Most of the Croatian nobility gathered in Cetin and elected Ferdinand I as king on 1 January 1527. Christoph Frankopan was the sole member of the higher Croatian nobility who did not attend. The rival part of Croatian nobility, mostly from Slavonia, gathered on 6 January 1527 in Dubrava and intended to elect count John Zápolya as the king of Croatia. Eventually, both of them were crowned as Kings of Hungary, and Zápolya stayed in the royal city of Buda, as the Habsburg went back to his Austrian domains without giving up claim to the Hungarian throne. Zápolya conferred to Christopher the charge of ban of Croatia and military commander of the Hungarian Kingdom, counting him as one of his closest allies. In the civil war in Croatia, between army of Zápolya and Ferdinand he fought in Slavonia against Count Francis Batthyány, who supported the Habsburg's claims. He was mortally wounded at the siege of the castle of Varaždin and soon died.