was demonstrated when Valiente carried the coffin at the funeral of José Calvo Sotelo. During the anti-Republican conspiracy, Valiente's role was reduced to negotiations with the would-be Alfonsist allies in the Burgos province, where he resided during the coup of July 18. He became member of the Carlist wartime executive Junta Nacional Carlista de Guerra, where as member of Seccion Administrativa he took care of religious affairs. When Franco expulsed the Carlist leader Manuel Fal Conde from Spain, Valiente acted as his informal substitute. In 1937, facing Franco's pressure to unite the Carlists and Falange, he took part in two crucial meetings of the Carlist executive, in February in Insua and in March in Burgos. Initially he seemed to have been among hardline falcondistas, but later tended to cautious endorsement of compliance and engaged in talks on details of the merger, apparently in hope that some genuine understanding might be achieved. When Unification Decree was made public Valiente resigned his post as secretary of the Junta; he admitted that the merger conflicted with his feelings and that "there is no moral unity" between the merged parties, but argued that given the circumstances, it had to be accepted. In May 1937 he was among 9 Carlists nominated to provincial FET jefaturas when made the party leader in Burgos; in October as one of 11 Carlists he entered the 50-member Consejo Nacional of the new organization (though not the Junta Politica). More than amalgamation within a motley grouping artificially created by the military, he feared the breakup of Carlism. Having personal authorisation of the regent-claimant Don Javier, Valiente remained in the Falangist Consejo Nacional, but he refused the offer of Rodezno, who assumed the Ministry of Justice in the first Francoist cabinet of 1938 and asked Valiente to be his sub-secretary (the post went to Luis Arellano instead). As member of Consejo Valiente was bombarded with letters of protest and requests for assistance on part of the Carlists who complained about Falangist domination, marginalisation of Traditionalism and personal persecutions; however, there was almost nothing he could have done about it. Early Francoism (1939-1955) In 1939 Franco re-appointed Valiente to the new, 2nd Falangist Consejo Nacional. However, in the early 1940s his official Francoist engagements were getting terminated; at unspecified time he ceased as the FET provincial jefe in Burgos, and in 1942 he was not appointed to the 3rd Falangist Consejo Nacional.