Electoral Carlism of Restoration was vital to sustain Traditionalism in the period between the Third Carlist War and the Primo de Rivera dictatorship. Carlism, defeated in 1876, during the Restauración period recalibrated its focus from military action to political means and media campaigns. Accommodating themselves to political framework of the Alfonsine monarchy, the movement leaders considered elections, and especially elections to Congreso de los Diputados, primary vehicle of political mobilization. Though Carlist minority in the Cortes remained marginal and its impact on national politics was negligible, electoral campaigns were key to sustain the party until it regained momentum during the Second Spanish Republic.

Matías Barrio y Mier (1844–1909) was a Spanish law academic and a Carlist politician. He served as a scholar of jurisprudence at various universities, though mostly in Oviedo (1881-1892) and Madrid (1892-1909), and authored manuals used by students until the 1930s. He is best known, however, as the Carlist political leader (1899-1909). As a Traditionalist he served 9 terms in the Cortes, initially during the rule of Amadeo I (1871-1872) and then during the Restoration period.