Albany is an important railway and commercial centre, particularly as a distributing point for New England markets, as a lumber market and—though to a much less extent than formerly-as a depot for transhipment to the south and west. Among the city's manufactories are breweries, iron and brass foundries, stove factories, knitting mills, cotton mills, clothing factories, slaughtering and meat-packing establishments, cigar and cigarette factories, and manufactories of adhesive pastes, court plaster, spring beds, ribbed underwear, aniline dyes, chemicals, gas meters, fire-brick, and glazed paper and cardboard. The value of the total factory product in 1905 was $20,208,715, which was 17% greater than that for 1900.
History.—-Albany was probably the second place to be permanently settled within the borders of the original Thirteen Colonies. It seems likely that French traders ascended the river as far as the site of the present city in the first half of the sixteenth century, and according to some writers a temporary trading post was established here about 1540. Albany's authentic history, however, may be dated from 1614, when Dutch traders built on Castle Island, opposite the city, a post which they named Fort Nassau. Three years later the fort was removed to the mainland, and near here in 1618 the Dutch made their first treaty with the Iroquois. In 1624 arrived eighteen families of Dutch Walloons, the first actual permanent settlers, as distinguished from traders. In that year, on a hill near the site of the present Capitol, Fort Orange was built, and around it, as a centre, the new town grew. At first it was known by the Dutch simply as the ``fuyck'' (hoop), from the curve in the river at this point, whence was soon derived the name Beverfuvck or Beverwvck. In 1629 the Dutch government granted to Killiaen van Rensselaer, an Amsttrdam diamond merchant, a tract of land (24 sq. m.) centring at Fort Orange. Over this tract, the first patroonship granted in the colony, he had the usual powers and rights of a patroon. The grant was named Rensselaerwyck in his honour, became a ``manor'' in 1685, and remained in the family until 1853. The colonists whom he settled upon his grant (1630) were industrious, and ``Beverwvck'' became increasingly prosperous. From this time the town, on account of its favourable commercial and strategic position at the gateway of the Iroquois country and at the head of navigation on the Hudson river, was for a century and a half one of the most important places in the colonies. In 1664. with the transfer of New Netherlands to English control, the name ``Beverwvck'' was changed to ``Albany''-one of the titles of the duke of York (afterward James II.). In 1673 the town was acain for a short time under Dutch control. In 1686 Governor Donaan granted to Albany a city charter, which provided for an elected council. The first mayor appointed by the aovernor was Peter Schuyler (1657-1724). In 1689 was held here the first inter-colonial convention in America, when delegates from Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New York met to treat with representatives of the Five Nations and to plan a system of colonial defence. During the 18th century there was a great influx of English colonists, and in 1714 the first English church was erected. During the French and Indian wars Albany was a starting-point for expeditions against Canada and the Lake Champlain country. In June 1754, in Dursuance of a recommendation of the Lords.of Trade, a convention of representatives of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Vork, Pennsylvania and Maryland met here for the purpose of confirming and establishing a closer league of friendshiq with the Iroquois and of arranging for a Dermanent union of the colonies. The Indian affairs having been satisfactorily adiusted, the convention, after considerable debate. in which Benjamin Franklin, Stephen Hopkins and Thomas Hutchinson took a leading part, adopted (July 11) a plan foraunionof the colonies, which was in great part similar to one submitted to the convention by Franklin. This plan provided for a representative governing body to be known as the Grand Council, to which each colony should elect delegates (not more than seven or less than two) for a term of three years. This body was to have control of Indian affairs, impose taxes, nominate all civil officers, authorize the opening of new lands to settlement, and in general have charge of colonial defence, and of the enlistment, equipment and maintenance of an army. An executive or viceroy, to be known as the president-general, was to have the veto power over the acts of the Grand Council and the right of appointment of military officers. Finally, it was provided that the acts of the Grand Council should be valid unless vetoed by the crown within a period of three years. Neither the British government nor the growing party in the colonies which was clamouring for colonial rights received the plan with favour—- the former holding that it gave the colonies too much independence, and the latter that it gave them too little. 4.he strategic importance of Albany was fully recognized during the War of Independence, and it was against Albany that Burgoyne's expedition was directed. Albany became the permanent state capital in 1797. In 1839 it became the centre of the ``Anti-Rent War,'' which was precipitated by the death of Stephen van Rensselaer (1764-1839), the last of the patroons; the attempt of his heirs to collect overdue rents resulting in disturbances which necessitated the calling out of the militia, spread into several counties where there were large landed estates, and were not entirely settled until 1847.
See William Barnes, The Settlement and Early History of Albany (Albany, 1864): J. Munsell, The Annals of Albany (10 vols., Albany, 1859-1859: 2nd ed., 4 vols., 1869-1871); E. B. O'Callaghan, Documentary History of the State of New York, vol. iii. (Albany, 1850): A. J. Weise, The History of the City of Albany (Albany, 1884); G. R. Howell and J. Tenney, Bi-centennial History of Albany (New York, 1886); Amasa I. Parker, Landmarks of Albany County (Syracuse, 1897); and Cuyler Reynolds, Albany Chronicles; or Albany Mayors anid Contemporaneous Chronology (Albany, 1907).
ALBANY, a municipal town in the county of Plantagenet, West Australia, on Princess Royal Harbour, a branch of King George Sound, 352 m. by rail and 254 m. directly S.S.E. of Perth. Pop. (1901) 3650. It is the chief health resort of the state, and its climate is one of the finest in Australia; it has a mean annual temperature of 58.6 deg. F., and the summer heat is never excessive. One of the features of the town is the Marine Drive, some 5 1/2 m. in circuit around the hills overlooking the harbour. Albany has several flourishing industries, of which the chief are brewing, coach-building, printing and tanning. In addition it has the finest harbour in West Australia. A pier extends for 1700 ft. into the sea, giving safe accommodation to the large steamers which call at the port. The Great Southern railway has a line to the seaward end of the pier, and affords direct communication with the interior of the colony. The harbour is protected by forts and there is a garrison in the town. King George Sound, of which Albany is the township, was first occupied in 1826 and a penal settlement was established. No attempt was made to colonize the locality until after this settlement was given up in 1831. Albany became a municipality in 1871.
