José Antonio Primo de Rivera was born in Madrid on April 24, 1903, the oldest son of General Miguel Primo de Rivera, Prime Minister and Dictator under the monarchy of King Alfonso XIII of Spain. From his father he inherited the title of Marquis of Estella (Navarre). Although he never married he is reputed to have had several girlfriends, one of them rumoured to have been Elizabeth Asquith the daughter of former British Prime Minister Herbert Henry Asquith. His mother died when he was five years old, and he was subsequently raised by his father's sister. He was privately taught at home, and learned English and French. When at university, he did not attend lectures until the second year of his undergraduate studies. He spent his summer holidays in the country estate of an uncle where he learned to ride horses and learned to hunt.

Primo de Rivera went on to study law at the University of Madrid between 1917 and 1923. He helped to organize the student union there, "Federación Universitaria Escolar," which opposed the higher education policies of his father. His undergraduate academic record is mixed. He obtained a grade of A+ in second year Civil Law, in Private International Law and in Forensics; he got an A in Spanish History, in Political Economics, in Administrative Law, in Taxation Law and in Business Law; but he failed four times: Civil Law twice, History of Spanish Literature once and Criminal Law once. He took undergraduate and graduate courses simultaneously and he obtained both his Bachelor and Doctor degrees in the same year, 1923.

After graduating he picked the "One-Year Volunteer" option to do his military service while his father was Dictator. He served with the Ninth Dragoons of St. James cavalry regiment stationed at Barcelona. He was court martialed for punching a superior officer, Brigadier General Gonzalo Queipo de Llano.

[Queipo de Llano] had written a defamatory letter against an uncle of Jose Antonio and against the Dictator himself. Jose Antonio, ready to defend the honour of his family abused by the Republican general, went to the café where the latter used to socialize, and after asking whether he was the author of the writing, and after receiving the general's affirmative reply, delivered a spectacular punch that made the general roll on the floor, sparking a free-for-all between the companions of Jose Antonio and the companions of the general.

The tribunal meted out a very lenient sentence, the temporary demotion from the rank of second lieutenant.

In 1925 he became a registered lawyer and opened an office on a side street of Madrid very near the confluence of three principal avenues. In 1931 he was invested "Perpetual Dean of the Illustrious College of Lawyers of Madrid."

In 1931 he constituted "Agrupación al Servicio de la República" (Assembly at the Service of the Republic) and paradoxically ran for office under the monarchist banner of "Unión Monárquica Nacional"; — he failed to get elected.

He was detained briefly in 1932 for collaboration in General Sanjurjo's attempted coup.

On October 29, 1933, he launched Falange Española ("Spanish Phalanx"), a nationalist party inspired by Fascism. The foundational convention was held in the Theatre of Comedy of Madrid. He was the keynote speaker and his first address was a criticism of liberal democracy.

Since the liberal state was a servant of [Rousseau] it became not just the trustee of a nation's destiny but also the spectator of electoral contests. What alone mattered to the liberal state was that a certain number of gentlemen be sitting at the polling station, that the voting start at eight o'clock and end at four, that the ballot boxes not get smashed — when being smashed is the noblest aspiration of all ballot boxes — and then to respect the outcome of the voting, as if the outcome was a matter of complete indifference to it. In other words liberal governments did not even believe in their mission, that theirs was a respectable duty, but rather they believed that anyone who disagreed with them and decided to attack the state, whether with good or ill intentions, had the same right as they did to defend it.

During the speech he made his noted remark on the recourse to fists and guns when needed,

And in closing, that if what we want must in some circumstance be attained through the use of violence, that we demur not before the prospect of violence. For who has said, when they say, "Every available means except violence," that the supreme hierarchy of moral values resides in kindness? Who has said that when our feelings are insulted, rather than react like men, we are called upon to reply amiably? Dialogue as a first step of communication is well and good. But there is no option left except fists and guns when someone offends the precepts of justice or the fatherland.

His closing words made explicit his romanticism.

