John Babonić (, ; died 25 July 1334) was an influential Croatian baron and military leader at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, who served as Ban of Slavonia from 1316 to 1322, briefly also Ban of Croatia and Dalmatia in 1322.
He was a member of the powerful Babonić family which ruled Lower Slavonia since the 1270s, establishing an oligarchic domain there. As a kinsman of the Counts of Gorizia and Tyrol, he participated in various military campaigns to the Patriarchate of Aquileia. Following the death of his brother in 1316, he was eleveated into Ban of Slavonia, inheriting his province. As a royal baron of Charles I of Hungary, he fought against the Kőszegi family in Upper Slavonia and crushed the power of the Šubić family in Croatia and Dalmatia. He was dismissed as ban in late 1322, and the Babonići gradually lost power and influence in the region thereafter. After 1326, John acquired lands in Hungary.
Early life John (I) was born into the Krupa branch of the powerful Babonić family, as the son of Baboneg or Babonjeg (II). His brothers were Nicholas (I), Stephen (IV), Otto and Radoslav (II) – the latter was the progenitor of the Blagaj family, including its cadet branch, the Counts of Ursini de Blagay.Engel: Genealógia (Babonić [Blagaj] family)
John, as the third son of Baboneg, was presumably born sometime in the late 1250s or early 1260s. It is plausible that he was still minor in 1278, when only his two older brothers – Nicholas and Stephen – were named in the mediation treaty between the Babonići and Gutkeleds after their series of clashes in Slavonia. His name first appears in contemporary records in 1284, when Jazen (I), Senk and Isan (II), members of the gens (clan) Rata sold their land Pelava along the stream Buzeta for 12 silver marks to John and his brothers, before the Chapter of Zagreb. In the central Banovina region, the Babonić brothers already purchased the hereditary estates of Kresnić, Bojna and Buzeta from the clan Rata prior to that. Since John's youth, the Babonići was the most influential family in Slavonia; their landholdings situated from the river Vrbas in the east to the river Kupa and the border with the Holy Roman Empire in the west, and, to the south, to the slopes of the Kapela Mountains.
Three contemporary northern Italian chronicles and works – "Fragmenta chronici Forojuliensis auctore Juliano canonico Cividatensi", "De gestis Italicorum, liber III." and "Vitae patriaricharum Aquileiensium" – refer to John Babonić as the brother-in-law of Henry III, Count of Gorizia. According to Hungarian historian Lajos Thallóczy, John married Clara Euphemia, the daughter of Albert I of Gorizia; formerly, in 1286, she was betrothed to pretender and future King Andrew III of Hungary, but the wedding ultimately did not take place. John and Clara Euphemia had an unidentified daughter, who married Hungarian noble Peter Herceg, a scion of the Kőszegi family.
During the Interregnum
In the 1290s, the Babonići and other leading Croatian and Slavonian noble families balanced between Andrew III and his rivals, the Capetian House of Anjou's claim for the Hungarian–Croatian throne. By the second half of the decade, when their cousins Stephen (III) and Radoslav (I) died, John's elder brother, Stephen (IV) became head of the family. In 1299 and 1300, John and his brothers sent their envoys to the Kingdom of Naples to negotiate with Charles II of Anjou. Meanwhile, they also swore loyalty to Andrew III in the same years, who confirmed their inherited and acquired possessions in August 1299. The king retook the castles Susedgrad, Vrbas and Glaž, but he allowed them to inherit the forts and other possessions of the late Radoslav (I), who died without male heirs. Andrew III expected the Babonići to be important defenders of the border, as these castles were adjacent to the territory of Hrvatin Stjepanić, who supported the Angevin claim to the throne. In September 1299, Charles II and Mary confirmed all rights and possessions, in addition to the hereditary title Ban of Slavonia to the four Babonić brothers – Stephen (IV), John (I), Otto and Radoslav (II) – too. In May 1300, Stephen and his brothers – including John – moved to Zagreb to reconcile with Michael Bő, the Bishop of Zagreb, who was forced to hand over much of his authority and jurisdiction to the Babonić family and a mutual assistance agreement has been concluded between them. The bishop was also persuaded to pledge Medvedgrad to Stephen and John. Albertino Morosini, Duke of Slavonia confirmed the agreement between the king and the Babonići in June 1300.
Following the death of Andrew III and the extinction of the Árpád dynasty in January 1301, a decade-long interregnum began in Hungary and Croatia. Although the Babonići supported Charles of Anjou against his rivals (Wenceslaus then Otto), the family had almost no contact with the Angevins in those years, since the conflicts of the era took place primarily in Western and Northern Hungary, i.e. far from the Babonić province. In that period, Henry Kőszegi was styled as Ban of Slavonia, despite the earlier grant to the Babonići by Charles II of Naples (the grandfather of the Hungarian pretender). In June 1307, Stephen, John and Radoslav ruled in a lawsuit in favor of the abbot of the Cistercian monastery of St. James in Zagreb. Since the document was drawn up in Steničnjak, the main Babonić stronghold, it can be concluded that the brothers were residing there in mid-1307.
