# Josip Kušević

Josip Kušević (also spelled Joseph Kussevich, 23 May 1775 – 5 July 1846) was a Croatian politician and lawyer. He was the prothonotary of the Croatian realm and a member of the Croatian Parliament and the Diet of Hungary. As a politician, he opposed the introduction of Hungarian as the official language in Croatia. Kušević is known for De municipalibus iuribus et statutis regnorum Dalmatiae, Croatiae et Slavoniae – the work compiling and advocating the rights of Croatia to a special status within the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary, i.e. the Croatian state right.
Kušević's work influenced the Illyrian movement and he was held in high regard by supporters of the movement. He held the view that the South Slavs were indigenous population who had inhabited the Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. In turn, he linked the South Slavs with the Illyrians and hypothesised that there was a common South Slavic language which he referred to as the Croatian-Slavic-Illyrian language.

## Early life and family

Kušević was born in Samobor on 23 May 1775. He attended the Classical Gymnasium in Zagreb before studying philosophy and law at the University of Zagreb and the Royal University of Pest. From 1796, Kušević practiced law in Zagreb, and worked as a clerk of the Zagreb County. He contributed to preservation of the Law Faculty of Zagreb University by publicly speaking against the royal decree to abolish the institution in 1803. Two years later, Kušević became a notary and received appointment as a member of the Royal Court Table.
The House of Kušević belonged to the Hungarian-Croatian nobility from the 17th century. Kušević's grandfather Franjo [hr] was the leaseholder of the Samobor estate and owned further estates in the vicinity of the towns of Karlovac and Ozalj. His father Sigismund was a judge in Samobor and Zagreb. Kušević's sister Justina was the mother of poet Antun Mihanović. He had sons Milan, Aurel, Marcel, and Valerije.

## Political career

In 1808, the Croatian Parliament appointed Kušević as prothonotary of the kingdoms of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia, which were Habsburg monarchy realms at the time. That appointment to the position of prothonotary came with a seat in the parliament. The position was the highest-ranking in the realm after the Ban of Croatia as the two officeholders were jointly the head of the judiciary. In 1809, during the War of the Fifth Coalition, Kušević was appointed the head of a commission tasked with the supply of the Habsburg armed forces. After the Treaty of Schönbrunn awarded territory south of the Sava river to the French Empire (subsequently organised as the Illyrian Provinces), Kušević was appointed a member of the commission tasked with marking of the new border which had been determined to correspond to the course of the river.
Kušević led successful suppression of a peasant revolt in parts of Požega County. This mission was ordered by the central authorities of the Austrian Empire and supported by armed troops. The revolt took place in February–July 1815, in the aftermath of poor harvests in 1813 and 1814. It involved 60 villages within the estate of Count Izidor Janković Daruvarski [hr] where peasants refused to pay taxes required under 1810 regulations. In 1822, the Zagreb County sent Kušević and Alojzije Bužan to the Congress of Verona to express the county's gratitude to the emperor, Francis I of Austria, for restoring the territory south of the Sava River to Croatia. In 1824, Kušević received an estate in Mala Mlaka near Zagreb through a donation from the emperor and the Palatine of Hungary. Kušević moved to Vienna in 1831 after he was appointed an advisor for Hungary at the imperial court. He died in Meidling (present-day part of Vienna) on 5 July 1846.

