Online Encyclopedia

ALBERT I

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V01, Page 496 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

ALBERT I  . (c . 1250-1308), German king, and duke of Austria, eldest son of King Rudolph I., the founder of the greatness of the house of Habsburg, was invested with the duchies of Austria and Styria, together with his
See also:
brother Rudolph, in 1282 . In 1283 his
See also:
father entrusted him with their
See also:
sole government, and he appears to have ruled them with conspicuous success . Rudolph was unable to secure the succession to the German
See also:
throne for his son, and on his
See also:
death in 1291, the princes, fearing Albert's power, chose Adolph of
See also:
Nassau as king . A rising among his Swabian dependants compelled Albert to recognize the
See also:
sovereignty of his
See also:
rival, and to confine himself to the government of the Habsburg territories . He did not abandon his hopes of the' throne, and, in 1298, was chosen German king by some of the princes, who were dissatisfied with Adolph . The armies of the rival kings met at Gollheim near
See also:
Worms, where Adolph was defeated and slain, and Albert submitted to a fresh election . Having secured the support of several influential princes by extensive promises, he was chosen at
See also:
Frankfort on the 27th of
See also:
July 1298, and crowned at
See also:
Aix-la-Chapelle on the 24th of August following . Albert sought to
See also:
play an important
See also:
part in
See also:
European affairs . He seemed at first inclined to press a
See also:
quarrel with France over the Burgundian frontier, but the refusal of Pope Boniface VIII. to recognize his election led him to change his policy, and, in 1299, a treaty was made between Albert and Philip IV., king of France, by which Rudolph, the son of the German king, was to marry Blanche, a daughter of the French king . He afterwards became estranged from Philip, and, in 1303, was recognized as German king and future emperor by Boniface, and, in return, admitted the right of the pope alone to bestow the imperial
See also:
crown, and promised that none of his sons should be elected German king without the papal consent .

Albert had failed in his

attempt to seize Holland and Zealand, as vacant fiefs of the
See also:
Empire, on the death of Count John I. in 1299, but in 1306 he secured the crown of Bohemia for his son Rudolph on the death of King Wenceslaus III . He also renewed the claim which had been made by his predecessor, Adolf, on Thuringia, and interfered in a quarrel over the succession to the Hungarian throne . His attack on Thuringia ended in his defeat at Lucka in 1307, and, in the same
See also:
year, the death of his son Rudolph weakened his position in eastern
See also:
Europe . His
See also:
action in abolishing all tolls established on the Rhine since 1250, led to the formation of a
See also:
league against him by the Rhenish archbishops and the count palatine of the Rhine; but aided by the towns, he soon crushed the rising . He was on the way to suppress a revolt in Swabia when he was murdered on the 1st of May 1308, at Windisch on the Reuss, by his
See also:
nephew John, afterwards called " the Parricide," whom he had deprived of his
See also:
inheritance . Albert married Elizabeth, daughter of Meinhard IV.,count of Gorz and Tirol, who
See also:
bore him six sons and five daughters . Although a hard, stern man, he had a keen sense of justice when his selfish interests were not involved, and few of the German kings possessed so
See also:
practical an intelligence . He encouraged the cities, and not content with issuing proclamations against private war, formed alliances with the princes in order to enforce his decrees . The
See also:
serfs, whose wrongs seldom attracted
See also:
notice in an age indifferent to the claims of
See also:
common humanity, found a friend in this severe monarch, and he protected even the-despised and persecuted Jews . The stories of his cruelty and oppression in the Swiss cantons first appear in the 16th century, and are now regarded as legendary . See G . Droysen, Albrechts I .

Bemuhungen um

die Nachfolge im Reich (
See also:
Leipzig, 1862); J . F . A . Mueke, Albrecht I. von Habsburg (
See also:
Gotha, 1866); A . L . J . Michelsen, Die Landgrafschaft Thuringen unter den Konigen Adolf, Albrecht, and Heinrich VII . (
See also:
Jena, 186o) .

End of Article: ALBERT I
[back]
ALBERT H
[next]
ALBERT III

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.