ALBATEGNIUS (c. 850—929), an Arab prince and astronomer, correctly designated Mahommed ben Gebir al Batani, his surname being derived from his native town, Batan in Mesopotamia. From his observations at Aracte and Damascus, where he died, he was able to correct some of Ptolemy's results, previously taken on trust. He compiled new tables of the sun and moon, long accepted as authoritative, discovered the movement of the sun's apogee, and assigned to annual precession the improved value of 55'' Perhaps independently of Aryabhatta (born at Pataliputra on the Ganges 476 A.D.), he introduced the use of sines in calculation, and partially that of tangents. His principal work, De Motu Stellarum, was published at Nuremberg in 1537 by Melanchthon, in a blundering Latin translation by Plato Tiburtinus (fl. 1116), annotated by Regiomontanus. A reprint appeared at Bologna in 1645. The original MS. is preserved at the Vatican; and the Escorial library possesses in MS. a treatise of some value by him on astronomical chronology. Albategnius takes the highest rank among Arab astronomers.
See Houzeau, Bibliographie astronomique, i. 467; M. Marie, Histoire des sciences, ii. 113; R. Wolf, Geschichte der Astronomie, p. 67; Delambre, Hist. de l'astr. au moyen age, ch. ii.; Phil. Trans. 1693 (913), where E. Halley supplies corrections to some of the observations recorded in De Motu Stellarum.
ALBATROSS (from the Port. Alcatraz, a pelican), the name of a genus of aquatic birds (Diomedea), closely allied to the petrels, and belonging, like them, to the order Tubinares. In the name Diomedea, assigned to them by Linnaeus, there is a reference to the mythical metamorphosis of the companions of the Greek warrior Diomedes into birds. The beak is large, strong and sharp-edged, the upper mandible terminating in a large hook; the wings are narrow and very long; the feet have no hind toe, and the three anterior toes are completely webbed. The best known is the common or wandering albatross (D. exulans), which occurs in all parts of the Southern Ocean. It is the largest and strongest of all sea-birds. The length of the body is stated at 4 ft., and the weight at from 15 to 25 lb. . It sometimes measures as much as 17 ft. between the tips of the extended, wings, averaging probably from 10 to 12 ft. Its strength of wing is very great. It often accompanies a ship for days—not merely following it, but wheeling in wide circles round it—-without ever being observed to alight on the water. and continues its flight, apparently untired, in tempestuous as well as in moderate weather. It has even been said to sleep on the wing, and Moore alludes to this fanciful ``cloud-rocked slumbering'' in his Fire Worshippers. It feeds on small fish and on the animal refuse that floats on the sea, eating to such excess at times that it is unable to fiy and rests helplessly on the water. The colour of the bird is white, the back being streaked transversely with black or brown bands, and the wings dark. Sailors capture the bird for its long wing-bones, which they manufacture into tobacco-pipe stems. The albatross lays one egg; it is white, with a few spots, and is about 4 in. long. In breeding-time the bird resorts to solitary island groups, like the Crozet Islands and the elevated Tristan da Cunha, where it has its nest—a natural hollow or a circle of earth roughly scraped together—on the open ground. The early explorers of the great Southern Sea cheered themselves with the companionship of the albatross in its dreary solitudes; and the evil hap of him who shot with his cross-bow the bird of good omen is familiar to readers of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Several species of albatross are known; for the smaller forms see MALLEMUCK.
ALBAY, a city and the capital of the province of Albay, Luzon, Philippine Islands, near an inlet on the W. shore of the Gulf of Albay, 215 m. by wagon-road S.E. of Manila. Pop. (1903) 14,049; in October 1907 the towns of Daraga (pop. 1903, 18,695) and Legaspi (pop. 1903, 9206) were merged with Albay, making its total population, on the basis of the 1903 census, 41,950. Albay is one of the most important cities of the Philippine Islands. It is built on level ground near the S. base of Mount Mayon, a beautiful volcanic peak, 7916 ft. high, from which it is sheltered by the Linguin hills. The surrounding country is one of the most important hemp-producing districts in the Philippines; sinamay is woven here, and large quantities of hemp are shipped from here to Manila. Cocoa, copra, sugar and sweet potatoes are other important products of the district. The language is Bicol. The old town, called Cagsaua, which stood a short distance E.N.E. of the new, was completely destroyed by an eruption of the volcano in 1814 (about 1200 people being killed), and the new town was almost entirely destroyed by the insurgents in February 1900, an ancient stone church of much beauty (in what was formerly Daraga) being left standing on an elevated site commanding a view of the surrounding country. The town was rebuilt on a larger scale by Americans.
ALBEDO (from Lat. albus, white), ``whiteness,'' a word used principally in astronomy for the degree of reflected light; the light of the sun which is reflected from the moon is called the albedo of the moon.
ALBEMARLE, EARLS AND DUKES OF. The name Albemarle, which now forms the title of the earldom held by the English family of Keppel, is an early variant of the French Aumale (Lat. Alba dlarla), other forms being Aubemarle and Aumerle, and is described in the patent of nobility granted in 1696-1697 by William III. to Arnold Joost van Keppel as ``a town and territory in the dukedom of Normandy.''
The fief of Aumale (q. v.) was granted by the archbishop of Rouen to Odo of Champagne, brother-in-law of William the Conqueror, who erected it into a countship. On Odo's death his son Stephen succeeded not only to the countship of Aumale, but to the lordships of Holderness, of Bytham in Lincolnshire, &c., which were subsequently known as the ``Fee and Honor of Albemarle.'' Stephen, who as a crusader had fought valiantly at Antioch, died about 1127, leaving by his wife Hawise, daughter of Ralph de Mortimer, a son—-William of Blois, known as ``le Gros.'' William, who distinguished himself at the battle of the Standard (1138), and shared with King Stephen in the defeat of Lincoln (1141), married Cicely, daughter of William FitzDuncan, grandson of Malcolm, king of Scotland, who as ``lady of Harewood'' brought him vast estates. He founded abbeys at Meaux in Holderness and at Thornton, and died in 1179. His elder daughter and heiress Hawise married (1) William de Mandeville, 3rd earl of Essex (d. 1189), (2) William de Fortibus (de Fors, de Fortz or des Forts1), (3) Baldwin de Betun or Bethune, all of whom bore the title of earls of Albemarle.
