Afrancesado de primerísima hora, Juan Antonio Llorente, como consejero de Estado, director de Expolios y Bienes Suprimidos o Bienes Nacionales, comisario general de Cruzada, ejerció cargos de la mayor importancia en el gobierno de José I, del que fue, al mismo tiempo, uno de los más decididos propagandistas. Autor, durante la Guerra de la Independencia, de virulentos ataques contra los diputados a las Cortes de Cádiz, y especialmente los liberales, abandonó el servilismo del que hizo vanamente alarde al principio de su exilio en Francia para obtener el perdón de Fernando VII y abrazó el partido de sus antiguos adversarios, por varios motivos, analizados en este artículo, entre los cuales destaca su odio al ultramontanismo consustancial a la unión del trono y del altar.
Being one of the very first Afrancesados, Juan Antonio Llorente occupied high-level positions in the government of José I, as State Counsellor, head of Expropriations and Suppressed Properties or National Properties, general delegate of Cruzada, and at the same time was one of its most determined publicists. Author, during the Peninsular War of violent attacks against Deputies to the Cortes of Cadiz, and particularly against Liberals, he gave up the servility he uselessly displayed at the begining of his French exile to gain forgiveness from Fernando VII, and joined the ranks of his old opponents for various reasons, analyzed in this article, among which the most important was his abhorrence of ultramontanism, closely linked to the union between the throne and the altar.
