ALBERT (Albrecht) I., Duke of Austria, aud afterwards King of Germany, born in 1248, was the son of Rudolph of Habsburg, the founder of the imperial Austrian dynasty. Rudolph having acquired the duchy of Austria by conquest, vested it in his son, with consent of the electors, in 1282, and thus founded the dynasty which still reigns. He also endeavoured to secure for Albert the succession to the throne of Germany, but was unsuccessful. On the death of his father in 1291, Albert seized the insignia of sovereignty, and with characteristic presumption declared himself king of Germany, without regard to the decision of the electors. Their choice fell (1292) upon Adolphus of Nassau, and Albert, who was called to suppress a revolt among his subjects in Switzerland, found it necessary to acknowledge the superior claims of his rival. The government of Adolphus having become displeasing to the electors, they formally deposed him in 1298, and named Albert his successor. As, however, the former refused to recognise their verdict, the matter had to be referred to the arbitrament of the sword. The forces of the rival kings met at Gölheim, near Worms, where the army of Adolphus was defeated, and he himself slain by Albert’s own hand. Upon this, Albert, wishing probably to show his moderation, resigned his claim to the throne; but he was re-elected, and crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 24th August 1298. Pope Boniface VIIL, however, denied the right of the electors, and refused to confirm their choice, alleging that the empire belonged to him alone to hold or bestow at his pleasure. In league with Philip the Fair of France, Albert at first openly resisted the pope; but soon finding it advisable to change his policy, he deserted his ally, admitted the papal jurisdiction, and was ...rewarded with the kingdom of the deposed Philip. It should be noted, however, that he never received from the pope the crown of the Roman empire, though his name is generally included in the list of emperors. His reign as king of Germany was one of continual warfare. With a rapacity which seems to have known no bounds, he endeavoured to subdue Holland, Zealand, Friesland, Hungary, and Bohemia; but was in each case unsuccessful. The attempt to bind his yoke more firmly upon the Swiss cantons caused the revolt of Unterwalden, Schwyz, and Uri, in January 1308, and thus laid the foundation of the Swiss Confederation. It was while endeavouring to check this revolt that Albert met his death at the hand of his nephew, John of Habsburg, whose claim to his father’s dominion of Swabia had been refused in the most insulting terms by the king. Incensed at the denial of his rights, John formed a conspiracy with three noblemen of the king’s suite. On the 1st May 1308 the four crossed the river Reuss at Windisch with Albert, who was slain immediately on landing, and before the eyes of the other members of the suite, who had been left on the opposite side. He died in the arms of a beggar woman, who happened to be passing.
Albert was married to Elizabeth, daughter of the count of Tyrol, who bore him eleven children.
Four other reigning dukes of Austria bore the name of Albert. Of these, Albert II., surnamed the Wise, reigned from 1330 to 1358; Albert HI. from 1365 to 1390; and Albert IV., surnamed the Pious, from 1390 to 1402. Albert V., surnamed “The Magnanimous,” born in 1397, was elected king of Germany in April 1438, and is therefore sometimes styled Albert II., the higher dignity having been previously borne only by the first of the name. Through his marriage in 1422 with Elizabeth, daughter of Sigismund, king of Bohemia and Hungary, he ultimately added the sovereignty of these dominions to his own, being elected king of Hungary on the death of Sigismund in 1437, and king of Bohemia in May 1438. He died at Langendorf on the 27th October 1439, while engaged in an expedition against the Turks.
ALBERT, Margrave of Brandenburg and first Duke of Prussia, third son of the Margrave Friedrich of Anspach, was born on the 17th May 1490. Being intended for the church, he was educated by Archbishop Hermann of Cologne, and became a canon of Cologne cathedral. He seems, however, to have himself preferred a military life, as he accompanied his father in the train of the emperor on an expedition to Venice, and was present at the siege of Pavia. On the 13th Feb. 1511 he joined the Teutonic order; and a few days after, though scarcely twenty-one years old, was chosen grand master, it being expected that, as nephew of Sigismund of Poland, he would be able to secure the privileges and immunities which the order were at the time claiming from that monarch. The refusal of Albert to swear allegiance to Sigismund led, after protracted negotiations, which proved fruitless, to a war with Poland in 1520. A four years’ truce being concluded at Thorn in 1521, Albert repaired to the diet at Nuremberg to invoke the aid of his brother German princes on behalf of his order. The diet found itself unable to render him any assistance, and at the same time he received advice from Luther which altogether changed his purpose. Embracing the doctrines of the Reformation, he was declared Duke of Prussia, consented to hold the duchy as a fief from Poland, and took the oath of allegiance at Cracow on the 9th April 1525. At the same time he resigned the grand mastership of the order. In 1527 he married Anne Dorothea, daughter of the king of Denmark. His subsequent reign was marked by zealous efforts, amid many difficulties, to promote the welfare of his duchy. He interested himself especially in the advancement of learning, inviting men of letters to his court, and promoting the publication of their writings. In 1544 he founded the university of Königsberg, in spite of great opposition, chiefly from the pope. Keen theological disputes between the professors of this university were among the many troubles of his later years. He died of the plague on the 20th of March 1568. His second wife, the Princess Anna Maria of Brunswick, who had been attacked by the same disease, survived him only a single day.
