Zrinski-Frankopan conspiracy
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The Zrinski-Frankopan conspiracy (Croatian: urota zrinsko-frankopanska; 1664-1670) was a movement in which the Croatian noblemen of the Zrinski and Frankopan families rebelled against their ruler, King Leopold I of the Habsburg family. They felt he disregarded the treaty that he was bound to upon being crowned as the king of the Lands of the Crown of St. Stephen, especially after the Vasvár Peace in 1664.
In Hungarian historiography the conspiracy also named Wesselényi conspiracy after the highest ranking (count palatine) member.
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[edit] The Conspirators
The leaders of the conspiracy were ban Nikola Zrinski (viceroy of Croatia) and palatine Ferenz Wesselényi (viceroy of Hungary). The conspirators were soon joined by dissatisfied royal families from Croatia and Hungary, like Fran Krsto Frankopan and Nikolas's brother Petar from Croatia and from the Hungarian nobility: the prince of Siebenbürgen Ferenz Rakoczy, high justice of the Court of Hungary Ferenc Nadasdy, the archbishop of Ostrogon, Gyorgy Lippay and Erazmo Tatenbach, a feudal lord from Steiermark. The conspiracy and rebellion was entirely led by nobility. "Opća enciklopedija jugoslavenskog leksikografskog zavoda". Opća enciklopedija, svezak 8.. (1982). Zagreb: Jugoslavenski Leksikografski Zavod.
[edit] Prelude
Without consolidated support from the commoners the conspirators were forced to seek help outside the country: France, Poland and Ottomans. Despite promises of help it was never delivered. In the meantime leaders of the conspiracy died (somewhat mysterious and peculiar deaths from accidents and natural causes). Ban Nikola Zrinski died in a hunting accident, far from anyones sight. He was succeeded in his conspirator's role by his brother Petar. Lippay and Wesselényi died of natural causes, almost at the same time and under the same circumstances (probably poisoned).
[edit] Rebellion
The conspiracy had been in preparation for six years, but was neither well prepared nor well executed. Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan started the armed rebellion in 1670. Unbeknownst to them, the Habsburg court and Emperor Leopold I. had gotten wind of the conspiracy a year before (in 1669.) from two sources: the Turks (a translator during negotiations with Croatian conspirators) and the high justice of the court of Hungary, Nadasdy.
The rebellion failed, without much bloodshed, as the main conspirators, now rebels, stopped when they found out that the Emperor knew and saw that to press on was futile.
[edit] After the rebellion
Petar Zrinski and Fran Krsto Frankopan were invited (ordered actually) to the Emperors Court. The note said that, as they had stopped the rebellion and had repented soon enough, they would be given mercy from the Emperor if they would immediately come and plead for it from the Emperor. The moment they arrived in Vienna they were placed under arrest. After the trial they were locked up in the royal dungeon in Wiener Neustadt. They were executed (beheaded) on the April 30, 1671. Nadassdy was executed on the same day, and Tattenbach was executed later on December 1, 1671.
[edit] The trial
In those ages nobility enjoyed a few privileges that commoners did not. One of them was the right to be tried by a court assembled of peers. While under trial, the conspirators were first being tried by the Emperors court assembly. After the verdict, they had requested their noble rights to be fulfilled. The court was then assembled of lords from other parts of the Monarchy, far away from Croatia or Hungary, which just accepted the previous (death) verdict. Petar Zrinski's verdict read: "he committed the greatest sins than the others in aspiring to obtain the same station as his majesty, that is, to be an independent Croatian ruler and therefore he indeed deserves to be crowned not with a crown, but with a bloody sword".
[edit] Conspiracy-rebellion or legal uprising?
The interesting part is that this right was not granted to conspirators or rebels who openly defied or rebelled against the Crown. From the fact that the right was granted by the Court, historians in Croatia now refer to the "rebellion" as a legal uprising. Pacta conventa gives the right to openly defy and rebel against a ruler that will not fulfill duties taken upon him by the pact. For example the pact stated a minimal amount of solders that need to be stationed on the border with the Ottoman Empire, and clearly states that actions from the king that went against the rightful claims of the Kingdom (Croatia-Hungary) would make the pact void and anyone would then have the right to dethrone the king. The garrison request was never fully fulfilled, and the foreign policy in that time could be interpreted as going against the rightful claims of Hungary and Croatia (see Peace of Vasvár).
[edit] The aftermath
During the trial and after the execution, the estates of the royal families were pillaged, and their families relocated. The destruction of the most powerful feudal families and their economic might ensured that no similar event would take place during the feudal era (until the bourgeois era). Petar's wife (Katarina Zrinska) and two of their daughters died in convents, and his son Ivan, died mad after a terrible imprisonment and torture. So did Katarina, the very symbol of Croatia's destiny.
The bones of Zrinski and Frankopan remained in Austria-Hungary for 248 years, and it was only after the fall of the monarchy that their remains were moved to the crypt of Zagreb Cathedral.
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