Soon after the deathpf Baldwin (October 13, 1213), William de Fortibus, Hawise's son by her second husband, was established by King John in the territories of the countship of Albemarle, and in 1215 the whole of his mother's estates were formally confirmed to him. He is described by Bishop Stubbs as ``a feudal adventurer of the worst type,'' and for some time was actively engaged in the struggles of the Norman barons against John and Henry III. He was one of the twenty-five executors of the Great Charter; but in the war that followed sided with John, subsequently changing sides as often as it suited his policy. His object was to revive the independent power of the feudal barons, and he co-operated to this end with Falkes de Breaute (q.v.) and other foreign adventurers established in the country by John. This brought him into conflict with the great justiciar, Hubert de Burgh, and in 1219 he was declared a rebel and excommunicated for attending a forbidden tournament. In 1220 matters were brought to a crisis by his refusal to surrender the two royal castles of Rockingham and Sauvey of which he had been made constable in 1216. Henry III. marched against them in person, the garrisons fled, and they fell without a blow. In the following year, however, Albemarle, in face of further efforts to reduce his power, rose in revolt. He was now again excommunicated by the legate Pandulph at a solemn council held in St Paul's, and the whole force of the kingdom was set in motion against him, a special scutage-the ``scutagium de Bihan''—-being voted for this purpose by the Great Council. The capture of his castle of Bytham broke his power; he sought sanctuary and, at Pandulph's intercession, was pardoned on condition of going for six years to the Holy Land. He remained in England, however, and in 1223 was once more in revolt with Falkes de Breaute, the earl of Chester and other turbulent spirits. A reconciliation was once more patched up; but it was not until the fall of Falkes de Breaute that Albemarle finally settled down as an English noble. In 1225 he witnessed Henry's third re-issue of the Great Charter; in 1227 he went as ambassador to Antwerp; and in 1230 he accompanied Henry on his expedition to Brittany. In 1241 he set out for the Holy Land, but died at sea, on his way there, on the 26th of March 1242. By his wife Avelina of Montfichet, William left a son, also named William, who married (1) Christina (d. 1246), daughter and co-heiress of Alan, lord of Galloway, (2) in 1248 Isabella de Redvers (1237-1292-3), daughter of Baldwin de Redvers, earl of Devon and lord of the Isle of Wight. He played a conspicuous part in the reign of Henry III., notably in the Mad Parliament of 1258, and died at Amiens in 1260. His widow, Isabella, on the death of her brother Baldwin, 8th earl of Devon, in 1261, cailed herself countess of Devon. She had two children, Thomas, who died in 1269 unmarried, and Avelina, who married (1269) Edmund Plantagenet, earl of Lancaster, and died without issue in 1274. The ``Honor of Albemarle'' was claimed, in 1278, by John de Eston, or Aston, as heir of Amicia, younger daughter of William le Gros; but he released his right to the earldom of Albemarle to the crown in exchange for certain lands in Thornton.
The title of Albemarle, thus extinguished, was several times revived before it became attached to the family of its present holders. In 1385 Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, was summoned to padiament as ``duke of Albemarle,'' but he seems never subsequently to have used the title. In any case this creation became extinct with the death of his son Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, in 1399. In 1411 Thomas Plantagenet, second son of Henry IV., was created earl of Albemarle and duke of Clarence, but at his death at the battle of Beauge (March 22, 1421) these honours became extinct. That of Albemarle was, however, soon revived (c. 1423) in favour of Richard de Beauchamp, earl of Warwick, whose title of earl of Aumerle, however, died with him.
In 1660 Charles II. bestowed the title of duke of Albemarle on General Monk (q.v..) Monk's hereditary claim to this semiroyal peerage was a very shadowy one, being based—as was also his subordinate style of Baron Beauchamp—-on his descent from the youngest of the three co-heiresses of Richard, earl of Warwick, and, with yet more remote applicability, on that from Arthur Plantagenet, a natural son of Edward IV. The title became extinct in 1688, on the death of Christopher, 2nd duke of Albemarle.
Finally, as mentioned above, the title of earl of Albemarle was bestowed by William III., without any shadow of hereditary claim, on his Dutch favourite Arnold Joost van Keppel (see below), by whose descendants it is still held. The motive for choosing this title was probably that, apart from its dignified traditions, it avoided the difficulty created by the fact that the Keppels had as yet no territorial possessions in the British Islands.
ARNOLD JOOST VAN KEPPEL, 1st earl of Albemarle, and lord of Voorst in Gelderland (c. 1670-1718), son of Oswald van Keppel and his wife Anna Geertruid van Lintello, was born in Holland about 1670. He became page to William III., accompanied him to England in 1688, and was made groom of the bed-chamber and master of the robes in 1695. On the 10th of February 1696f7 he was created earl of Albemarle, Viscount Bury and Baron Ashford. In 1700 William gave him lands of enormous extent in Ireland, but parliament obliged the king to cancel this grant, and William then bestowed on him L. 50,000. The same year he was made a knight of the Garter. Meanwhile he had served both with the English and Dutch troops, was major-general in 1697, colonel of several regiments and governor of Bois-le-Duc. Of handsome person and engaging disposition, he rivalled Portland, whose jealousy he aroused in the royal favour, possessed William's full confidence and accompanied him everywhere. In February 1702 he was sent by William. then prostrated with his last illness, to Holland to arrange the coming campaign, and only returned in time to receive William's last commissions on his deathbed. After the death ofthe latter, who bequeathed to him 200,000 guilders and some lands, he returned to Holland, took his seat as a noble in the states-general, and was made a general of horse in the Dutch army. He joined the forces of the allies in 1703, was present at Ramillies in 1706 and at Oudenarde in 1708, and distinguished himself at the siege of Lille. He commanded at the siege of Aire in 1710, led Marlborough's second line in 1711, and was general of the Dutch forces in 1712, being defeated at Denain after the withdrawal of Ormonde and the English forces and taken prisoner. He died on the 30th of May 1718, aged 48. He married Geertruid, daughter of Adam van der Denijn, by whom, besides a daughter, he had a son, William Anne, who succeeded him as 2nd earl of Albemarle.
