was Kulmbach he is sometimes referred to as the margrave of Brandenburg-Kulmbach. His restless and turbulent nature marked him out for a military career; and having collected a small band of soldiers, he assisted the emperor Charles V. in his war with France in 1543. The peace of Crépy in September 1544 deprived him of this employment, but he had won a considerable reputation, and when Charles was preparing to attack the league of Schmalkalden, he took pains to win Albert’s assistance. Sharing in the attack on the Saxon electorate, Albert was taken prisoner at Rochlitz in March 1547 by John Frederick, elector of Saxony, but was released as a result of the emperor’s victory at Mühlberg in the succeeding April. He then followed the fortunes of his friend Maurice, the new elector of Saxony, deserted Charles, and joined the league which proposed to overthrow the emperor by an alliance with Henry II. of France. He took part in the subsequent campaign, but when the treaty of Passau was signed in August 1552 he separated himself from his allies and began a crusade of plunder in Franconia. Having extorted a large sum of money from the burghers of Nuremberg, he quarrelled with his supporter, the French king, and offered his services to the emperor. Charles, anxious to secure such a famous fighter, gladly assented to Albert’s demands and gave the imperial sanction to his possession of the lands taken from the bishops of Würzburg and Bamberg; and his conspicuous bravery was of great value to the emperor on the retreat from Metz in January 1553. When Charles left Germany a few weeks later, Albert renewed his depredations in Franconia. These soon became so serious that a league was formed to crush him, and Maurice of Saxony led an army against his former comrade. The rival forces met at Sievershausen on the 9th of July 1553, and after a combat of unusual ferocity Albert was put to flight. Henry II., duke of Brunswick, then took command of the troops of the league, and after Albert had been placed under the imperial ban in December 1553 he was defeated by Duke Henry, and compelled to fly to France. He there entered the service of Henry II., and had undertaken a campaign to regain his lands when he died at Pforzheim on the 8th of January 1557.
See J. Voigt, Markgraf Albrecht Alcibiades von Brandenburg-Kulmbach (Berlin, 1852).
ALBERT I. (c. 1100–1170), margrave of Brandenburg, surnamed The Bear, was the only son of Otto the Rich, count of Ballenstedt, and Eilika, daughter of Magnus Billung, duke of Saxony. He inherited the valuable Saxon estates of his father in 1123, and on his mother’s death, in 1142, succeeded to one-half of the lands of the Billungs. About 1123 he received from Lothair, duke of Saxony, the margraviate of Lusatia, and, after Lothair became German king, accompanied him on the disastrous expedition to Bohemia in 1126, when he suffered a short imprisonment. In 1128 his brother-in-law, Henry II., margrave of the Saxon north mark, died, and Albert, disappointed at not receiving this fief, attacked Udo, the succeeding margrave, and was consequently deprived of Lusatia by Lothair. In spite of this, he went to Italy in 1132 in the train of the king, and his services there were rewarded, in 1134, by the investiture of the north mark, which was again without a ruler. For three years he was occupied in campaigns against the Wends, and by an arrangement made with Pribislaus, duke of Brandenburg, Albert secured this district when the duke died in 1150. Taking the title margrave of Brandenburg, he pressed the warfare against the Wends, extended the area of his mark, did much for the spread of Christianity and civilization therein, and so became the founder of the margraviate of Brandenburg. In 1137 his cousin, Henry the Proud, had been deprived by King Conrad III. of his Saxon duchy, which was given to Albert. After meeting with some success in his efforts to take possession, he was driven from Saxony, and also from his mark by Henry, and compelled to take refuge in South Germany, and when peace was made in 1142 he renounced the Saxon dukedom and received the counties of Weimar and Orlamünde. It was possibly at this time that Albert was made arch-chamberlain of the Empire, an office which afterwards gave the margraves of Brandenburg the rights of an elector. A feud with Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony, was followed, in 1158, by a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and in 1162 Albert accompanied the emperor Frederick I. to Italy, and distinguished himself at the storming of Milan. In 1164 he joined a league of princes formed against Henry the Lion, and peace being made in 1169, Albert divided his territories among his six sons, and died on the 13th of November 1170, and was buried at Ballenstädt. His personal qualities won for him the surname of “the Bear,” and he is also called by later writers “the Handsome.”
See L. von Heinemann, Albrecht der Bär (Darmstadt, 1864).
ALBERT III. (1414–1486), elector of Brandenburg, surnamed Achilles because of his knightly qualities, was the third son of Frederick I. of Hohenzollern, elector of Brandenburg, and was born at Tangermunde on the 9th of November 1414. After passing some time at the court of the emperor Sigismund, he took part in the war against the Hussites, and afterwards distinguished himself whilst assisting the German king, Albert II., against the Poles. On the division of territory which followed his father’s death in 1440, Albert received the principality of Ansbach; and although his resources were very meagre he soon took a leading place among the German princes, and was especially prominent in resisting the attempts of the towns to obtain self-government. In 1443 he formed a league directed mainly against Nuremberg, over which town members of his family had formerly exercised the rights of burgrave. It was not until 1448, however, that he found a pretext for attack, and the war which lasted until 1453 ended in a victory for the Nurembergers, and the recognition of their independence. He supported the emperor Frederick III. in his struggle with the princes who desired reforms in Germany, and in return for this loyalty received many marks of favour from Frederick, including extensive judicial rights which aroused considerable irritation among neighbouring rulers. In 1457 he arranged a marriage between his eldest son John, and Margaret, daughter of William III., landgrave of Thuringia, who inherited the claims upon Hungary and Bohemia of her mother, a granddaughter of the emperor Sigismund. The attempt to secure these thrones for the Hohenzollerns through this marriage failed, and a similar fate befell Albert’s efforts to revive in his own favour the disused. title of duke of Franconia. The sharp dissensions which existed among the princes over the question of reform culminated in open warfare in 1460, when Albert was confronted with a league under the leadership of the elector palatine, Frederick I., and Louis IX. (the Rich), duke of Bavaria-Landshut. Worsted in this struggle, which was concluded in 1462, Albert made an alliance with his former enemy, George Poděbrad, king of Bohemia, a step which caused Pope Paul II. to place him under the ban.
In 1470 Albert, who had inherited Bayreuth on the death of his brother John in 1464, became elector of Brandenburg owing to the abdication of his remaining brother, the elector Frederick II. He was soon actively engaged in its administration, and by the treaty of Prenzlau in 1472 he brought Pomerania also under his supremacy. Having established his right to levy a tonnage on wines in the mark, he issued in February 1473 the important dispositio Achillea, which decreed that the mark of Brandenburg should descend in its entirety to the eldest son, while the younger sons should receive the Franconian possessions of the family. After treating in vain for a marriage between one of his sons and Mary, daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, Albert handed over the government of Brandenburg to his eldest son John, and returned to his Franconian possessions. In 1474 he married his daughter Barbara to Henry XI., duke of Glogau, who left his possessions on his death in 1476 to his widow with reversion to her family, an arrangement which was resisted by Henry’s kinsman, John II., duke of Sagan. Aided by Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, John invaded Brandenburg, and the Pomeranians seized the opportunity to revolt. Under these circumstances Albert returned to Brandenburg in 1478, compelled the Pomeranians to own his supremacy, and after a stubborn struggle secured a part of Duke Henry’s lands for his daughter in 1482. His main attention was afterwards claimed