ALBERT, Cardinal Archbishop of Magdeburg and Elector of Mentz, born 1489, was the youngest son of John, Elector of Brandenburg. In 1513 he was consecrated archbishop of Magdeburg, and about the same time he was chosen administrator of the diocese of Halberstadt. Next year he was raised to the still higher dignity of archbishop and elector of Mentz, and he continued to hold all three offices simultaneously. For the pallium in connection with the latter appointment the pope demanded the exorbitant sum of 30,000 ducats, but enabled the archbishop to recoup himself by granting him the privilege of selling indulgences throughout his diocese. It was his employment of the Dominican Tetzel in this service which, by calling forth Luther’s famous ninety-five theses, had so important an influence on the course of the Reformation. In 1518 he was created a cardinal as a reward for his services to the Romish church. His opposition to the doctrines of Luther did not prevent many within his own diocese from accepting the Reformation; and he found it necessary to grant religious liberty to his subjects in 1541, availing himself of the opportunity to extort from them in return for the boon the payment of his debts, which amounted to 500,000 florins. Albert was a patron of learning, and counted Erasmus among his friends. He died at Mentz on the 24th September 1545.
ALBERT (PRINCE), Francis Charles Augustus Albert Emmanuel, Prince Consort of England, born at Rosenau on the 26th Aug. 1819, was the second son of the hereditary Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, by his first wife the Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. He thus belonged to the Ernestine or elder branch of the royal family of Saxony, which, on account of its adherence to the doctrines of the Reformation, had to surrender the kingdom to the Albertine or younger branch, which is still in possession of it. The marriage of his parents proving an unhappy one, they separated in 1824, and the young prince never again saw his mother, who died in 1831. He was educated, along with his elder brother Ernest, under the care of Consistorial-Rath Florschütz, who, in a memorandum drawn up after the prince’s death, speaks in the highest terms of his pupil’s benevolent disposition and studious habits. At the proper age the brothers proceeded to the university of Bonn, where Herr Florschütz still continued to exercise a general superintendence of their studies. Prince Albert devoted himself especially to the natural sciences, political economy, and philosophy, having for teachers men of such world-wide fame as Fichte, Schlegel, and Perthes. He also diligently cultivated at this period the sister arts of music and painting, and thus qualified himself for some of the most valuable services he was afterwards to render to the land of his adoption. His feeling for art in all its forms was very sensitive, and his executive skill, both as a musician and painter, very considerable. In gymnastic exercises he greatly excelled, carrying off the first prize for fencing in a competition with a large number of students.
In 1836 the prince visited England in company with his father, and met his future consort for the first time. The idea of a matrimonial alliance between the cousins had occurred to various members of the family, and had been cherished especially by their grandmother the dowagerduchess of Coburg, and their uncle Leopold, the king of the Belgians. From the time of the queen’s accession there seems to have been a family understanding on the subject, though, owing to the youth of the prince and his cousin, no formal engagement was entered into till two years later. In the winter of 1838-9 the prince travelled in Italy, accompanied by Mr Seymour, a young English gentleman, who was selected doubtless out of regard to the probable future of his charge. A year later the hopes of many were realised when, on the 23d Nov. 1839, the queen announced to the Privy Council her intended marriage with her cousin. The circumstances of the engagement have been fully made known since the prince’s death, and they show that the union was founded upon mutual choice, springing from mutual affection. On the 10th February 1840 the marriage was celebrated at the chapelroyal, St James’s, amid universal rejoicings. A few days before the event two bills had been passed in parliament, one naturalising the prince as a British subject, and the other providing an annuity of £30,000 a year for the maintenance of his establishment. The ministry had proposed that the sum should be £50,000, following the precedent established in the case of Prince Leopold; but the reduction was made on the motion of Colonel Sibthorpe, who received the support of the radicals and the entire opposition. The result of the vote caused the prince considerable vexation and disappointment, which were enhanced when difficulties were raised in parliament as to the precedence to be accorded to him. The latter question was only settled by an exercise of the queen’s prerogative. Letters patent were issued on the 5th March, giving the prince precedence next to the queen.