Of the later earls mention need only be made of the sixth, GEORGE THOMAS KEPPEL (1799—1891), British general, second son of the fourth earl, born on the 13th of June 1799. Educated at Westminster School he entered the army as ensign, 14th Foot, in 1815. He joined his regiment in Belgium and took part in the Waterloo campaign and the march to Paris, joined the second battalion in Corfu, and was transferred to the 22nd Foot, with which he served in Mauritius and at the Cape, returning home in 1819, when he was appointed equerry to the duke of Sussex. Promoted to a lieutenancy in the 24th Foot, he was transferred to the 20th Foot, and went to India, where he was aide-de-camp to the marquess of Hastings until his resignation in 1823, when Keppel returned to England, travelling overland through Persia, Moscow and St Petersburg. He published in 1825 an account of his travels, entitled Journey from India to England. He was aide-de-camp to the Marquess Wellesley, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, for two years, was promoted captain in the 62nd Foot, studied in the senior department of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, and in 1827 obtained a half-pay unattached majority. He did not again serve on full pay, but rose to be a general. In 1829 he visited the seat of the Russo-Turkish war and was with the British fleet in Turkish waters. In 1832 he was returned in the Whig interest to the first reformed parliament as member for East Norfolk and sat until 1835. He was private secretary to the premier, Lord John Russell, in 1846, and M.P. for Lymington from 1847 to 1849. He succeeded to the title on the death of his brother in 1851. He died in 1891 and was buried at Quidenham, Norfolk. He wrote an account of a Journey across the Balkans, Memoirs of the Marquis of Rockingham, and an autobigraphy entitled Fifty Years of My Life.
See G. E. C(ockayne), Complete Peerage, 8 vols. (London, 1887). For the two Williams de Fortibus, see s.v. Prof. T. F. Tout's articles in the Dict. of Nat. Biog.
1 The name was derived from Fors, a commune in the canton of Prahecq in Poitou. It is spelt Forz in a deed of 1233, and the best vernacular form is, according to Thomas Stapleton (Preface to the Liber de Antiquitate, Camden Soc., 1846, p. xxxiv. note), de Fortz.
ALBENGA, a town and episcopal see of Liguria, Italy, on the N.W. coast of the Gulf of Genoa, in the province of Genoa, 521 m. S.W. of Genoa by rail. Pop. (1901) 6248. Albenga is the ancient Album Ingaunum or Albingaunum, the chief town of the Ingauni, one of the most important of the Ligurian tribes, whose territory reached as far as Genoa. Under the empire it was a municpium; an inscription records the restoration of the walls, forum, harbour, &c., by Constantius A.D. 354. A little way outside the town to the E. is a well-preserved Roman bridge nearly 500 ft. long and 11 1/2 ft. wide, with IO arches, each with a span of 37 ft. It belonged to the coast road and is now known as Ponte Lungo. To the S. of the town is a conspicuous monument, 27 ft. high, in the form of a rectangular pillar, resembling a tomb; but as there is no trace of a door to a sepulchral chamber it may be a shrine. In the town itself there are no Roman remains; but there is a good Gothic cathedral in brick, and an interesting octagonal baptistery, attributed to the 8th or oth century, the arches being supported by ancient columns, and the vaulting decorated with mosaics. Some of the medieval palaces of Albenga have lofty brick towers.
See A. d'Andrade in Relazione dell' Ufficio Regionale per la Conservazione dei monumenti del Piemonte e della Liguria (Turin, 1899), 114 seq.
ALBERONI, GIULIO (1664-1752), Spanish—Italian cardinal and statesman, was born near Piacenza, probably at the village of Fiorenzuola, on the 31st of May 1664. His father was a gardener, and he himself became first connected with the church in the humble position of verger in the cathedral of Piacenza. Having gained the favour of Bishop Barni he took priest's orders, and afterwards accompanied the son of his patron to Rome. During the war of the Spanish succession Alberoni laid the foundation of his political success by the services he rendered to the duke of Vendome, commander of the French forces in Italy; and when these forces were recalled in 1706 he accompanied the duke to Paris, where he was favourably received by Louis XIV. In 1711 he followed Vendome into Spain as his secretary. Two years later, the duke having died in the interval, Alberoni was appointed consular agent for Parma at the court of Philip V. of Spain, being raised at the same time to the dignityof count. On his arrival at Madrid he found the princesse des Ursins all but omnipotent with the king, and for a time he judged it expedient to use her influence in carrying out his plans. In concert with her he arranged the king's marriage with Elizabeth Farnese of Parma. The influence of the new queen being actively exerted on Alberoni's behalf, he speedily rose to high position. He was made a member of the king's council, bishop of Malaga, and in 1715 prime minister, and was raised to the dignity of cardinal in 1717. His internal policy was exceedingly vigorous. The main purpose he put before.himself was to produce an economic revival in Spain by abolishing internal custom-houses, throwing open the trade of the Indies and reorganizing the finances. With the resources thus gained he undertook to enable King Philip V. to carry out an ambitious policy both in Italy and in France. The impatience of the king and his wife gave the minister no time to mature his plans. By provoking England, France, Holland and the Empire at once it brought a flood of disaster on Spain for which Alberoni was held responsible. On the 5th of December 1719 he was ordered to leave Spain, Elizabeth herself having taken an active part in procuring the decree of banishment. He went to Italy, and there had to take refuge among the Apennines, Pope Clement XI., who was his bitter enemy, having given strict orders for his arrest. On the death of Clement, Alberoni boldly appeared at the Conclave, and took part in the election of Innocent XIII. (1721), after which he was for a short time imprisoned by the pontiff on the demand of Spain. At the next election (1724) he was himself proposed for the papal chair, and secured ten votes at the Conclave which elected Benedict XIII. Benedict's successor, Clement XII. (elected 1730), named him legate of Ravenna, in which capacity he incurred the pope's displeasure by the strong and unwarrantable measures he adopted to reduce the little republic of San Marino to subjection to Rome. He was consequently replaced by another legate in 1740, and soon after he retired to Piacenza. Clement XII. appointed him administrator of the hospital of San Lazzaro at Piacenza in 1730. The hospital was a medieval foundation for the benefit of lepers. The disease having disappeared from Italy, Alberoni obtained the consent of the pope to the suppression of the hospital, which had fallen into great disorder, and replaced it by a college for the education of seventy poor boys for the priesthood, under the name of the Collegio Alberoni, which it still bears. He died on the 16th of June 1752, leaving a sum of 600,000 ducats to endow the seminary he had founded, and the residue of the immense wealth he had acquired in Spain to his nephew. Alberoni left a large quantity of manuscripts; but the genuineness of the Political Testament, published in his name at Lausanne in 1753, has been questioned.
