Carlos Ignacio Martínez de Campos y Serrano

Carlos Ignacio Martínez de Campos y Serrano, 3rd Duke of la Torre (6 October 1887 – 20 May 1975) was a Spanish military officer, historian and academic.

Biography Born on 6 October 1887 in Paris, he was the son of Concepción Serrano —daughter of General Francisco Serrano— and José María Martínez de Campos. He fought in the Melilla War in 1909; later he was stationed as a military attaché in Japan and China. Between 1921 and 1924 he fought in the Rif War. He remained as military attaché of the Spanish embassy in Italy from 1924 to 1931, assuming additional responsibilities in Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey and Albania from his post in Rome starting in 1929. In September 1931 he would return to Spain.

Martínez de Campos, who joined the Nationalist faction during the Spanish Civil War, would be promoted to brigadier general, holding the position of Chief of the Central General Staff of the Spanish Army from 1940 to 1941 According to Gonzalo Menéndez-Pidal, Martínez Campos freed the writer Pío Baroja from a probable execution in the town of Santesteban, at the beginning of the Civil War. He was one of the personalities mentioned in the January 1941 order that named the members of the so-called Council of the Hispanidad. In 1943 he was the head of the military commission that negotiated with Nazi Germany the purchase of armaments through the .

Martínez de Campos, who took possession of his status as a member of the Royal Spanish Academy on 29 January 1950, was the tutor of Juan Carlos de Borbón between 1955 and 1960. In 1951 he was promoted to lieutenant general. He was placed in reserve by decree in 1957. He joined the Royal Academy of History as a full member on 1 December 1960, although he had been a corresponding member since 1923. He was also a member of the Juan de la Cierva Board of Trustees of the CSIC.

Grand Cross of Aeronautical Merit (1954)

Works

Tratado de equitación (1912) La Artillería y la Aviación (1917) La zona francesa de Marruecos (1918) Historia militar del Japón (1920) Las fuerzas militares del Japón (1922) Arte militar aéreo (1925) La Artillería en la batalla (1928) Pájaros de acero (1930) La campaña de Fezzan (1935) Los fuegos (1935) Arte bélico (1936) La cuestión de los servicios (1936)

El empleo de la Artillería (1941) Cuestiones de anteguerra (1944) Teoría de la guerra (1944) Ayer (1945) Otra guerra (1948) Dilemas (1950) Canarias en la brecha (1953) Figuras históricas (1958) Ensayos y comentarios (1962) Islandia tierra de hielo y fuego (1965) España bélica. El siglo XVI (1966)