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Katarina Zrinska

Croatian writer (1625-1673)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ452694 ↗
Source-derived summary

Countess Ana Katarina Zrinska (c. 1625–1673) was a Croatian noblewoman and poet, born into the House of Frankopan, a Croatian noble family. She married Count Petar Zrinski of the House of Zrinski in 1641 and later became known as Katarina Zrinska. She is remembered in Croatia as a patron of the arts, a writer and patriot. She died in obscurity in a monastery in Graz following the downfall of the Zrinski-Frankopan conspiracy in 1671 and the execution of both her husband Petar Zrinski and her brother Fran Krsto Frankopan. Her most notable literary work is Putni tovaruš, written 1660 at her estates in Ozalj.

Katarina Zrinski and the conspiracy were largely forgotten until the 1860s, when Croatian politician Ante Starčević began a campaign to rehabilitate the Zrinski and Frankopan nobility, and the story of her life and death was widely popularised following the publishing of Eugen Kumičić's historical novel Urota Zrinsko-Frankopanska (English: The Zrinski-Frankopan Conspiracy) in 1893.

In the early 20th century, and especially after World War I, numerous Croatian women's associations were founded bearing her name. In 1999 the Croatian National Bank issued a silver commemorative coin depicting Katarina Zrinski, in their Znamenite Hrvatice (English: Famous Croatian Women) series, along with children's writer Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić and painter Slava Raškaj.

Biography

Early life

Katarina was born in Bosiljevo near the modern city of Karlovac in present-day Croatia to Vuk Krsto Frankopan of the House of Frankopan, a well-known commander (general) and nobleman in the Croatian Military Frontier (which was an autonomous region carved out of the Kingdom of Croatia within the Austrian Empire) and his second wife Uršula Inhofer.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Katarina Zrinska” as croatian writer (1625-1673). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Katarina, Zrinska and Croatian.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1625, 1673, 1641, 1671—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1625-01-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Katarina, Zrinska and Croatian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Katarina Zrinska”, the useful work is to connect “croatian writer (1625-1673)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q452694. VIAF identifies the subject as 72193646. The Library of Congress control number is nr91043049. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1625, 1673, 1641 and 1671.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Katarina Zrinska”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Katarina Zrinska primary sources, Katarina Zrinska archive and Katarina research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Katarina Zrinska” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.