An Histoire du Cardinal Alberoni up to 1719 was published by Jean Rousset de Missy at the Hague in 1719. A laudatory life, Storia del Cardinale Giulio Alberoni, was published by Stefano Bersani, a priest educated at his college, at Piacenza, in 1861. Giulio Alberoni e il suo secolo, by Giovanni Bianchi (1901), is briefer and more critical. See also Lettres intimes de J. Alberoni, edited by M. E. Bourgeois (1892).
ALBERT (1522-1557), prince of Bayreuth, surnamed THE WARLIKE, and also ALCIBIADES, was a son of Casimir, prince of Bayreuth, and a member of the Franconian branch of the Hohenzollern family. Born at Ansbach on the 28th of March 1522, he lost his father in 1527 and came under the guardianship of his uncle George, prince of Ansbach, a strong adherent of the reformed doctrines. In 1541 he received Bayreuth as his share of the family lands, and as the chief town of his principality 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 Crepy 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 Rcchlitz in March 1547 by John Fredeack, elector of Saxony, but was released as a result of the emperor's victory at Muhlberg 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. IIe 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 Wurzburg 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, Morkgraf Albrecht Alcibiades von BrandenburgKulmbach (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 brother7in-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 Orlamunde. 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 Ballenstadt. 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 Bar (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 re-forms in Oiermany, 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 Podebrad, 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 Henrv'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 by the business of the Empire, and soon after taking part in the election of Maximilian as king of the Romans he died at Frankfort on the 11th of March 1486. He left a considerable amount of treasure. His first wife was Margaret of Baden, by whom he had six children; and his second was Anne of Saxony, by whom he had thirteen.
Albert was a man of relentless energy and boundless ambition, who by reason of his physical and intellectual qualities was one of the most prominent princes of the 15th century.
See Das kaiserliche Buch des Markgrafen Albrecht Achilles, Ferkurfurstliche Periode, 1440-1470, edited by C. Hofler (Bayreuth, 1850); Kurfurstliche Periode, edited by J. von Minutoli (Berlin, 1850); Quellensammlung zur Geschichte des Hauses Hohenzollern, Band I., edited by C. A. H. Burkhardt (Jena, 1857); O. Franklin, Albrecht Achilles und die Nuremberger, 1444-1453 (Berlin, 1866); Politische Korrespondenz des Kurfursten Albrecht Achilles, 1486, edited by F. Priebatsch (Leipzig, 1894-1898); J. G. Droysen, Geschichte der preussischen Politik (Berlin, 1835-1886).
ALBERT (FRANCIS CHARLES AUGUSTUS ALBERT EMMANUEL) (1819-1861), prince-consort of England, was born at Bosenau on the 26th of August 1819. He was the second son of the hereditary duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (belonging to the Ernestine or elder branch of the royal family of Saxony) by his first wife, the princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (d. 1831), from whom the duke was separated in 1824. His father's sister married the duke of Kent, and her daughter, afterwards Queen Victoria of England, Prince Albert's wife, was thus his first cousin. They were born in the same year. Albert and his elder brother, Ernest, were close companions in youth, and were educated under the care of Consistorialrath Florschutz, subsequently proceeding to the university of Bonn. There Prince Albert devoted himself especially to natural science, political economy and philosophy, having for teachers such men as Fichte, Schlegel and Perthes; he diligently cultivated music and painting, and excelled in gymnastic exercises, especially in fencing. The idea of a marriage between him and his cousin Victoria had always been cherished by their uncle, King Leopold I. of Belgium, and in May 1836 the duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and his two sons paid a visit to Kensington Palace, where Princess Victoria, as she then was, lived, for the purpose of making acquaintance for the first time. The visit was by no means to the taste of King William IV., who disapproved of the match and favoured Prince Alexander of Orange. But Leopold's plan was known to Princess Victoria, and William's objections were fruitless. Princess Victoria, writing to her uncle Leopold (May 23, 1836), said that Albert was ``extremely handsome''; and (June 7) thanked him for the ``prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me in the person of dear Albert. He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy.', No formal engagement was entered into, but the situation was privately understood as one which in time would naturally develop. After the queen came to the throne, her letters show her interest in Albert's being educated for the part he would have to play. In the winter of 1838-1839 the prince travelled in Italy, accompanied by Baron Stockmar, formerly Leopold's doctor and private secretary, and now the queen's confidential adviser. On the 10th of October 1839 he and Ernest went again to England to visit the queen, with the object of finally settling the marriage. Mutual inclination and affection at once brought about the desired result. They became definitely engaged on the 15th of October, and on the 10th of February 1840 the marriage was celebrated at the chapel-royal, St James's.