In a poetic sweep we will raise this fervent devotion to Spain; we will make sacrifices, we will renounce the easy life and we will triumph, triumph that — you know this well — we shall not obtain in the upcoming elections. In these elections vote the lesser evil. But your Spain will not be born out of them, nor does our frame for action reside there. That is a murky atmosphere, spent, like a tavern's after a night of dissipation. Our station is not there. I am a candidate, yes, but I take part in these elections without faith or respect. And I say this now, when so doing may rest me every vote. I couldn't care less. We are not going to squabble with the establishment over the unsavory left-overs of a soiled banquet. Our station is outside though we may provisionally pass by the other one. Our place is out in the clear air, beneath a moonlit sky, cradling a rifle, and the stars overhead. Let the others party on. We outside in tense vigil; earnest and self-confident we divine the sunrise in the joy of our hearts.

He stood for office in the general election of 19 November under the umbrella of "Unión Agraria y Ciudadana," part of the broad conservative coalition Confederación Española de Derechas Autónomas (CEDA). This time he was elected and entered Parliament as a member for Cadiz.

In his first parliamentary intervention he answered Gil Robles — the founder of CEDA — who had just spoken out against all totalitarian forms of government for arrogating themselves the attributes of God and crushing the personality of the individual,

We believe that the state does not have to justify its behaviour at every turn, just as no individual or social class does, in so far as it holds to a guiding principle all the time. All the while the state is made out to be God by Rousseau's idea that the state, or the will of those it represents, is always right. What makes the state like God is the belief that the will of the state, embodied by absolute monarchs in the past and now by the popular vote, is always right. The monarch may have erred; the popular vote may err because neither truth nor goodness derives from an act or assertion of the will. Goodness and truth are perennial tributaries of reason, and to ascertain whether one is in the right it is not enough to ask the king — whose dictate seemed always just to his supporters — nor enough to canvass the people — whose decision is always right according to the disciples of Rousseau. What must be done rather is to verify whether our actions and our thoughts are in agreement at every step with a permanent aspiration.

On February 11, 1934, Falange merged with Ramiro Ledesma's Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional - Sindicalista to create the Falange Española de las Juntas de Ofensiva Nacional - Sindicalista under Jose Antonio's leadership.

In the general election of February 16, 1936, Falange won only 0.7% of the vote; but the wave of instability which greeted the victory of the Popular Front — a left-wing coalition of Communists, Socialists, liberal Republicans like the Radicals, and others — caused an influx of new members, and the minuscule party grew to more than 40,000 members by July.

Primo de Rivera created several Falangist symbols. The Falangist uniform was a blue shirt with the embroidered design of a yoke (a symbol for farming) plus a backdrop of five vertical arrows (a symbol for war), copied from the heraldry of the Catholic Monarchs. The cap was the red beret of the Carlists. The flag bore the red and black colours of the Anarchists. The salute was the Roman salute. In casual conversation Falangists were expected to overlook rank and to call one another "Comrade." In 1935 Primo de Rivera collaborated in editing the lyrics of the Falangist anthem, "Cara al Sol" (Face to the Sun). Every member of Falange had to obey unquestioningly.

The honour and task of Falange must be gauged by those who carry the burden of leadership on their shoulders. Do not forget that one of the rules of our code of ethics is to have faith in the leaders. Your leaders are always right.

On March 14, 1936, he was arrested in Madrid for illegal possession of firearms. Nine weeks later he was transferred to Alicante. Prison security was lax, and he was able to communicate with Nationalist conspirators by post until a new director of the prison took charge and his cell was searched. The search turned up two handguns and a hundred rounds of ammunition, so thereafter he was held incommunicado. On October 3 he was charged with conspiracy against the Republic and military insurrection, both capital offences. Primo de Rivera conducted his own defense. On November 18 at 2:30 AM he was declared guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad. The sentence was carried out in the early morning hours of November 20, 1936; the date immediately became a day of remembrance for the Spanish Far-Right.

