His maternal grandparents were Baron János Hrabovszky (1777–1852), a major general and military commander of Croatia and Slavonia, and Izabella Klobusiczky (1824–1905) from Klobusic and Homorog.

The Hungarian prime minister István Tisza appointed Skerlecz ban of Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia in 1913, shortly before World War I.

The Croats made further demands for local authority, as well as unification of Croatia-Slavonia with Dalmatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

However, Austria-Hungary's outdated political system made any shifts between areas under Hungarian or Austrian spheres of influence difficult.

As the war progressed more Croats found the formation of a South Slav state a potentially beneficial possibility.