 Having always displayed a penchant for social issues he passed it later on to his sons; during the Civil War he refused to comply with the Unification Decree and withdrew from politics.His wife and Ignacio's mother, María de Montiano y Uriarte (1886-1976), counted Manuel de Montiano and Agustin de Montiano among her ancestors; the closer ones were less fortunate and partially lived selling off family estates; her father was a Bilbao physician.Considered the most handsome girl in the city, she was also fanatically Basque.