STARČEVIĆ, ANTE. - Croatian political figure, b. 23 May 1823 at Žitnik (Lika), d. at Zagreb on 28 Feb. 1896.
From 1845 to 1848 he studied theology in Budapest, where he graduated in philosophy. Having left the seminary, he became for a time secretary of the provincial council of Fiume. He was imprisoned on several occasions, as in the year 1871 after the unsuccessful uprising against Austria for Croatian independence, led by his principal political collaborator Eugen Kvaternik. From 1861 to 1871 and from 1878 to 1896 he was deputy to the Croatian Parliament (Sabor).
A man of modest life and uncommon culture, Starčević gave his political activity a distinctly intellectual character, emphasizing in particular ethical principles. Thus in 1861 he named his party the Party of Right, making the historical right of the Croatian state its political foundation and chief weapon, and its programme the personal union with Austria and Hungary in matters of common concern, together with Croatian national and state independence. Devoted to the Napoleonic idea of liberty and the national principle, Starčević profoundly influenced Croatian national life, especially through his tenacious defence of the national name against every form of substitution (Illyrian, Yugoslav) that would have compromised the existence and future of the Croatian people. With regard to religion he was not free from rationalistic tendencies, but Catholicism always appeared to him as the only true and authentic form of Christianity. An original stylist, he left various political and literary writings.