José Calvo Sotelo, 1st Duke of Calvo Sotelo, GE (6 May 1893 – 13 July 1936) was a Spanish jurist and politician, minister of Finance during the dictatorship of Miguel Primo de Rivera and a leading figure during the Second Republic. During this period he became an important part of Renovación Española, a monarchist movement. His assassination in July 1936 by the bodyguard of Socialist party leader Indalecio Prieto was an immediate prelude to the triggering of the military coup plotted since February 1936, the partial failure of which marked the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. Biography Early years Calvo Sotelo was born on 6 May 1893 in Tui, Galicia to Pedro Calvo y Camina, a judge, and Elisa Sotelo Lafuente. He received a degree in Law and moved to the capital, Madrid. In 1913 he joined a maurist circle in the Ateneo where he socialised with other members of the Maurist Youth such as Melchor Fernández Almagro, Pío Zabala, Antonio Ballesteros Beretta, Pío Ballesteros Álava, Quintiliano Saldaña, Manuel Palacios Olmedo, Rogerio Sánchez and Fernando Suárez de Tangil. He became Secretary of the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences of the Ateneo Mercantil de Madrid and a professor at the Universidad Central. He was a member of Antonio Maura's Conservative Party. In his first post he was an administrative officer in the Ministry of Grace and Justice. In the 1919 election to the Congress of Deputies, despite Maura having in mind the plan of not putting forward a Maurista in the district of Carballino in exchange for a seat in another district, the 25 year-old Calvo Sotelo put himself forward as a candidate. Challenging mainstream conservative candidate Leopoldo García Durán, a follower of Gabino Bugallal (Count of Bugallal), Calvo Sotelo won the seat in the election. In 1922, he was made Civil Governor of Valencia. Dictatorship of Primo de Rivera Following the 1923 coup d'état by Miguel Primo de Rivera, Calvo Sotelo lent support to the dictatorship. Appointed Director General of Local Administration in 1923, he was the creator of the 1924 Municipal Statute that, inspired by previous projects of Antonio Maura, sought to reform the structure of the State at a local level and was cemented by the free election of mayors and the councillors. He also promulgated a Provincial Statute in 1925. Neither statute got to be enforced. Primo de Rivera then appointed Calvo Sotelo as finance