was considered a representative of the Carlist faction there. During his ministry the Spanish army was purged of a small number of officers and NCOs who were considered politically unreliable. Following the fall of France in 1940 and Hitler's subsequent overtures to Franco, Varela was anti-national socialist and a leading opponent of Spanish entry into the war on the Axis side, although he did endorse the Blue Division's participation on the Eastern Front fighting the Soviet Union. As tensions between Carlists and Falangists within the government rose during 1942, Varela suggested to Franco that Carlists were underrepresented and proposed several schemes for a reorganization of the cabinet. Violence between the factions broke out at the Basilica of Begoña on 16 August 1942, when Falangists attacked a Carlist crowd with grenades, causing many injuries and possibly several deaths. Varela, who was inside the church at the time, took the initiative against the Falangists and portrayed the Begoña Bombing as an attack on the army and a possible assassination attempt in telegrams to officials throughout the country, displeasing Franco. In the following cabinet reshuffle in September, Varela was replaced as army minister by General Carlos Asensio Cabanillas. In 1945 Franco appointed Varela as high commissioner of Spanish Morocco. He was later made captain-general of Madrid. He died of leukemia in 1951. Franco subsequently granted Varela a posthumous marquisate title as Marquis of San Fernando de Varela. After his death he was also granted the title of Captain General of the Army, passed from the also deceased former dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera in 1951 (until 1952, when the title was granted also posthumously to the General Juan Yagüe). He is the only Spanish soldier to have risen from the rank of private to Captain General, the highest rank in the Army. Notes Bibliography 1891 births 1951 deaths People from San Fernando, Cádiz Spanish generals Carlism Francoist Spain Laureate Cross of Saint Ferdinand Defence ministers of Spain Spanish military personnel of the Rif War Spanish military personnel of the Spanish Civil War (National faction)