Joint Issue - Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina Mostar - 350th Anniv. Of The Death Of P. Zrinski And F. K. Frankopan

A joint issue was released in cooperation with the Croatian History Museum in Zagreb.

PETAR IV ZRINSKI AND FRAN KRSTO FRANKOPAN

On Thursday, April 30, 1671, in Wiener Neustadt, the former Croatian ban, Count Petar IV Zrinski (born 1621), and his brother-in-law, Count Fran Krsto Frankopan (born 1643), were publicly executed. That spring morning, the executioner's sword brutally ended the lives of two representatives of the most prominent and influential aristocratic families of the Kingdom of Croatia, who dared to rebel against Emperor and King Leopold I of Habsburg. They did so because they felt that this ruler was neglecting his obligations as the Hungarian and Croatian king and that their moral obligation was to find a better solution to preserve the Kingdom's integrity, even if that meant breaking ties with Vienna and accepting the help of French King Louis XIV. and the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV, the bitter enemies of the House of Habsburg.

Although the election of that dynasty in 1527 in Cetingrad as the new ruling family on the Croatian throne was an expression of the free will of the then political elite, it was, before the onslaught of Ottoman invaders, still primarily a pragmatic solution to save the Kingdom. But since then, despite Habsburg guardianship, Croatia was reduced to reliquiae reliquiarum, and the political balance between the Austrian and Hungarian-Croatian parts of the Habsburg Monarchy was increasingly disrupted. The last straw was in 1664 when Emperor Leopold I, after a successful military campaign and a great victory, signed the "shameful" Peace of Vasvár with the Ottomans without consulting the Hungarian and Croatian political elites, who felt that the opportunity for the liberation and reunification of their countries under Ottoman rule had been missed.

The core of the powerful secret aristocratic opposition that emerged at the time consisted of the Croatian ban, Count Nikola VII Zrinski (born in 1620), his brother, Count Petar IV, Count Fran Krsto Frankopan, Hungarian Palatine Ferenc Wesselényi (born in 1601), Lord Chief Justice Ferenc III Nádasdy (born in 1622), Count Ferenc Bónis (born in 1627) and Count Erazmo Tattenbach (born in 1631). However, with the death of Nicholas VII In 1664 and of Wesselenyi three years later, their movement lost two key figures. When, in the spring of 1670, serious preparations for an armed uprising finally began, the ruler already knew about the conspiracy, and deceived Petar IV Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan into coming to Vienna.

Although Emperor Leopold I often emphasized "mercy" as one of the main virtues of the House of Habsburg and was considering extending mercy in the case of Zrinski and Frankopan, in the end mercy was denied not only to them but also to their families. Their vast estates were confiscated and divided among the emperor's supporters. The execution of Zrinski and Frankopan proved to be only an overture to the relentless realization of the further absolutist aspirations of the Habsburg House. Although Vienna managed to destroy the flower of the then Croatian political elite, it still failed to prevent an increasingly pronounced political memory of Zrinski and Frankopan, who, especially in the 19th century, became symbols of the struggle for Croatian sovereignty and resistance against Habsburg absolutism.

Professor Alexander Buczynski, PhD

Scientific Advisor

Croatian Institute of History

Department of Early Modern History