The position in which the prince was placed by his marriage, while it was one of distinguished honour, was also one of considerable difficulty; and during his lifetime the tactful way in which he filled it was very inadequately appreciated. The public life of the prince-consort cannot be separated from that of the queen, and it is unnecessary here to repeat such details as are given in the article on her (see VICTORIA, QUEEN.) The prejudice against him, on account of what was regarded as undue influence in politics, was never fully dissipated till after his death. His co-operation with the queen in dealing with the political responsibilities which devolved upon the sovereign represented an amount of conscientious and self-sacrificing labour which cannot easily be exaggerated; and his wisdom in council could only be realized, outside a very small circle, when in later years the materials for the history of that time became accessible. He was indeed a man of cultured and liberal ideas, well qualified to take the lead in many reforms which the England of that day sorely needed. He was specially interested 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 made at a meeting of the Society of Arts, and owed the greater part of its success to his intelligent and unwearied efforts. He had to work for its realization against an extraordinary outburst of angry expostulations. Every stage in his project was combated. In the House of Peers, Lord Brougham denied the right of the crown to hold the exhibition in Hyde Park; in the Commons, Colonel Sibthorp prophesied that England would be overrun with foreign rogues and revolutionists, who would subvert the morals of the people, filch their trade secrets from them, and destroy their faith and loyalty towards their religion and their sovereign. Prince Albert was president of the exhibition commission, and every post brought him abusive letters, accusing him, as a foreigner, of being intent upon the corruption of England. He was not the man to be balked by talk of this kind, but quietly persevered, looking always to the probability that the manufacturing power of Great Britain would be quickened by bringing the best manufactured products of foreign countries under the eyes of the mechanics and artisans. A sense of the artistic was at this time almost wholly wanting among the English people. One day the prince had a conversation with a great manufacturer of crockery, and sought to convert him to the idea of issuing something better than the eternal willow-pattern in white with gold, red or blue, which formed the staple of middle and lower class domestic china. The manufacturer held out that new shapes and designs would not be saleable; but he was induced to try, and he did so with such a rapid success that a revolution in the china cupboards of England was accomplished from that time. The exhibition was opened by the queen on the 1st of May 1851, and was a colossal success; and the realized surplus of L. 150,000 went to establish and endow the South Kensington Museum (afterwards renamed ``Victoria and Albert'') and to purchase land in that neighbourhood. Similar institutions, On a smaller scale but with a kindred aim, always found in him warm advocacy and substantial support. It was chiefly at meetings in connexion with these that he found occasion for the delivery of addresses characterized 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. 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 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 L. 11,000 to L. 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 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 win respect among those who were acquainted with the facts. As the prince became better known, public mistrust began to give way. In 1847, but only after a significantly keen contest with Earl Powis, he was elected chancellor of the university of Cambridge; and he was afterwards appointed master of the Trinity House. In June 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.
But in the full career of his usefulness he was cut off. During the autumn of 1861 he was busy with the arrangements for the projected international exhibition, and it was just after returning from one of the meetings in connexion with it that he was seized with his last illness. Beginning at the end of November with what appeared to be influenza, it proved to be an attack of typhoid fever, and, congestion of the lungs supervening, he died on the 14th of December. The grief of the queen was overwhelming and the sympathy of the whole nation marked a revulsion of feeling about the prince himself which was not devoid of compunction for earlier want of appreciation. The magnificent mausoleum at Frogmore, in which his remains were finally deposited, was erected at the expense of the queen and the royal family; and many public monuments to ``Albert the Good'' were erected all over the country, the most notable being the Albert Hall (1867) and the Albert Memorial (1876) in London. His name was also commemorated in the queen's institution of the Albert medal ( 1866) in reward for gallantry in saving life, and of the order of Victoria and Albert (1862).
By the queen's authority, her secretary, General Grey, compiled The Early Days of the Prince Consort, published in 1867; and The Life and Letters of the Prince Consort (ist vol., 1874; 2nd, 1880) mas similarly edited by Sir Theodore Martin. A volume of the Principal Specches and Addresses of Prince Albert, with an introduction by Sir Arthur Helps, was published in 1862. See also the Letters of Queen Victoria (ioo7). (H. CH.)
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 brother Rudolph, in 1282. In 1283 his father entrusted him with their sole government, and he appears to have ruled them with conspicuous success. Rudolph was unable to secure the succession to the German throne for his son, and on his death in 1291, the princes, fearing Albert's power, chose Adolph of Nassau as king. A rising among his Swabian dependants compelled Albert to recognize the sovereignty of his 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 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 Frankfort on the 27th of July 1298, and crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 24th of August following. Albert sought to play an important part in European affairs. He seemed at first inclined to press a 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 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 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 year, the death of his son Rudolph weakened his position in eastern Europe. His action in abolishing all tolls established on the Rhine since 1250, led to the formation of a 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 nephew John, afterwards called ``the Parricide,'' whom he had deprived of his inheritance. Albert married Elizabeth, daughter of Meinhard IV., count of Gorz and Tirol, who 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 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 serfs, whose wrongs seldom attracted notice in an age indifferent to the claims of 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 Nachfolgeim Reich (Leipzig, 1862); J. F. A. Mucke, AlbrechtI. von IIabsburg (Gotha, 1865); A. L. J. Michelsen,Die Landgrafschaft Thuringen unter den KonigenAdolf, Albrecht, und Heinrich VII. (Jena, 1860).
ALBERT II. (1397-1439), German king, king of Bohemia and Hungary, and (as Albert V.) duke of Austria, was born on the 10th of August 1397, the son of Albert IV. of Habsburg, duke of Austria. He succeeded to the duchy of Austria on his father's death in 1404. After receiving a good education, he undertook the government of Austria in 1411, and succeeded, with the aid of his advisers, in adding the duchy of the evils which had arisen during his minority. He assisted the German king, Sigismund, in his campaigns against the Hussites, and in 1422 married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sigismund, who designated him as his successor. When the German king died in 1437, Albert was crowned king of Hungary on the 1st of January 1438, and although crowned king of Bohemia six months later, he was unable to obtain possession of the country. He was engaged in warfare with the Bohemians and their Polish allies, when on the 18th of March 1438 he was chosen German king at Frankfort, an honour which he does not appear to have sought. Afterwards engaged in defending Hungary against the attacks of the Turks, he died on the 27th of October 1439 at Langendorf, and was buried at Stuhlweissenburg. Albert was an energetic and warlike prince, whose short reign gave great promise of usefulness lor Germany.
