Iván Skerlecz

Who was Iván Skerlecz?

Iván Skerlecz de Lomnicza was the last Hungarian to be ban of the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia.

Skerlecz was born in Oroszló, Baranya County, Hungary in 1873. After Hungarian dictatorship during 1912 under the titular ban Slavko Cuvaj, the Hungarian prime minister István Tisza appointed Skerlecz head of the Austro-Hungarian crown land in 1913. During this period, Austria-Hungary was at war as part of World War I.

While Croatia-Slavonia was not the site of any battles, Croatian troops, fighting under the Croatian Home Guard took part in the fighting, much of it in neighbouring Serbia. Skerlecz managed to reconvene the Croatian Sabor in Zagreb by 1915. The Croats made further demands for local authority, as well as unification of Croatia-Slavonia with Dalmatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Stefan Sarkotić, Austria-Hungary's commander in Bosnia and Herzegovina also sought unification of their provinces. However, Austria-Hungary's outdated political system made any shifts between areas under Hungarian or Austrian spheres of influence difficult. Skerlecz could only support the Croatians in acting autonomously. As the war progressed more Croats found the formation of a South Slav state a potentially beneficial possibility.