Albert III, Duke of Austria

Albert III
Albert III, 16th century portrait
Duke of Austria
Reign	1365–1395
Predecessor	Rudolf IV the Founder
Successor	Albert IV the Patient
Born	9 September 1349 Vienna, Austria
Died	29 August 1395(1395-08-29) (aged 45) Laxenburg Castle, Austria
Burial	St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna
Spouses	Elisabeth of Bohemia Beatrice of Nuremberg
Issue	Albert IV, Duke of Austria
House	House of Habsburg
Father	Albert II of Austria
Mother	Joanna of Pfirt

Albert III of Austria (9 September 1349 – 29 August 1395), known as Albert with the Braid (Pigtail) (German: Albrecht mit dem Zopf), a member of the House of Habsburg, was Duke of Austria from 1365 until his death.

Biography

Albert III was born in the ducal residence of Vienna, the third son of the Habsburg duke Albert II of Austria and his wife Joanna of Pfirt.^[1] Even though his father had determined a house law, whereby the four sons were obliged to rule jointly and equally, the eldest brother Rudolf IV assumed the reins of government after his father's death in 1358. He reaffirmed his supremacy issuing the Privilegium Maius. However, as his marriage remained childless he again had to share his power with his younger brothers. In 1365 Rudolf IV, Albert III, and Leopold III together signed the foundation certificate of the Vienna University (Alma Mater Rudolphina Vindobonensis); Rudolf died a few months later at the age of 25.

Divided rule

Albert, then the eldest surviving brother (the second-born son Frederick III had already died in 1362), inherited the rule and shared it with his younger brother Leopold III. Both were formally enfeoffed with the Duchy of Austria, Duchy of Styria, Duchy of Carinthia, and Duchy of Carniola by Emperor Charles IV. In 1369 the Habsburg dukes succeeded the late Meinhard III, Count of Gorizia-Tyrol in the County of Tyrol, when after a drawn-out conflict the Wittelsbach Duke Stephen II of Bavaria finally renounced his rights.

In 1368 the Habsburg brothers purchased the Swabian city of Freiburg. But their attempt to gain control over the Adriatic port of Trieste failed in an armed conflict with the Republic of Venice in 1369/70. Trieste was not won until 1382, when the citizens sought protection from Venice by subjecting themselves to Austrian rule. In 1374 the Austrian dukes inherited large territories in the Windic March and Istria from the late Albert III, Count of Gorizia, which they attached to the Duchy of Carniola. The next year they acquired the Swabian lordship of Feldkirch from the Counts of Montfort, the nucleus of the Habsburg possessions in later Vorarlberg.

Tension developed between the brothers, and in 1379 Albert and Leopold, by the Treaty of Neuberg divided the extended Habsburg territories. Albert received Austria proper (Austria Inferior), while Leopold get Styria, Carinthia and Carniola (Austria Interior), Tyrol (Austria Superior) and the dynasty's original possessions in Swabia (Austria Anterior). The division of the Habsburgs into the Albertinian Line and Leopoldian line was a significant disadvantage in competition with the rival Wittelsbach and Luxembourg dynasties. It persisted until 1490, when Archduke Sigismund of Tyrol and Further Austria handed over his estates to his cousin King Maximilian I.

Politics

In 1377, Albert went on a crusade in Prussia against pagan Baltic Lithuanian and Samogitian tribes.

Meanwhile, the expansion of the Habsburg dukes in Swabia collided with the growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy and sparked armed revolts. In 1386 Duke Leopold III and numerous Austrian nobles were killed in a disastrous defeat at the 1386 Battle of Sempach, whereafter Albert once again became sole ruler over the Albertinian and Leopoldian lands, acting as regent for his minor nephews. Another attempt to restore Habsburg rule in Swabia failed, when Albert's knights were again defeated by the Swiss pike squares in the 1388 Battle of Näfels and the duke had to call for an armistice.

In the Austrian lands, his government was beneficial to the realm, as he supported the arts and sciences. Albert was an apt scholar himself, particularly as a mathematician and astrologer. The eldest preserved book of the Austrian National Library, a 1386 Evangelion, comes from his personal property. The duke expanded the University of Vienna and, during the Western Schism, reached the consent of Pope Urban VI to establish a theological faculty. He continued the building of St. Stephen's Cathedral and attempted to refurbish Vienna modelled on Emperor Charles' residence in Prague. Albert's nickname refers to his particular hairstyle, part of the vestments of a short-lived chivalric order (Zopforden) he had established and which dissolved upon his death.

By the end of his reign, Albert had established a firm princely rule over the Austrian duchy, stretching along the Danube from the Hungarian border on the Leitha River in the east to the Hausruck range in the west. In the conflict over the succession upon the death of Emperor Charles IV in 1378, Albert joined the forces of the Luxembourg heirs Jobst of Moravia and Sigismund against the incapable king Wenceslaus and seemed a likely candidate for the German throne himself. However, he died in August 1395 while staying in his Laxenburg hunting lodge, during the preparations of a military campaign to achieve Wenceslaus' deposition which took place in 1400. He is buried in the Ducal Crypt in the Stephansdom cathedral in Vienna.