The position in which the prince was placed by his marriage, while it was one of distinguished honour, was also one of peculiar difficulty, and it was only the possession of a rare discretion that enabled him to fill it so irreproachably as he did. Published letters and memoranda show how thoroughly he appreciated the delicate nature of his duties, and how clearly he perceived the limits within which his influence must be confined if it was to be legitimately and usefully exerted. A letter to the Duke of Wellington, declining, after mature consideration, to be designated to the office of commander-in-chief of the army, is especially noteworthy as containing an admirable description of the proper functions of a princeconsort. Generally, his idea was that it was his duty to merge his personality as completely as possible in that of the sovereign, while giving her in all things real but unobtrusive advice and support; and that he acted during his whole life in conformity with this idea those who had the best means of knowing were the readiest to testify. Once, indeed, at the commencement of the Crimean war, it was generally believed that he had overstepped the limits of his position by interfering unwarrantably with the foreign policy of the country and the patronage of the army. The charges were so definite and so widely circulated that it was deemed necessary to take notice of them in parliament. They were met by a complete and emphatic denial on the part of the ministry, and no one now believes that they had any real foundation. It was, of course, both natural and proper that the prince should interest himself deeply in the affairs of the country over which, by an Act passed on the 4th Aug. 1840, he had been named regent in the event of the death of the queen before the heir to the crown had attained the age of eighteen years. He had also a right to interest himself in the administration of the army, as being himself a field-marshal and a colonel of hussars.
It was fortunate for the prince, shut out as he was by the circumstances of his station from any share in party politics, that he found other and more congenial work sufficient to engage all his energies. He was qualified, as few of his rank are, to deal with those social and scientific problems in the solution of which men of all parties are equally interested. He engaged himself especially in endeavours to secure the more perfect application of science and art to manufacturing industry. The Great Exhibition of 1851 originated in a suggestion he threw out at a meeting of the Society of Arts, and owed the greater part of its success to his intelligent and unwearied efforts. Similar institutions, on a smaller scale but with a kindred aim, always found in him warm advocacy and substantial sup port. It was chiefly at meetings in connection with these that he found occasion for the delivery of addresses characterised by profound thought and comprehensiveness of view, a collection of which was published in 1857. One of the most favourable specimens of his powers as a speaker is the inaugural address which he delivered as President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science when it met at Aberdeen in 1859, printed in an edition of his speeches which appeared in 1862. The education of his family and the management of his domestic affairs furnished the prince with another very important sphere of action, in which he employed himself with conscientious devotedness. The training of the Prince of Wales was carried on under his own superintendence, in accordance with a plan he himself had drawn up; and it may be questioned whether so much wisdom and care was ever bestowed on the upbringing bf an heir to the British throne. The estates of the Duchy of Cornwall, the hereditary appanage of the Prince of Wales, were so greatly improved under his father’s management that the rent-roll rose from £11,000 to £50,000 a year. Prince Albert, indeed, had a peculiar talent for the management of landed estates. His model farm at Windsor was in every way worthy of the name; and the grounds at Balmoral and Osborne, so universally admired, were laid out entirely in conformity with his designs.
A character so pure, and a life so useful and well-directed in all its aims, could scarcely fail to secure universal respect. As the prince became better known, the mistrust, of which the adverse votes in parliament were undoubtedly to some extent an expression, gave way, and the people vied with their queen in showering deserved honours upon him. After a keen contest with Earl Powis, he was elected chancellor of the university of Cambridge in 1847; and he was afterwards appointed master of the Trinity House. In 1857 the formal title of “Prince-Consort” was conferred upon him by letters patent, in order to settle certain difficulties as to precedence that had been raised at foreign courts. As he had previously possessed no distinctive title, the precedence he had received was only by courtesy.
It was in the prime of manhood and the full career of his usefulness that the prince-consort was removed by death. He had been greatly occupied during the autumn of 1861 with the arrangements for the projected international exhibition, and it was just after returning from one of the meetings in connection with it that he was seized with his last illness. He died of typhoid fever on the 14th of Dec. 1861. Few have ever been more sincerely or more universally mourned. The grief of the queen was deep and lasting, and the whole nation sympathised in the truest sense with her in her sorrow. Perhaps never before, except on the occasion of the death of the Princess Charlotte, had all classes of the people been so closely knit together in the feeling of a common bereavement and a common sorrow. A national memorial, to be erected partly by parliamentary vote and partly by public subscription, was at once resolved upon, and nearly every town of importance throughout the kingdom embodied in a statue or some other form its tribute to the memory of “The Good Prince.” The magnificent mausoleum at Frogmore, in which his remains were finally deposited, was erected at the expense of the Queen and the royal family. (See Early Years of H.R.H. the Prince Consort, 1867; Principal Speeches and Addresses of Prince Albert, with an Introduction, 1862).
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