[1] Nicholas is first mentioned by contemporary records in 1263, when he and his brother Joachim donated the estate Szemefölde in Varaždin County to their servants, Ladislaus and Charles from the Básztély clan.
[2] In that year, he was styled as chancellor of the stewards (Latin: cancellarius dapiferorum, which was a minor dignity in the royal court of Béla IV of Hungary, and ispán of the castle district of Kemlék within Križevci County (today Kalnik, Croatia).
He still held the latter position in October 1266,[3] which implies he supported the king during the civil war against his son Duke Stephen, unlike Joachim, who defected to the court of the prince.
[6][8] In the summer of 1272, Joachim kidnapped Ladislaus, the son of and heir to Stephen V, which was an unprecedented case in Hungarian history during that time and marked the beginning of half a century of turbulent period, called "feudal anarchy".
[10] Following the Battle of Föveny in late September 1274, the Csák baronial group took supreme power and Nicholas was among those lords who were deprived from positions in the royal court.
According to his own report to the king, in order to prevent bloodshed, Nicholas eventually sided with the besiegers, persuading the city to accept humiliating terms.
The Croatian magnate families began to exercise power independently of the king, taking advantage of the weakness of the central government in Hungary.
As a result, the monarch ceremonially reconciled with Stephen (II) Gutkeled in June 1278, confirming and returning his landholdings and appointing him Judge royal.
[20] Amid the feud between Ladislaus IV and papal legate Philip of Fermo, Nicholas was replaced as Ban of Slavonia by Peter Tétény in late 1279.
Both Nicholas and Stephen were involved in the conspiracy against Ladislaus IV, when the king was captured in January 1280, in response to his confrontation against the implementation of the Cuman laws and the arrest of Philip.
In addition, Nicholas also possessed large portions in the lordship of Majád in Sopron County (present-day Sankt Margarethen im Burgenland, Austria).
[25] In the same year, Nicholas and Paul asked back the palace in Zagreb from Hodos, to give that to a Croatian nobleman, comes Gilian, as a gift for his faithful service.
[23] When Duke Albert I of Austria invaded the western borderland of Hungary in 1289 as a response to the frequent raids by the Kőszegi family, the Austrian troops besieged and captured the castle of Majád from Nicholas.
[17] According to historian Mór Wertner, it is possible that Nicholas is identical with that lord, who functioned as ispán of Valkó County in 1291, during the reign of Andrew III of Hungary.