The castle commander Johan Vale or Franke in Sweden is identified by Dr Mladen Ibler (on the photo) as Ivan Anž Frankopan, the eldest son of Count Nikola IV, viceroy (banus) of Croatia from 1426. The Scandinavian king Erik of Pomerania had met the young man at the court of his cousin King Sigmund in Budapest. After having decided to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land he had chosen this nobleman, who was familiar with Mediterranean conditions, to lead the tour. In Jerusalem the king knighted him and then afterwards recompensed him with the enfeoffments in Sweden. Besides those connections between the Scandinavian king and the Frankopan family the article also presents proofs of the king’s stay at Dubrovnik, both on the way to Palestine and on the way back.
Author: Dr. Mladen Ibler
Vesna Drapac: Deconstructing Yugoslavia – a Transnational History, a monograph reviewed by Dr. Mladen Ibler
Deconstructing Yugoslavia would be probably a more appropriate title of this book. The country failed twice as an integrated state – first as a Kingdom and next as a Communist state. Apart from the communist party and the army, which where the repressive organs of a corrupt and self-serving ruling elite after the Second World War, all cross-republican institutions fell well of atracting lasting interest. The idea of Yugoslavia died well before the state finally disapeared at the end of 20th century. The monograph has been written by Vesna Drapac, associate professor at the University of Adelaide, Australia.