CALOMARDE, ka-16-mar'da, or CAL°. MARDA, Francisco Tadeo (COUNT OF AL MEIDA), Spanish statesman: b. Villel, Aragon, 1775; d. Toulouse, France, 1842. He studied law, entered political life and sustained the national cause in resistance to Napoleon. In 1814 on the return of Ferdinand VII, Calo marde was made chief secretary of the Depart ment of Indian Affairs. Here he was convicted of bribery and banished to Toledo and after ward to Pamplona. In 1815 he held a similar post in the Ministry of Justice, and was made life secretary of the American Order of Isa bella the Catholic. In 1823 he received the appointment of secretary to the regency, and subsequently an important office in the royal household, and he was appointed Minister of Justice. He organized the corps of royalist volunteers, recalled the Jesuits, reopened the convents and closed the universities. Ferdi nand VII decorated him with the order of Charles II, and on the birth of Isabella he became Knight of the Golden Fleece and, by order of the King of Naples, Duke of Santa Isabel. He established the Pragmatic Sanction
of Charles IV, admitting women to the succes sion. In 1832, when Ferdinand's death was supposed to have taken place, Calomarde was the first to bend his knee before Don Carlos. The King recovered physically, but lingered in a semi-idiotic condition; of this Calomarde took advantage, by extorting from him his signature to the act of 31 Dec. 1832, reintro ducing the Salic law, by which Ferdinand abdicated in favor of Don Carlos instead of the Infanta Isabella. When Ferdinand revealed this fraudulent proceeding Calomarde was ban ished to Aragon, and later avoided imprison ment by escaping to France in disguise. Here he passed the rest of his days in obscurity.