Miguel Primo de Rivera forces. Alfonso XIII suspended the monarchy on 14 April 1931, leaving the royal family in Madrid. The act ushered in the Second Republic. Two years later Primo de Rivera's eldest son, José Antonio, founded the Falange, a Spanish fascist party. Both José Antonio and his brother Fernando were arrested in March 1936 by the republic, and were executed in Alicante prison by Republican forces once the Spanish Civil War began in July 1936. The Nationalists led by Francisco Franco won the Civil War and established a far more authoritarian regime. By that time, many Spaniards regarded Primo de Rivera's relatively
Fernando Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja Melilla, commanding the 2nd Taxdirt hunters squadron. He received a commendation for the Cross of Military Merit for his actions in battle. In the same year, after taking the village of Ulad Garen, he was promoted to Commander and awarded the Cross of María Cristina. Like his brother Miguel, Fernando criticised the Spanish intervention in Morocco. In 1920, by then lieutenant colonel, he was sent to the Cavalry Hunter Regiment of Alcántara nº14 as second commander. It was then that the so-called Disaster of Annual occurred. On 22 July 1921, Primo de Rivera had deployed the regiment’s four sabre squadrons