Family and children

Albert III was married twice. The first marriage, after 19 March 1366, was with Elisabeth of Bohemia, a daughter of the Luxembourg emperor Charles IV.^[1] This marriage was childless; his wife died at age fifteen. Afterwards, he married Beatrix of Nuremberg,^[1] a daughter of the Hohenzollern burgrave Frederick V of Nuremberg and his wife Elisabeth of Meissen, a member of the House of Wettin and a descendant of the extinct Babenberg dukes of Austria.

Beatrix gave him his only son, Albert IV,^[2] who succeeded him but soon had to cede the rule over the Inner Austrian, Tyrolean and Further Austrian possessions to his Leopoldian cousins William and Leopold IV. The Albertinian line became extinct with the death of Ladislaus the Posthumous in 1457.

Ancestry

Male-line family tree

v t e House of Habsburg[n 1]
Original line Albert Count of Habsburg c. 1188–1239 Rudolf I of Germany c. 1218–1291 Albert I of Germany 1255–1308 Hartmann 1263–1281 Rudolf II Duke of Austria 1270–1290 Rudolf I of Bohemia 1281–1307 Frederick the Fair c. 1289–1330 Leopold I Duke of Austria 1290–1326 Albert II Duke of Austria 1298–1358 Henry the Friendly 1299–1327 Otto Duke of Austria 1301–1339 John Parricida c. 1290–1312/1313   Albertinian line   Leopoldian line Rudolf IV Duke of Austria 1339–1365 Frederick III Duke of Austria 1347–1362 Albert III Duke of Austria 1349–1395 Leopold III Duke of Austria 1351–1386 Frederick II Duke of Austria 1327–1344 Leopold II Duke of Austria 1328–1344 Albert IV Duke of Austria 1377–1404 William Duke of Austria c. 1370–1406 Leopold IV Duke of Austria 1371–1411 Ernest Duke of Austria 1377–1424 Frederick IV Duke of Austria 1382–1439 Albert II of Germany 1397–1439 Frederick III HRE 1415–1493 Albert VI Archduke of Austria 1418–1463 Sigismund Archduke of Austria 1427–1496 Ladislaus the Posthumous 1440–1457 Maximilian I HRE 1459–1519 Philip I of Castile 1478–1506   Spanish / Iberian line   Austrian / HRE line Charles V HRE 1500–1558 Ferdinand I HRE 1503–1564 Philip II of Spain 1527–1598 Maximilian II HRE 1527–1576 Ferdinand II Archduke of Austria 1529–1595 Charles II Archduke of Austria 1540–1590 Carlos Prince of Asturias 1545–1568 Philip III of Spain 1578–1621 Rudolf II HRE 1552–1612 Ernest of Austria 1553–1595 Matthias HRE 1557–1619 Maximilian III Archduke of Austria 1558–1618 Albert VII Archduke of Austria 1559–1621 Wenceslaus Archduke of Austria 1561–1578 Andrew Margrave of Burgau 1558–1600 Charles Margrave of Burgau 1560–1618 Ferdinand II HRE 1578–1637 Maximilian Ernest of Austria 1583–1616 Leopold V Archduke of Austria 1586–1632 Charles of Austria 1590–1624 Philip IV of Spain 1605–1665 Charles of Austria 1607–1632 Ferdinand of Austria 1609–1641 John-Charles of Austria 1605–1619 Ferdinand III HRE 1608–1657 Leopold Wilhelm of Austria 1614–1662 Ferdinand Charles Archduke of Austria 1628–1662 Sigismund Francis Archduke of Austria 1630–1665 Balthasar Charles Prince of Asturias 1629–1646 Charles II of Spain 1661–1700 Ferdinand IV King of the Romans 1633–1654 Leopold I HRE 1640–1705 Charles Joseph of Austria 1649–1664 Joseph I HRE 1678–1711 Charles VI HRE 1685–1740
Notes: ^ "Habsburg family tree". Habsburg family website. 28 October 2023. Retrieved 28 October 2023.

References

Sources

• Previte-Orton, C.W. (1952). The Shorter Cambridge Medieval History: The Twelfth Century to the Renaissance. Vol. 2. Cambridge University Press.

External links

Albert III, Duke of Austria House of Habsburg Born: 9 September 1349 Died: 29 August 1395
Preceded by Rudolf IV	Duke of Austria 1365–1395 with Leopold III (1365–1379)	Succeeded by Albert IV
	Duke of Styria, Carinthia and Carniola Count of Tyrol 1365–1379 with Leopold III	Succeeded by Leopold III
Preceded by Leopold III	Count of Tyrol 1386–1395	Succeeded by Leopold IV