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Álvaro de Figueroa, 1st Count of Romanones

Spanish diplomat and writer (1863-1950)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ250975 ↗
Source-derived summary

Álvaro de Figueroa y Torres, 1st Count of Romanones (9 August 1863 – 11 October 1950) was a Spanish politician and businessman. He served as Prime Minister three times between 1912 and 1918, president of the Senate, president of the Congress of Deputies, Mayor of Madrid and many times as cabinet minister. He belonged to the Liberal Party. Romanones, who built an extensive political network, exerted a tight control on the political life of the province of Guadalajara during much of the Restoration period. He also was a prolific writer, authoring a number of history essays.

Biography

Early life

Born on 15 August 1863 in the Casa de Cisneros, at the Madrid's Plaza de la Villa, he was son of Ignacio Figueroa y Mendieta (a millionaire who had inherited a fortune from the mining companies of his father) and Ana de Torres y Romo (an aristocrat, daughter of the Marquis of Villamejor). His siblings were Francisca, José, Gonzalo and Rodrigo.

When he was a child, he suffered a barouche accident that broke his right leg and caused a limp for the rest of his life. His disability would come to be mocked on a regular basis in cuplés, jokes and caricatures.

He earned a licentiate degree in Law from the Central University of Madrid in 1884.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Álvaro de Figueroa, 1st Count of Romanones” is spanish diplomat and writer (1863-1950). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Álvaro, Figueroa and Count, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1863, 1950, 1912, 1918—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1863-05-09, 1863-08-08—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Álvaro, Figueroa and Count is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “spanish diplomat and writer (1863-1950)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q250975. VIAF identifies the subject as 66475313. The Library of Congress control number is n89623481. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1863, 1950, 1912 and 1918.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Álvaro de Figueroa, 1st Count of Romanones”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Álvaro de Figueroa, 1st Count of Romanones primary sources, Álvaro de Figueroa, 1st Count of Romanones archive and Álvaro research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Álvaro de Figueroa, 1st Count of Romanones”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Álvaro de Figueroa, 1st Count of Romanones” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.