LevanteSee for instance José Vaquer Roca, La Torre del Palomar, [in:] Antropologia Sant Mateu, available here , or Historia del Pueblo, at the Villores web page, here and daughter of José Salvador de la Figuera Barroso de Frías y Mezquita, 4th marquis of Villores.There is no clear description of marquesado de Villores available, some of the web accounts are unclear, incomplete or contradictory. One of them is here, the most reliable version seems to be José Miguel Giménez Guarinos, Marquesado de Villores, [in:] Un paseo por Vinalesa, Valencia 2011, , pp. 157-159, available here The couple had 4 children, Enrique (1910), José Maria (1911), María Dolores (1913) and Rafael (1914). Following the premature death of his wife in 1916, in 1918 Selva married her older sister, María Vicenta Salvador y Núñez Robres.See for instance La Epoca 08.07.1918 available here or La Nacion 09.07.1918 available here Since her father had no male descendants,geneanet she had arranged to inherit the marquesado;Jose Salvador de la Figuera Barroso de Frias y Mezquita, 4th Marqués de Villores, died in 1912 following the marriage, José Selva was also entitled to the honour as marqués consorte. His second marriage produced no children. The family lived in their rural Xàtiva estate.Boletín Oficial. Somatén Nacional de la 3. Region, 10/1924, available here, p. 2
Villores' younger brother, Juan Selva Mergelina, who was also a Carlist activist, served in the Spanish army; he commenced military service as segundo teniente of infantry in Mallorca in 1910,Heraldo Militar 21.03.10, available here to be soon promoted to teniente primeroLa Correspondencia Militar 18.07.10, available here and to pass to reserva territorial de Canarias.La Correspondencia Militar 26.11.10, see here He resumed military service in Spanish Morocco during a rather calm period of the Rif War, assigned to the Tetuán regiment. In 1914, following meritorious service, Juan Selva was nominated infantry captain.Diario Official del Ministerio de la Guerra 29.12,14, see here His final rank was this of a Commandant.La Correspondencia Militar 13.12.27, see here Arrested in the aftermath of the failed Sanjurjo coup d'état,El Sol 28.09.1932, available here he was later detained by the Republicans during the Civil War;Pepe Romero, Extracto de las memorias de Guerra de Miguel Vergara Gimeno, Miguel Peñarrocha Taroncher y Miguel Asensio Martínez Requetés voluntarios en el Tercio, [in:] La Guerra Civil en Llíria, at here he survived the incarceration to be nominated civil governor of Tarragona during early FrancoismABC 21.10.41 at here, also Abanderats i abanderades de la nostra historia available here and to become member of the Falangist Consejo Nacional in 1943;1943: homenaje Chapí XXXIV Aniversario, [in:] Villena cuéntame available here, see also Indice Histórico de Diputados here their sister Dolores was active in the Carlist relief organization, Socorro Blanco.Pepe Romero 2007 Villores’ oldest son, Enrique Selva Salvador, became the next Marqués de Villoresfollowing the 1952 death of his aunt and the second wife of his father, María Vicenta Salvador y Núñez Robres and was an active Carlist during the Republic already;Joaquín Monserrat Cavaller, Joaquín Bau Nolla y la Restauración de la Monarquía, Madrid 2001, , p. 83 he later lobbied for the Traditionalist cause in the Franco yearsManuel Martorell Pérez, La continuidad ideológica del carlismo tras la Guerra Civil [PhD thesis], Valencia 2009, p. 338 and became president of the Carlist circulo in Valencia.Celebración del 50 aniversario del círculo, [in:] Portal Avant!, available here
Early public activity
José Selva commenced his public activity at the university, getting engaged in the very active Valencian branch of Liga Católica.see José Vicente Castillo García, La política de los camaleones: Los conservadores valencianos durante la Restauración (1875-1923), Valencia 2002, , 9788437053738, Francesc-Andreu Martínez Gallego, Manuel Chust Calero, Eugenio Hernández Gascón (eds.), Valencia, 1900: movimientos sociales y conflictos políticos durante la guerra de Marruecos, 1906-1914, Valencia 2001, , 9788480213486 He took part in local elections, running on a broad monarchist ticket, and was elected to Valencia city council.Fuentes, Piqueras 2003, p. 520 He later served in the Valencian regional government as Deputy mayor.Oro de Ley 25.03.17 see here, Oro de Ley 01.04.17, see here
Having inherited a fundamentally Catholic and ultraconservative outlook, Selva entered the structures of the local Carlist organization quite early. With his father vicepresident of the Junta Provincial and his maternal uncle one of the national Carlist leaders, Selva soon grew in the Levantine party structures. He became the young lieutenant of Manuel Simó Marín, jefe of the Valencian Jaimismo. In 1913 he was already Presidente del Círculo Jaimista,El Siglo Futuro 11.04.13, see here representing the party on regional political stage. As a rising star of the movement he took part in national Traditionalist gatherings in Bordeaux and Lourdes of the 1910s, where he was personally introduced to the claimant, Don Jaime.Fuentes, Piqueras 2003, p. 520 At that time Carlism, already increasingly marginalized in Spanish politics, was also paralysed by conflict between the Carlist king and the top Carlist ideologue, Juan Vázquez de Mella. When de Mella was expelled in 1919 and left to build his own branch of Traditionalism, many party leaders, regional jefes (including Simó Marín in Valencia) and otherwise distinguished figures decided to join the secessionists; Don Jaime was left with very few recognized personalities by his side.Francisco Martín Melgar (Conde de Melgar), Joaquín Lloréns Fernández, Tomás Domínguez Romera (Conde de Rodezno) and Miguel Junyent i Rovira were probably the most experienced and distinguished loyalists Impressed by Selva, who since 1918 appeared as marqués de Villores, the Carlist king entrusted him with leadership and re-organisation of the Valencian Carlism.Fuentes, Piqueras 2003, p. 520. Since Garcia Guijarro joined the Mellistas the potential counter-candidate for Valencian leadership was Narciso Batlle y Baro, already 4 times elected to the Cortes. However, he swayed towards independent regionalism