José Luis Gómez Urdáñez, the professor who revealed the enigmas of the Marquis of La Ensenada, dies

2023-10-19 14:07:05

The University of La Rioja, and Spain in general, are in mourning. On Wednesday night he died in Logroño at the age of 70. José Luis Gómez Urdáñezprofessor emeritus of the center, corresponding academic of the Royal Academy of History and expert in historical figures of the stature of the Marquis of Ensenada – into whom he put the most effort – and Fernando VI.

Although, beyond his infinite list of articles, essays and conferences, the dozens of students who have said goodbye to him through social networks have wanted to highlight his desire to disseminate our country’s past in an entertaining way and his closeness and humanity.

José Luis Gómez Urdáñez was born in Murillo de Río Leza –La Rioja– in 1953. In love with literature, he earned a degree and doctorate in History from the University of Zaragoza with the thesis ‘Charity and social marginalization in Aragon during the second half of the 18th century.

The bulk of his professional life was spent at the University of La Rioja, where he collaborated since his birth in the nineties. From then on his career was brilliant. He became director of the Department of Human Sciences, headed the center’s first summer courses and gave the master class ‘The political project of the Marquis of Ensenada‘ of the solemn opening ceremony of the 2008-2009 academic year.

There is no paper to dust off his thousand and one achievements. Over the years he was a visiting professor at the universities of Montpellier and Lublin (Poland) and – among many other positions – a member of the Spanish Society of 18th Century Studies.

He offered his last lesson already retired, and he sighs: on June 8, 2023. In it, the good teacher recounted his memories and spoke, as he himself admitted, of “the teachers and colleagues who have accompanied me in this life”. He did it excited, with bright eyes and proud of his past: «It is the end of a 42-year career. “I’m very lucky,” he explained after the event.

The center of his work was the life and misadventures of the Marquis of La Ensenada, counselor of State during the reigns of Philip V, Ferdinand VI and Charles III. In addition to his policies against the gypsies – whom he tried to exterminate – Urdáñez recounted more unknown episodes of his career, such as the fortification of the city of Ferrol in the 18th century. “This character always thought that Spain should get out of the decadence in which the last Habsburgs had left it,” said the professor in an interview with ABC in 2017.

That day, the professor insisted that he made an effort every day to make his books – some like ‘The reformist project of Ensenada’ or ‘Fernando VI’ – be “informative” and “entertaining”; not a piece for his professional colleagues.

Although he also counted dozens of more university-style essays. In this sense he coordinated an infinite number of historical works related to the Modern Age and, in the last stage of his life, he led the research projects ‘Documentary corpus on the Siege of Logroño of 1521‘ –about the defense of the city by the Castilian troops against the Franco-Navarrean hosts– and ‘Waiting for the Emperor. Logroño 1523’. He died in the same city that he investigated so much on the occasion of the 5th centenary of those events. And he did it after undergoing a medical operation.