José Antonio Primo de Rivera to try to rescue José Antonio. Either way the death of the founder of Falange rid the general of a formidable rival. Perhaps tellingly, it was well known that the two men disliked each other. After one of the two meetings they had, Franco dismissed José Antonio as "a playboy pinturero" (a foppish playboy). Elizabeth Bibesco's last novel, "The Romantic", published in 1940, starts with a dedication to Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera, whom she had known during her stay in Madrid where her husband, Prince Antoine Bibesco was an ambassador (1927–1931): “To Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera. I promised
Miguel Primo de Rivera to resign two days later. Primo de Rivera retired to Paris, where he died a month and a half later at the age of 60 from fever and diabetes on 16 March 1930. In the early 1930s, as most of the western world, Spain fell into economic and political chaos. Alfonso XIII appointed General Dámaso Berenguer, one of Primo de Rivera's opponents, to govern. But the monarch had discredited himself by siding with the dictatorship. Social revolution fermented in Catalonia. In April 1931, General José Sanjurjo informed the King that he could not count on the loyalty of the armed