Matija Gubec - Gubec Bey

The leader of the Peasants’ Revolt is generally known in literature as Matija Gubec. His real name was probably Ambroz. The name Matija was first mentioned by the historian M. Istvanffy some thirty years after the revolt. It is reasonable to assume that the legend of the good king Matija (Matthias Corvinus) blended with the memory of the peasants’ king Gubec. Before the revolt, the name of Ambroz Gubec was mentioned in the registers of the church tithe for the village of Hižakovec (Vrhovac) within the Stubica estate for the years 1556 and 1560, as well as in the Stubica feudal law for 1567. He was probably aged 35 at the time of the revolt. Gubec was in charge of preparations for the revolt and was at the head of a part of the peasants’ army in Zagorje. Some participants in the revolt claimed he had been proclaimed peasants’ king. When the revolt was put down, he was captured and taken to Zagreb where he was, according to some sources, tortured with incandescent pincers, crowned with an incandescent iron crown, and quartered at the end.