Albert I | |
---|---|
King of Germany (formally King of the Romans) |
|
Reign | 27 July 1298 – 1 May 1308 |
Coronation | 24 August 1298 Aachen Cathedral |
Predecessor | Adolph |
Successor | Henry VII |
Duke of Austria and Styria until 1283 with Rudolph II 1298–1307 with Rudolph III |
|
Reign | 27 December 1282 – 1 May 1308 |
Predecessor | Rudolph I |
Successor | Frederick the Fair |
Born |
Imperial City of Rheinfelden |
July 1255
Died | 1 May 1308 Windisch, Further Austria |
(aged 52)
Burial | Speyer Cathedral |
Spouse | Elizabeth of Carinthia |
Issue |
Rudolph I of Bohemia Frederick the Fair Leopold I, Duke of Austria Albert II, Duke of Austria Otto, Duke of Austria Anna, Margravine of Brandenburg Agnes, Queen of Hungary Elizabeth, Duchess of Lorraine Catherine, Duchess of Calabria Judith, Countess of Öttingen and two others |
House | House of Habsburg |
Father | Rudolph I of Germany |
Mother | Gertrude of Hohenburg |
Albert I of Habsburg (German: Albrecht I.) (July 1255 – 1 May 1308), the eldest son of King Rudolf I of Germany and his first wife Gertrude of Hohenburg, was a Duke of Austria and Styria from 1282 and King of Germany from 1298 until his assassination.
From 1273 Albert ruled as a landgrave over his father's Swabian (Further Austrian) possessions in Alsace. In 1282 his father, the first German monarch from the House of Habsburg, invested him and his younger brother Rudolf II with the duchies of Austria and Styria, which he had seized from late King Ottokar II of Bohemia and defended in the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld. By the 1283 Treaty of Rheinfelden his father entrusted Albert with their sole government, while Rudolf II ought to be compensated by the Further Austrian Habsburg home territories – which, however, never happened until his death in 1290. Albert and his Swabian ministeriales appear to have ruled the Austrian and Styrian duchies with conspicuous success, overcoming the resistance by local nobles.
King Rudolf I was unable to secure the succession to the German throne for his son, especially due to the objections raised by Ottokar's son King Wenceslaus II of Bohemia, and the plans to install Albert as successor of the assassinated King Ladislaus IV of Hungary in 1290 also failed. Upon Rudolf's death in 1291, the Prince-electors, fearing Albert's power and the implementation of a hereditary monarchy, chose Count Adolf of Nassau-Weilburg as King of the Romans. A rising among his Styrian dependents compelled Albert to recognize the sovereignty of his rival and to confine himself for a time to the government of the Habsburg lands at Vienna.