The Ban's (Viceroy's) two Wives. A Note on the Private Life of Nikola Tomašić

Abstract

The contribution endeavours to shed light on one part of the private life of the Croatian ban, Nikola Tomašić – more precisely, his marriages to Marija Gluhak and Paula Gaj. Perhaps this topic would be irrelevant if Tomašić had not decided to convert to Orthodoxy due to his second marriage and to a much younger woman who at that time was known as one of Zagreb's beauties, which led to a significant reaction in the higher social circles of the time. Original archival sources and the available literature were used to create a narrative and, probably for the first time, the article presents to the general public pictures of the female actors in these events.