ALBERT (1490-1545), elector and archbishop of Mainz, and archbishop of Magdeburg, was the younger son of John Cicero, elector of Brandenburg, and was born on the 28th of June 1490. Having studied at the university of Frankfort-on-the-Oder, he entered the ecclesiastical profession, and in 1513 became archbishop of Magdeburg and administrator of the diocese of Halberstadt. In 1514 he obtained the electorate of Mainz, and in 1518 was made a cardinal. Meanwhile to pay for the pallium of the see of Mainz and to discharge the other expenses of his elevation, Albert had borrowed a large sum of money from the Fuggers, and had obtained permission from Pope Leo X. to conduct the sale of indulgences in his diocese to obtain funds to repay this loan. For this work he procured the services of John Tetzel, and so indirectly exercised a potent influence on the course of the Reformation. When the imperial election of 1519 drew near, the elector's vote was eagerly solicited by the partisans of Charles (afterwards the emperor Charles V.) and by those of Francis I., king of France, and he appears to have received a large amount of money for the vote which he cast eventually for Charles. Albert's large and liberal ideas, his friendship with Ulrich von Hutten, and his political ambitions, appear to have raised hopes that he would be won over to the reformed faith; but after the Peasants' War of 1525 he ranged himself definitely among the supporters of Catholicism, and was among the princes who met to concert measures for its defence at Dessau in July 1525. His hostility towards the reformers, however, was not so extreme as that of his brother Joachim I., elector of Brandenburg; and he appears to have exerted himself in the interests of peace, although he was a member of the league of Nuremberg, which was formed in 1538 as a counterpoise to the league of Schmalkalden. The new doctrines nevertheless made considerable progress in his dominions, and he was compelled to grant religious liberty to the inhabitants of Magdeburg in return for 500,000 florins. During his latter years indeed he showed more intolerance towards the Protestants, and favoured the teaching of the Jesuits in his dominions. Albert adorned the Stiftiskirche at Halle and the cathedral at Mainz in sumptuous fashion, and took as his motto the words Domine, dilexi decorem domus tuae. A generous patron of ait and learning, he counted Erasmus among his friends. He died at Aschaffenburg on the 24th of September 1545.
See I. H. Hennes, Albrecht von Brandenburg, ErzbischofvonMbinz und Magdeburg (Mai1iz, 1858); i. May, DerKuriurst, Kardinal, und Erzbischof Albrecht II. von Mainzunid Mogdeburg (Munich, 1865—1875ai co. Schum, KardinalAlbrecht von Mainz und die Erfurter Kirchenreformation(Halle, 1878); P. Redlich, Kardinal Albrecht vonBrandenburg, und das neue Stift zu Halte (Mainz, 1900).
ALBERT (1490-1568), Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, and first duke of Prussia, was the third son of Frederick of Hohenzollern, prince of Ansbach and Bayreuth, and Sophia, daughter of Casimir IV., king of Poland. Born at Ansbach on the 16th of May 1490, he was intended for the church, and passed some time at the court of Hermann, elector of Cologne, who appointed him to a canonry in his cathedral. Turning to a more active life, he accompanied the emperor Maximilian I. to Italy in 1508, and after his return spent some time in Hungary. In December, Frederick, grand master of the Teutonic Order, died, and Albert, joining the order, was chosen as his successor early in 1511 in the hope that his relationship to Sigismund I., king of Poland, would facilitate a settlement of the disputes over east Prussia, which had been held by the order under Polish suzerainty since 1466. The new master, however, showed no desire to be conciliatory, and as war appeared inevitable, he made strenuous efforts to secure allies, and carried on tedious negotiations with the emperor Maximilian I. The ill-feeling, influenced by the ravages of members of the order in Poland, culminated in a struggle which began in December 1519. During the ensuing year Prussia was devastated, and Albert consented early in 1521 to a truce for four years. The dispute was referred to the emperor Charles V. and other princes, but as no settlement was reached the master continued his efforts to obtain help in view of a renewal of the war. For this purpose he visited Nuremberg in 1522, where he made the acquaintance of the reformer, Andreas Osiander, by whose influence he was won over to the side of the new faith. He then journeyed to Wittenberg, where he was advised by Martin Luther to cast aside the senseless rules of his order, to marry, and to convert Prussia into an hereditary duchy for himself. This proposal, which commended itself to Albert, had already been discussed by some of his relatives; but it was necessary to proceed cautiously, and he assured Pope Adrian VI. that he was anxious to reform the order and punish the knights who had adopted Lutheran doctrines. Luther for his part did not stop at the suggestion, but in order to facilitate the change made special efforts to spread his teaching among the Prussians, while Albert's brother, George, prince of Ansbach, laid the scheme before Sigismund of Poland. After some delay the king assented to it provided that Prussia were held as a Polish fief; and after this arrangement had been confirmed by a treaty made at Cracow, Albert was invested with the duchy by Sigismund for himself and his heirs on the 10th of February 1525. The estates of the land then met at Konigsberg and took the oath of allegiance to the new duke, who used his full powers to forward the doctrines of Luther. This transition did not, however, take place without protest. Summoned before the imperial court of justice, Albert refused to appear and was placed under the ban; while the order, having deposed the grand master, made a feeble effort to recover Prussia. But as the German princes were either too busy or too indifferent to attack the duke, the agitation against him soon died away. In imperial politics Albert was fairly active. Joining the league of Torgau in 1526, he acted inunison with the Protestants, and was among the princes who banded themselves together to overthrow Charles V. after the issue of the Interim in May 1548. Forvarious reasons, however, poverty and personal inclination among others, he did not take a prominent part in the military operations of this period. The early years of Albert's rule in Prussia were faidy prosperous. Although he had some trouble with the peasantry, the lands and treasures of the church enabled him to propitiate the nobles and for a time to provide for the expenses of the court. He did something for the furtherance of learning by establishing schools in every town and by giving privileges to serfs who adopted a scholastic life. In 1544, in spite of some opposition, he founded a university at Konigsberg, where he appointed his friend Osiander to a professorship in 1549. This step was the beginning of the troubles which clouded the closing years of Albert's reign. Osiander's divergence from Luther's doctrine of justification by faith involved him in a violent quarrel with XIelanchthon, who had adherents in Konigsberg, and these theological disputes soon created an uproar in the town. The duke strenuously supported Osiander, and the area of the quarrel soon broadened. There were no longer church lands available with which to conciliate the nobles, the burden of taxation was heavy, and Albert's rule became unpopular. After Osiander's death in 1552 he favoured a preacher named John Funck, who, with an adventurer named Paul Scalich, exercised great influence over him and obtained considerable wealth at the public expense. The state of turmoil caused by these religious and political disputes was increased by the possibility of Albert's early death and the necessity in that event for a regency owing to the youth of his only son, Albert Frederick. The duke was consequently obliged to consent to a condemnation of the teaching of Osiander, and the climax came in 1566 when the estates appealed to Sigismund II., king of Poland, who sent a commission to Konigsberg. Scalich saved his life by flight, but Funck was executed; the question of the regency was settled; and a form of Lutheranism was adopted, and declared binding on all teachers and preachers. Virtually deprived of power, the duke lived for two years longer, and died at Tapiau on the 20th of March 1568. In 1526 he had married Dorothea, daughter of Frederick I., king of Denmark, and after her death in 1547, Anna Maria, daughter of Eric I., duke of Brunswick. Albert was a voluminous letterwriter, and corresponded with many of the leading personages of the time. In 1891 a statue was erected to his memory at Konigsberg.