It is said by some that the Republic offered the Nationalists a prisoner exchange involving Jose-Antonio and a son of the Republic's president Francisco Largo Caballero and that Franco turned down the offer. Others contend that it was the Republican government who rejected the deal of the Nationalists and that General Franco approved several failed commando raids on the Alicante prison to try and rescue Jose 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 ever had, Franco dismissed Jose Antonio as "a playboy pinturero" (a foppish playboy).

The young dynamic leader of the Falange was, like his father, a great admirer of Great Britain and spoke fluent English. He had been repelled by Hitler on his one visit to Nazi Germany in the Spring of 1934 and regarded the Nazi officials he met with as depressing and rancorous. Had he lived, a major struggle between him and Franco would probably have been inevitable. Unlike the dour Franco, Jose Antonio was an accomplished orator, intellectual and parliamentarian. His execution by Republican forces in 1936 was a grave mistake.

The political canon of Falange resembled that of Italy's Partito Nazionale Fascista. It shared its dislike of Marxism and its contempt for democracy. It sought to bridge the gap between patriotism and Marxist internationalism by rejecting the concept of class warfare while conceding the exploitation of the working class under capitalism. Jose-Antonio proposed that the creation of a hierarchical trade union hegemony under Falangist control would guarantee the robust protection of every honest worker. Additionally the Falangist platform called for extensive agrarian reforms, for the nationalization of the banking system and for the suppression of all political parties. Until the desired establishment of one-party rule Falange preferred the formalities of a liberal democracy. The party had no formal view on religion other than to guarantee freedom of worship while at the same time acknowledging and affirming that Roman Catholicism was the historical preference of the Spanish people.

In Jose-Antonio's thinking the ultimate goal of the new political movement was the resurgence of Spain as a major power. Article 1 of the Falangist Manifesto of 1934 reads,

We believe in the supreme reality of Spain. To strengthen her, to make her great is the paramount task of every Spaniard. Personal interest, collective or class interests must surrender to the achievement of this goal.

The third article states unequivocally,

We have the will for empire-building. We affirm that the historical fulfillment of Spain is the empire. We seek for Spain a preeminent place in Europe. We do not tolerate international boycotts or foreign mediation. In regard to the countries of Spanish America we favour the unification of culture, of economic interests and of power. Spain puts forward her pivotal role in the affairs of the Hispanic world as entitlement to occupy a position of dominance in global affairs.

Article 7 warns,

Human dignity, the spiritual integrity of man and his freedom are eternal, intangible values and rights. But only he who belongs to a strong, free nation is truly free. Noone will be allowed to use his liberty to attempt against the unity, the strength or the freedom of the fatherland. Harsh discipline will be directed against every attempt to poison, to divide Spaniards or to distance them from the destiny of the fatherland.

Jose-Antonio did not accept the right of any region to self-determination and called for the wholesale eradication of separatists.

The creation of great unions like Spain is the result of many generations engrossed in constant effort. The hard earned glory of such a great task rests on centuries of sacrifice. To unravel it is much easier: simply let primeval, splintering separatism, barbarian at heart, take root in every crevice, and everything comes crashing down.

But that happens in the absence of the resolute decision of a people, already shaped, who wish to remain together at all costs, and from whose youth will come individuals willing to order the shooting from behind, without hesitation, of clusters of traitors.

He restated his position forcefully two months later in a letter to General Franco.

At the end of my meeting [with the Minister of the Interior] my determination to go out on the streets with a rifle to defend Spain had not cooled, but it was accompanied by the near-certainty that all who went out on the streets were going to play a dignified part in a defeat. Before the likely crafty and able assailants of the Spanish state, the Spanish state, in the hands of amateurs, does not exist.

From his jail cell in Madrid two months before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War he called on all military officers to take up arms against the government.

When your sons inherit the uniforms you now flaunt, they will with them inherit either the shame of hearing it said, "When your father wore this uniform what was once Spain ceased to exist," or the pride of remembering, "Our Spain did not succumb because my father and his brothers-in-arms saved her in the moment of truth." If you do, as the old version of the oath says, "May God reward you," and if you do not, may he call you to account.