## Advocacy of the Croatian state right

Kušević distinguished himself as an advocate of Croatia's statehood. As a Croatian Parliament's delegate to the 1825–1827 Diet of Hungary held in Pozsony (present-day Bratislava), Kušević opposed a bill to replace Latin with Hungarian as official language of Croatia in a speech held on 26 February 1826. Kušević said that the Diet had no right to decide on the language used in public affairs of other realms. In Kušević's view, the use of the Latin language in the role of the language of government in Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia was a constitutional right of the nation which had to be defended. He argued that the use of the Latin language in all those lands can be traced to the Roman Empire and considered the official use of Latin a means of protection of Croatian national identity—particularly against attempts of Germanisation or Magyarisation of Croatia through imposition of German and Hungarian languages in official use from late 18th century.
Kušević compared Hungary with Switzerland and the United States as multinational states, urging Hungarian lawmakers to follow the example set by those countries in relation to selection of the official language. Kušević argued that the right to determine the official language in Croatia belonged to the Croatian Parliament alone on the basis of articles of law previously confirmed by the king. The speech led to a debate where Hungarian Diet members claimed that the Croatian position was similar to that of the northern Hungarian counties (largely corresponding to the present-day Slovakia), while Croatian delegates argued that Croatia enjoyed the status of a federal realm with its own rights, laws, customs, and liberties. Representatives of the king agreed with the Croatian position, denying the Diet the right to determine the official language in Croatia. Kušević's opposition to the bill was motivated by his belief that compromising a single right would endanger all other Croatian rights.
Even though the speech was included in the minutes of the Diet, Kušević was displeased with the way it was abridged and had it printed and published separately as the Sermo magistri Josephi Kussevich ... in comitiali Sessione 26. Februarii 1826. pronunciatus. Namely, in addition to being abridged, the manner in which this was performed changed the meaning of parts of the speech to the opposite of what the author had intended. In 1827, the Diet of Hungary appointed him to a commission tasked with compiling municipal ordinances and statutes and preparing proposals for reforms of public affairs. Kušević used the information gathered to write and (anonymously) publish the first systematic work on the Croatian state right, De municipalibus iuribus et statutis regnorum Dalmatiae, Croatiae et Slavoniae in 1830. In the work consisting of 36 articles, Kušević stated the rights supporting Croatia's special position as a state within the framework of the Kingdom of Hungary and the Austrian Empire. A portion of the work analysed the medieval Croatian state, and the rest presented municipal rights of the realm. In the work, Kušević argued that Croatia was autonomous from Austria and Hungary and that the autonomy was evident from the fact that Croatia was ruled on the basis of its own laws and the customary law. His argument was that the defence of the right to enact own laws was equal to the defence of Croatian autonomy. A year later, Kušević informed the Croatian Parliament that he had written the work to inform patriotic youth of their rights. He distributed 500 of the 1000 printed copies of the work to those present. Publication of the book contributed to the emergence of a Croatian historiography and acted as a rallying point in the Croatian political sphere. It also contributed to the establishment of the Croatian state right as a Croatian state-building ideology. A Croatian translation of the work was published in 1883.

## Influence on the Illyrian movement

Kušević's work served as an inspiration to the so-called Illyrian movement of Croatian national revival. His speech against the introduction of Hungarian language in official use in Croatia was one of the first three texts to give rise to the patriotic sentiment that would result in the national revival movement. The movement adopted his interpretation of history as not only an account of what happened, but also a guide for learning and personal development. In turn, the Illyrian movement's proponents pointed out that a thorough and accurate knowledge of history is a prerequisite for correct political, cultural and social activities. The Illyrian movement also took over Kušević's views of history from the viewpoint of Croatian nobility and its rights, adapting it to the needs of creation of the modern Croatian nation. Namely, when Kuševič spoke of Croatia's constitutional rights, he attributed them to Croatian nobility. The national revival adapted this by attributing the same rights to Croats in general.
The adoption of Kušević's opinion also encompassed a hypothesised link between the South Slavs and the Illyrians. He believed that the South Slavs were an indigenous population originating in the Illyrians who inhabited the Balkan Peninsula in ancient times. This view led him to hypothesise that there was a common South Slavic language, which he referred to as the idioma Croatico-Slavico-Illyricum ('Croatian-Slavic-Illyrian language'). This hypothesis influenced the name "Illyrian movement". Namely, Count Janko Drašković adopted the same idea in 1832 in his Dissertation, the work that practically became the political programme of the Croatian national revival movement. The Dissertation referred to Croatian lands of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia (collectivelly referred to as the Triune Kingdom at the time), as well as neighbouring territories as the "Great Illyria" or "Illyric Kingdom". Kušević was admired by prominent figures of the Croatian national revival. In 1831, Pavao Štoos dedicated his poem Nut novo leto! Mati – sin – zorja (commonly referred to as the Kip domovine vu početku leta 1831). Štoos depicted Kušević as a model patriot, and thought of him as a significant historical person. Today, Kušević is considered an early participant in the Croatian revival movement.

## Material legacy

Kušević's library (including material inherited from his predecessor at the post of the prothonotary, Nicolaus Skerlecz de Lomnicza [hr]) is preserved and kept as a special collection by the National and University Library in Zagreb. In 1813, Kušević made a donation to the Hungarian National Museum. A record of the donation indicates it was a war trophy won in the 1684 Siege of Virovitica, but specific information on the donated object was lost in the meantime.