José de Arruela

An anglophile monarchist, he graduated in Law from the University of Coimbra (1906), where he actively participated in the fight against academic hazing (praxe). He published several anti-hazing pamphlets, created the Academic Group for the Reception of Novices—which, instead of the traditional harsh hazing rituals, aimed to organize festive and musical activities and proposed showering freshmen with flowers—and staged Auto de fé de um praxista (1905). Upon completing his degree, he established himself as a lawyer in Lisbon, standing out for his campaign through the newspaper O Século in favor of a broad amnesty, which he successfully achieved, for the sailors of the battleship «Vasco da Gama», who mutinied in 1908. He consistently defended defendants in political, monarchist, or republican trials free of charge. In 1913, he joined the Monarchist Party, being imprisoned several times following monarchist revolutionary attempts. He was president of the Political Organization Committee of the Monarchist Cause, founder of the Lisbon Monarchist Centre, and director of the Diário da Manhã, the «first unofficial newspaper of King Manuel II». He gave numerous lectures at the Coimbra Institute, the São Jorge Castle, and his own home, founded and directed the magazine Voz do Direito (1942), and contributed to various newspapers such as O Século, Diário de Notícias, Época, and Voz, where he engaged in major polemics.