Ladislav Pejačević

Count Ladislav Pejačević of Virovitica (English: Ladislaus Peyachevich of Virovitica, Croatian: Ladislav Pejačević Virovitički, Hungarian: Pejácsevics László); Sopron, April 5, 1824 – Našice, April 7, 1901) was a Croatian aristocrat, politician and statesman, a member of the Pejačević noble family, remarkable and influential in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the Ban (viceroy) of Croatia between 1880 and 1883.

Biography

Ladislav Pejačević was the eldest son of Ferdinand Karlo Rajner /Ferdinand Charles Rainer/ (1800–1878) and his wife Marija /Mary/ née Döry de Jobahaza. His grandfather Karlo III Ferdinand was the founder of Našice branch of the family.

On November 25, 1852, he married the baroness Gabrijela /Gabrielle/ Döry de Jobahaza and they had three children: Marija, Teodor /Theodore/ and Mario Marko Aleksandar.

Pejačević entered politics as a young man, having become an assessor at the Croatian Parliament seat in Zagreb from 1844 until 1848. As a very influential Croatian politician, he was member of Parliament from the Unionist Party of Croatia and member of the delegation of Parliament that signed the Croatian-Hungarian Agreement in 1868. In 1880 Sabor - the Parliament of Croatia - elected him as Ban of Croatia, and he stayed in office from February 21, 1880, until September 4, 1883.

As the reincorporation of the Croatian and Slavonian Frontiers into Croatian-Slavonian Crown land was proclaimed on July 15, 1881, Pejačević was given the task to perform it. On August 1, 1881, he took over the administration of the former Frontiers.

On August 24, 1883, he quit after the Council of ministers in Vienna concluded that bilingual Croatian-Hungarian official emblems in Croatia, installed by the Hungarian administration, should stay and were not allowed to be removed from the official buildings. On 4 September 1883 Hermann Ramberg became the royal commissioner with Ban authorities. Ramberg was then succeeded by Károly Khuen-Héderváry, a Hungarian political hardliner, whose reign was marked by strong Hungarization.

During his life, Ladislav Pejačević invested a lot to improve and enlarge business activities of his estates, and contributed to beauty and glamour of his castles, palaces and parks, especially the Našice castle. He died in Našice on April 7, 1901, and left his property to his son Teodor.