Original scientific paper
Summary: The Frankapan princes as Krk estate owners
Nada Klaić
Abstract
In this text, the author follows in detail the development of the rule by the Frankapan princes on the island of Krk, from the beginning of the twelth century, when they became Venetian officials, right up until the year 1480, when the lost their hold on the island. He, first of all, establishes the fact that no other noble family fulfilled such a significant role as that which can be appropriated to the Krk princes. The author considers that they achieved this outstanding position mainly thanks to the double vassal relationship they held, in respect of the doges and the Hungarian-Croation rulers. By gradually extending their estate and rule into neighbouring Croatia, the Krk princes more defiantly opposed the obligations which were bestowed upon them, in accordance with their role as Venetian officials. The situation from the other side was such that the doges transformed their claim to the island into wealth, thus neglecting their duty, and which consequented in the princes being able to deal with the inhabitants with an absolutely free hand. Hence the relationship graduaily deteriorated. With an aspiration towards an income increase, the princes attempted to take full control of the municipal rights, (they made efforts to incorporate the commons, groves and woods to their own domain), so as to ensure that they alone profitted by them. At the same time they endeavoured to increase their allocation in the communal administration (nowadays, town council). The need to double the number of officials was justified however, by the fact that from the second-half of the thirteenth century, two members of the family governed the island. Venice was thus impelled to become involved in a disagreement which arose between the islanders and the princes, so that it endeavoured to fulfill the role of an impartial tribunal, but unfortunately the resolution didn't lie entirely in its palm, as the princes had become even more intractable officials, so that Venice was hardly in a position to successfully judge them. The century old relationship which the Krk princes had with Venice, lasting from the beginning of the twelth century up until the year 1358, was interrupted during the Tartar invasion when the princes helped Bela IV a little more intensely than the doge desired. On that account, in 1244, the Frankapans were deprived of their princely honour on the island, even though, however, in the year 1260 they returned to the island. Although they retrieved their princedoms, this time under significantly more oppressive conditions, and in the main, thanks to the excellent position they held in the Croatia of the Anjous, obligations gradually decreased until finally in the year 1358, Venice was induced to abdicate its power on the eastern Adriatic coast. The principal reason which lead to the Krk princes forfeiting the island however in 1480, lies in the crisis which the family experienced in the second half of the fifteenth century. After Ban Nikola had made the family famous as far away as Rome - where Pope Martin V helped him to establish the false Roman origin of the family - in 1449, nine of his sons divided up the vast domain and from then on its extensiveness slowly decreased. Nikola's youngest son Ivan seeked asylum from the Venetians., against his brothers and King Matija Korvin, but Venice had much different ideas however and didn't hesitate in taking charge of the island and at the same time banishing Ivan. The loss of the island caused a great hardship to the Frankapans, who were at that time, that's to say, after the Zadar Concilliation in the year 1358, no longer just the islands officials, yet, moreover, its masters, owing to the fact that the Hungarian-Croation rulers confirmed their right to the island of Krk in the year 1412, not demandirg anything specific from them, on behalf of the island itself.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
324413
URI
Publication date:
22.4.1970.
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