ban (2)

[Servian ban; Ru . & Pol. pan = a master, a lord.] In Austro - Hungary : 1. Formerly: A title belonging to the warden of the eastern marshes of Hungary. 2. Now : The Viceroy of Temesvar, generally called the "Ban of Croatia." The territory he rules over is called a ban at or banate . The name Ban in this latter sense was brought prominently before the English public during the war of independence waged by the Magyars of Hungary against Austria in 1849. In that struggle the Sclavonians, who constituted nearly half the population of the Austrian empire, sided with the Germans against the Magyars.