Фран Крсто Франкопан: Жизнь и творчество хорватского барочного поэта

Croatian baroque poet, nobleman and politician

Fran Krsto Frankopan (Frangepán Ferenc Kristóf; 4 March 1643 – 30 April 1671) was a Croatian baroque poet, nobleman and politician. He is remembered primarily for his involvement in the failed Zrinski Frankopan conspiracy. He was a Croatian marquess, a member of the Frankopan noble family and its last male descendant.

Born in Bosiljevo, Croatia, twenty years younger than his brothers, Fran Krsto Frankopan was an authentic poet in his own right. Following the death of his father, Vuk Krsto Frankopan, he was sent to be schooled in Zagreb, where he enrolled at the Jesuit academy. He lived at today's Habdelić street in the Upper Town, before continuing his education in Italy. There he published his first poetic work in Latin language, Elegia, aged 13, in 1656. He underwent various poetic influences, none of which was able to deafen his own inspiration. In such a vein was written his The Garden in which to Cheat Time (Gartlic za čas kratiti), a personal account of the poet's experiences while in prison. Living in an area bordering on several Croatian dialects, Frankopan mainly wrote his poetry in the Kajkavian ikavian dialect of the Croatian language (as seen in his poem Srića daje kaj misal ne zgaje). In prison, Frankopan translated Molière's Georges Dandin, the first translation to Slovenian and any Slavic language. Along with Petar Zrinski, his brother Nikola, Frankopan and his sister Katarina (Petar's wife), contributed various works of poetry and prose to 17th century Croatian literature.

Both Frankopan and his brother in law Ban (viceroy) Petar Zrinski were described as competent statesmen and prolific writers. They have seen successes in negotiating and liberating the ethnic Hungarian and Croatian areas occupied by the waning Ottoman Empire. However, the Viennese military council, wishing to curb the Hungarian influence in the Monarchy, decided to ultimately sign a peace treaty with the Ottomans, by which the liberated territories had to be ceded back to the Ottoman Empire. Hungarian and Croatian nobles saw the resulting peace treaty, the Peace of Vasvár, as utterly unfavourable and disgraceful to their interests. In response, Frankopan and Zrinski decided to raise a rebel against the king, Leopold I.

Frankopan and Zrinski were seized by the Royal guard while in Vienna. As a punishment for sedition, they were sentenced to be executed in Wiener Neustadt in 1671.

The portraits of Frankopan and Zrinski are depicted on the obverse of the Croatian 5 kuna banknote, issued in 1993 and 2001. His poems are still popular and are written in a combination of all three Croatian dialects: štokavian, kajkavian and čakavian. This type of writing was also regular for other writers of the Croatian Baroque Ozalj Literary Circle: Ana Katarina Zrinski and Petar IV Zrinski.