Antun Kukuljević Sakcinski (10 May 1776 – 28 August 1851) was a
Croatian lawyer, judge and deputy
county prefect before being appointed to sit at the
Royal Court Table from 1831 to 1850. Kukuljević Sakcinski was a member of the
Croatian Sabor and one of Croatian appointed delegates to the
Diet of Hungary sittings in 1825 and 1832–1836.
Biography
Antun Kukuljević Sakcinski was born in
Varaždin,
Croatia,
Kingdom of Hungary on 10 May 1776. He studied philosophy at the
University of Zagreb and law at the
University of Pozsony and started a legal and
civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...
career in 1795 becoming a judge.
In 1817, Kukuljević Sakcinski inherited a portion of the former Pethő de Gerse family estate in Varaždin area. This was the result of a 54 year of litigation seeking the return of the land bought by the family from king
John Corvinus. The estate was seized and sold by a royal decree to Count Ladislav
Erdődy
The House of Erdődy de Monyorókerék et Monoszló (also House of Erdödy) is the name of an old Hungarian- Croatian noble family with possessions in Hungary and Croatia. Elevated to the Hungarian nobility in 1459, the family was subsequently r ...
, a member of the family of
perpetual counts of
Varaždin County.
In 1818, Kukuljević Sakcinski became the deputy
county prefect of Varaždin County and held the function until 1831. Subsequently, he was appointed a member of the
Royal Court Table (first-instance and
appellate court) from 1831 to 1850. A year after his appointment to the Royal Court Table, Kukuljević Sakcinski was also elected to the
Croatian Sabor, which in turn elected him as one of its delegates to the
Diet of Hungary held in 1825 and again in 1832–1836.
He and two other delegates – Count
Janko Drašković
Janko Drašković ( Hungarian: ''Draskovich János''; 20 October 1770 – 14 January 1856) was a Croatian politician associated with the beginnings of the 19th-century national revival, the Illyrian movement. He studied law and philosophy befor ...
and
Herman Bužan – were instructed to defend municipal rights of Croatia, the temporary nature of the decision to cede authority to the Hungarian Diet until Croatia has sufficient territory to become self-reliant and to protect the official status of
Latin language in Croatia. Finally, the delegates were to petition the king, if they were unsuccessful in the parliament, to grant Croatia the same autonomy in decision-making as enjoyed by
Transylvania.
In the two parliaments, he opposed
Magyarisation of Croatia, particularly contesting proposals to introduce
Hungarian language as the official language of Croatia. Kukuljević Sakcinski was appointed the arch-principal of all schools in Croatia and
Slavonia in 1837. He used the position to obstruct decisions of the Diet of Hungary on introduction of Hungarian language as a
mandatory teaching subject. This contributed to the decision by the authorities to force him to retire in 1843. In the period from 1836 to 1846, Kukuljević Sakcinski was the president of the
Croatian Music Institute.
After his wife's death, Kukuljević Sakcinski sold off all his estates in
Ivanec
Ivanec is a town in northern Croatia, located southwest of Varaždin and east of Lepoglava, north of the mountain Ivanščica.
History
In the late 19th and early 20th century, Ivanec was a district capital in the Varaždin County of the Kingd ...
,
Jurketinec and Cerje, retaining only the Tonimir
manor house near
Varaždinske Toplice which he had built for himself and his
son Ivan. He died in the manor house on 28 August 1851.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kukuljevic Sakcinski, Antun
People from Varaždin
Habsburg Croats
1776 births
1851 deaths
18th-century Croatian people
19th-century Croatian people
18th-century Croatian nobility
19th-century Croatian nobility