Petar Keglević

Petar Keglević
Ban of Croatia
In office 9 December 1537 – 1 November 1542
Preceded by	Louis Pekry
Succeeded by	Nikola Šubić Zrinski
Personal details
Died	1554 or 1555
Resting place	Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pregrada, Croatia
Military service
Battles/wars	Siege of Jajce (1521)

Petar Keglević of Bužim (died in 1554 or 1555) was the ban of Croatia and Slavonia from 1537 to 1542.^[1]

He was captain from 1521 to 1522 and later ban of Jajce. In 1526, some months before the battle of Mohács, he got the jus gladii, even though he did not take part in the battle (he arrived too late). From 25 May 1533 to 9 December 1537, he was the royal commissary for Croatia and Slavonia as attorney general. From 1537 to 1542, he was the ban of Croatia and Slavonia.

The battle of Mohács was very traumatic. The history of the persons who were relevant after that - among them also Petar Keglević - is described again and again. A part of Zagreb is still named after him. He distinguished himself in battles against the Ottoman Empire and he achieved a special agreement. After the battle of Mohács, he sided with Emperor Ferdinand against János Szapolyai. Zápolya had made a Franco-Hungarian alliance. Petar Keglević made a special agreement with the Ottoman Empire. The result was a Franco-Ottoman alliance and as an unintended consequence moved Jeronimo Bassano from Venice to England (see also: Ottoman–Venetian War ). This architecture of Europe should kept for centuries.

He increased his family's holdings through purchases (Kostel and Krapina)^[2] and royal gifts (Bijela Stijena near Pakrac, Lobor, Novigrad (the permission to build novi grad, i.e. "new towns"), Zsámbék, Perbál, Tök and Fürstenfeld).^[3]

After the death of Keglević's son-in-law Gašpar Ernušt, he assumed ownership of his possessions in Međimurje.

In 1542 he was sentenced as an infidel by the Parliament in Bratislava, because of his special agreement with the Ottoman Empire and because of the unlawful ownership of Međimurje. Emperor Ferdinand removed him from his position as ban and confiscated his properties in 1542 (see also: Little War in Hungary (1543)). One of the sons of Petar Keglević moved to Valladolid (see: Conflicts with the Ottoman Empire) and Mehmed-paša Sokolović became Commander of the Imperial Squires and later Grand Vizier. Emperor Ferdinand imprisoned Keglević in 1546 in house arrest in one of his own houses of his own choice. In 1548 he was granted an amnesty and was returned all of his goods along with his grandfather's Bužim. In the year 1552 Emperor Ferdinand visited him as a private person and brought him news from Valladolid.

He was not involved in the dynastic fight between the Habsburgs and the Jagiellonians, although he made the business with George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, so that this one pulled back from Hungary and Croatia.

Petar Keglević was married to Barbara Strezsemley from Streza (today Pavlin Kloštar near Bjelovar), from family Bissenus de Streza. Streza^[4] was the uncle (brother of mother) of king Dmitar Zvonimir. Streza descended from Bissenus de genere Aba, who was a descendant of the Hungarian king Samuel Aba, a grandson of Géza, Grand Prince of the Hungarians.

He died in 1554 or 1555.

See also

• House of Keglević

References

1. Hrvatska enciklopedija- Keglević, Petar
2. cit: George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach 21.12.1521 and Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Croatia 8.11.1559: "Count Peter Keglevich Margrave of the castles Kostel and Krapina", National Archives of Hungary.
3. I. Regni hungariae et partium eidem annexarum statuum et ordinum seu nobilium familiarum stemmatographia intersertis accessorie notationibus de antiquis populis hungariae oras incolentibus, Pars II. Typis Simonis Petri Weber, 1798 p. 212.
4. Zaslužni i znamenti Hrvati 925-1925., Emilije Laszowski, Zagreb 1925.