Count Teodor Pejacevic
Ban of Croatia
Count Teodor Pejacevic of Virovitica (24 September 1855 – 22 July 1928) was a Croatian politician, member of Pejacevic family, who served as Ban of Croatia-Slavonia between 1903 and 1907. He was born in Našice as the eldest son of Ladislav Pejacevic, a Ban of Croatia (1880–1883). His mother was the Hungarian baroness Gabrijela /Gabrielle/ Döry de Jobaháza. He served as a long-term župan of Virovitica County. At the beginning of the 20th century, he was faced with a new direction of Croatian policy marked by political alliance between Croats and Serbs in Austria-Hungary for mutual benefit. A Croat-Serb Coalition was formed in 1905 and it governed the Croatian lands from 1906 until the dissolution of the Dual Monarchy in 1918.
Ban of Croatia (Croatian: Hrvatski ban) was the title of local rulers or office holders and after 1102, viceroys of Croatia. From the earliest periods of the Croatian state, some provinces were ruled by bans as a ruler's representative (viceroy) and supreme military commander. In the 18th century, Croatian bans eventually became the chief government officials in Croatia. They were at the head of the Ban's Government, effectively the first prime ministers of Croatia. The institution of ban persisted until the first half of the 20th century, when it was officially superseded in function by that of a parliamentary prime minister.
The House of Pejacevic or Pejácsevich is an old Croatian noble family, remarkable during the period in history marked by the Ottoman war in the Kingdom of Croatia and Austro-Hungarian Empire respectively. Notable members of the family were politicians, clerics, artists, senior military officers, Bans (viceroys) of Croatia and other high state officials. They were very potent and influential in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country, and especially distinguished in the region of Slavonia. In German and Spanish, the family name was sometimes rendered Pejacsevich, i.e. a simplified variant of the Hungarian spelling. The origin of the family dates back to the 14th-century territory of southeastern Croatia and the neighbouring medieval Bosnia and Herzegovina. There are sources that connect the ancestors of the family with the Bosnian king Stjepan Dabiša (English: Stephen Dabisha), who ruled from 1391 to 1395, and his son Parcija (English: Parchia). Parcija's descendants used to be called Parcevic (Parchevich). One of several family branches that came out of them later (in the 16th century) was the Pejacevic family. The Pejacevic family has produced a number of prominent and famous people through history, among which were the two Bans of Croatia, Ladislav /Ladislaus/ and Teodor /Theodore/.
Awards: Sash and star of the Order of Saint Stephen of Hungary, Insignia of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, Stars of the Princely Lippe Cross of Honor and the Order of the Dragon.