By 1308, Charles I became the sole monarch of the Hungarian–Croatian kingdom, but he ruled only a tiny part of his realm due to the co-existence of oligarchic domains, where powerful lords and families – for instance, the Babonići – administered their provinces de facto independently of the royal power. Due to Charles' little interests and presence in Slavonia and Croatia, the Babonići attempted to find new powerful protectors. Because of John's marriage, they were related to their western neighbors, the House of Gorizia, who ruled Gorizia (Görz) and Tyrol within the Holy Roman Empire. Through them, the Babonići were trying to build an alliance with the House of Habsburg. According to chronicler John of Viktring, under their service, John Babonić and his brother-in-law Henry III plundered the Duchy of Carniola, seizing the estates of Henry of Bohemia in the region in 1307. In the early spring 1308, John Babonić traveled to Marburg (Maribor) to meet with Frederick the Fair. During the negotiations took place in March, John lent 300 Viennese silver denarii to the duke to finance his military campaigns. In return, Frederick pledged several villages in Austria along its border with Hungary to John and his brothers. The Steirische Reimchronik narrates that his brothers and Dujam Frankopan escorted him and they promised to join a campaign against Bohemia the following year. Thereafter, in the summer of 1308, John joined Frederick's campaign into the Patriarchate of Aquileia, under the commandment of Ulrich I of Walsee. John's troops besieged and captured Windischgrätz (Slovenj Gradec) in July. He returned to Steničnjak by mid-August 1308.
After Henry III and Albert II, counts of Gorizia and Tyrol reconciled with Otto III, Duke of Carinthia (also a brother of Henry of Bohemia) in July 1308, the House of Gorizia and the Babonić family became estranged from each other, since the latter supported the Habsburgs against Henry in the struggle for the Bohemian Crown. In order to improve and deepen relations with his brothers-in-law, John ceded hereditary rights to some estates – on the left bank of the Krka river in Carniola – to them on 16 August 1308. Although they were not mentioned by name in the document, it was still said that these estates were located in the territory of the County of Gorizia. Hrvoje Kekez considered that John called these lands "hereditary" because his late father-in-law, Albert I of Gorizia, adopted him as his son. Therefore, he gave up the rights to the estates without receiving anything in return. John was certainly aware that it would be difficult for him to acquire property in Gorizia and Tyrol, because his two brothers-in-law, Henry III and Albert II, were still alive at the time, and they would certainly oppose it. Soon, John was summoned to Zagreb to meet the arriving papal legate Gentile Portino da Montefiore who hurried to Buda to crown Charles I. There, a dispute arose over the possession right of Medvedgrad arose between Stephen (IV) Babonić and Augustin Kažotić, the Bishop of Zagreb. The legate ruled in favor of Stephen. John appears in the document as a witness. The Babonići did not attend the Diet of Hungary in Pest, where Charles I was unanimously proclaimed king on 27 November 1308. The Babonić brothers were not present personally at the second coronation of Charles on 15 June 1309 too; they sent their envoy Peter, the archdeacon of Čazma, only.
In mid-1309, John waged war in Friuli against Patriarch Ottobuono di Razzi on behalf of his brother-in-law Henry III. Apparently as a preparation for the military campaign, John asked the Venetian Senate to return the money he had previously handed over there for safekeeping. A note from Venice has been preserved as a response to a letter sent by John on 7 March 1309 from Zrin. The letter stated John's total claim of 120 marks. During the campaign, John's troops besieged, captured and ransacked Mortegliano on 15 May 1309. Thereafter, Ottobuono di Razzi was forced to retreat as far as Piacenza. John returned to Steničnjak by the end of summer 1309. He and his brothers (Stephen and Radoslav) were summoned to Central Hungary – Lórév, Csepel Island – where they met Charles I, who ordered to protect the rights of the bishop of Zagreb to some estates south of that city. In the next year, John returned to Friuli. By that time, the alliance between Henry III and Rizzardo IV da Camino, the lord of Treviso, had broken, and the former forged alliance with his former enemy Ottobuono. John Babonić arrived to Friuli with an army of 600 soldiers in May 1310, aiding his brother-in-law. Having crossed the Tagliamento river, they attacked the fortress of Sacile, where Rizzardo de Camino had taken refuge. The next day, 13 May, John provided assistance to Henry in the battles against Rizzardo, defeating his army at Cussignacco near Udine. Pursuing Rizzardo, the combined forces attempted to cross the Livenza, but failed, thus they turned towards the town of Valvasone, where their troops committed many atrocities. Rizzardo was defeated at the end of June 1310. Following the victory, John Babonić stayed in the region for a while. He was present in Udine on 10 July 1310, when a delegation of German king Henry VII was welcomed by Henry III and Ottobuono, and John is mentioned as a member of their entourage.
Royal service
Following his second campaign into Friuli, John Babonić returned to Slavonia. Along with his brothers Stephen and Radoslav, he appeared at the Hungarian royal court in Székesfehérvár in August 1310, when Charles I appointed Stephen as Ban of Slavonia, and ordered him to protect the rights of the citizens of Zagreb on the nearby estate named Kobile, thus the power of the Babonići over Lower Slavonia was granted royal approval. The Babonić brothers personally participated in the third and valid coronation of Charles I on 27 August 1310.