The Education of Aristocracy in Croatia and Slavonia in the 19th Century

The author analyses the education of aristocracy in Croatia and Slavonia from the late 18th century until 1918. Education played a vital role in the mindset and lifestyle of aristocracy, and in retaining its elite position in the political, social, cultural, economic and military aspect, to name just some. Aristocrats were trained to become the pillars of society, they had private tutors and teachers, and often finished the gymnasium but did not necessarily continue their schooling at a higher level. Reforms of enlightened absolutism, which opened career chances for lesser nobility and burghers and the rise of well-educated and economically successful modern middle class after 1848, forced the aristocracy to keep pace. However, it still preferred traditional studies of philosophy, law or, to a much lesser extent, theology and was losing its dominant role in the field of arts as well.