Grandee in the context of "Peerage of France"

Alonso Pérez de Guzmán y de Zúñiga-Sotomayor, 7th Duke of Medina Sidonia, GE (10 September 1550 – 26 July 1615), was a Spanish aristocrat who was most noted for his role as commander of the Spanish Armada that was to attack Southern England in 1588. He was a great-great grandson of Ferdinand II of Aragon.

He was one of the wealthiest men in Europe and a patron of the arts. Successful for his prodigious logistic ability, he organized naval defense and commerce in the southern Iberian Peninsula, managing fleets and pioneering the usage of vessels like frigates. Despite this, he was not personally a naval commander, which contributed to the failure of the Spanish Armada, entrusted to him against his judgement. His defective performance during the battle marked his career in late historiography.

The Spanish nobility are people who possess a title of nobility confirmed by the Spanish Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Cortes, as well as those individuals appointed to one of Spain's three highest orders of knighthood: the Order of the Golden Fleece, the Order of Charles III and the Order of Isabella the Catholic. Some members of the Spanish nobility possess various titles that may be inherited or not, but the creation and recognition of titles is legally the prerogative of the monarchy of Spain.

Many Spanish titles and noble families still exist and many have transmitted their aristocratic status since the Middle Ages. Some aristocratic families in Spain use the nobiliary particle de before their family name, although this was more prominent before the 20th century.

Luis Méndez de Haro, 6th Marquis of Carpio and 2nd Duke of Olivares or Luis Méndez de Haro y Guzmán, GE, (17 February 1598 – 26 November 1661), was a Spanish political figure, general and art collector. He was the royal favourite (Spanish: valido) of Philip IV. De Haro was also notable as being one of the very few Spanish royal favourites of the period to die whilst still in favour.

José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquis of Estella GE (24 April 1903 – 20 November 1936), often referred to simply as José Antonio, was a Spanish national syndicalist politician who founded the Falange Española ("Spanish Phalanx"), later Falange Española de las JONS.

José Antonio was the eldest son of General Miguel Primo de Rivera (2nd Marquess of Estella), who governed Spain as dictator from 1923 to 1930. He worked as a lawyer from 1927 to 1933 before entering politics through the National Monarchist Union, an enterprise he initially engaged in because of his vows to defend his recently deceased father's memory. After becoming disillusioned with the traditionalist monarchist policies, he founded the short lived Movimiento Español Sindicalista alongside Julio Ruiz de Alda. Soon after he founded Falange Española in October 1933, shortly before running as a candidate in the 1933 general election, in which he won a seat in the Congress of Deputies of the Second Spanish Republic. He assumed the role of messianic leader and charged himself with the task of saving Spain in founding a national syndicalist party, but he encountered difficulties widening his support base during his entire political life.

Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquis of Estella, GE (8 January 1870 – 16 March 1930), was a Spanish dictator and military officer who ruled as prime minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during the last years of the Bourbon Restoration.

He was born into a landowning family of Andalusian aristocrats. He met his baptism by fire in October 1893 in Cabrerizas Altas during the so-called Margallo War. He moved up the military ladder, promoted to brigadier general (1911), division general (1914), and lieutenant general (1919). He went on to serve as administrator of the Valencia, Madrid, and Barcelona military regions, distinguishing himself as a voice in favour of military withdrawal from Africa.

The Rump Parliament was the Long Parliament, including only those members who remained in session after Colonel Thomas Pride, on 6 December 1648, commanded his soldiers to purge the House of Commons of those members who were against the Grandees' intention to try King Charles I for high treason.

"Rump" normally means the hind end or backside of a mammal; its use meaning "remnant" (the reduced-membership Parliament) was first recorded in the above context in English in 1649.

The Army Council was a body established in 1647 to represent the views of all levels of the New Model Army. It originally consisted of senior commanders, like Sir Thomas Fairfax, and representatives elected by their regiments, known as Agitators.

Following the Putney Debates of October to November 1647, Fairfax, Oliver Cromwell and Henry Ireton grew concerned by their radicalism, and in 1648, Agitators were removed from the Council. Now dominated by the so-called Grandees, it became the Council of Officers.