See J. Voigt, Briefwechsel der beruhmtested Gelehrten desZeitalters der Reformation mit Herzog Albrecht von Preussen(Konigsberg, 1841); E. Joachim, Die Politik des letztenHochmeisters in Preussen, Albrecht von Brandenburg (Leipzig,1892); K. Lohmeyer, Herzog Albrecht von Preussen (Danzig, 1890).
ALBERT III. ( 1443-1500), duke of Saxony, surnamed ANIMOSUS or THE COURAGEOUS, younger son of Frederick II., the Mild, elector and duke of Saxony, was born on the 27th of January 1443, and after escaping from the hands of Kunz von Kaufungen, who had abducted him together with his brother Ernest, passed some time at the court of the emperor Frederick III. in Vienna. In 1464 he married Zedena, or Sidonia, daughter of George Podebrad, king of Bohemia, but failed to obtain the Bohemian Crown on the death of George in 1471. After the death of the elector Frederick in 1464, Albert and Ernest ruled their lands together, but in 1485 a division was made by the treaty of Leipzig, and Albert received Meissen, together,with some adjoining districts, and founded the Albertine branch of the family of Wettin. Regarded as a capable soldier by the emperor, Albert, in 1475, took a prominent part in the campaign against Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, and in 1487 led an expedition against Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, which failed owing to lack of support on the part of the emperor. In 1488 he marched with the imperial forces to free the Roman king Maximilian from his imprisonment at Bruges, and when, in 1489, the king returned to Germany, Albert was left as his representative to prosecute the war against the rebels. He was successful in restoring the authority of Maximilian in Holland, Flanders and Brabant, but failed to obtain any repayment of the large sums of money which he had spent in these campaigns. His services were rewarded in 1498 when Maximilian bestowed upon him the title of hereditary governor (potestat) of Friesland, but he had to make good his claim by force of arms. He had to a great extent succeeded, and was paying a visit to Saxony, when he was recalled by news of a fresh rising. Groningen was captured, but soon afterwards the duke died at Emden, on the 12th of September 1500. He was buried at Meissen. Albert, who was a man of great strength and considerable skill in feats of arms, delighted in tournaments and knightly exercises. His loyalty to the emperor Frederick, and the expenses incurred in this connexion, aroused some irritation among his subjects, but his rule was a period of prosperity in Saxony.
See F. A. von Langenn, Herzog Albrecht der Beherzte, Stammvater des koniglichen IIauses Sachsen (Leipzig, 1838); O. Sperling, Herzog Albrecht der Beherzte von Sachsen als Gubernator Frieslands (Leipzig, 1892).
ALBERT, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS, king of Saxony (18281902), was born on the 23rd of April 1828, being the eldest son of Prince John, who succeeded to the throne in 1854. His education was, as is usual with German princes, to a great extent military, but he attended lectures at the university of Bonn. His first experience of warfare was in 1849,'when he served as a captain in the campaign of Schleswig-Holstein against the Danes. When the war of 1866 broke out, the crown-prince was placed in command of the Saxon forces opposing the Prussian army of Prince Frederick Charles. No attempt was made to defend Saxony; the Saxons fell back into Bohemia and effected a junction with the Austrians. They took a prominent part in the battles by which the Prussians forced the line of the Iser and in the battle of Gitchin. The crown-prince, however, succeeded in effecting the retreat in good order, and in the decisive battle of Koniggratz (see SEVEN WEEKS' WAR) he held the extreme loft of the Austrian position. The Saxons maintained their post with great tenacity, but were involved in the disastrous defeat of their allies. During these operations the crown-prince won the reputation of a thorough soldier; after peace was made and Saxony had entered the North German confederation, he was placed in command of the Saxon army, which had now become the XII. army corps of the North German army, and in this position carried out the necessary reorganization. He was a firm adherent of the Prussian alliance. On the outbreak of war in 1870 he again commanded the Saxons, who were included in the 2nd army under Prince Frederick Charles, his old opponent. At the battle of Gravelotte they formed the extreme left of the German army, and with the Prussian Guard carried out the attack on St Privat, the final and decisive action in the battle. In the reorganization of the army which accompanied the march towards Paris the crown-prince was given a separate command over the 4th army (army of the Meuse) consisting of the Saxons, the Prussian Guard corps and the IV. (Prussian Saxony) corps. He was succeeded in command of the XII. corps by his brother Prince George, who had served under him in Bohemia. He took a leading part in the operations which preceded the battle of Sedan, the 4th army being the pivot on which the whole army wheeled round in pursuit of Macmahon; and the actions of Buzancy and Beaumont on the 29th and 30th of August were fought under his direction; in the battle of Sedan itself, with the troops under his orders, he carried out the envelopment of the French on the east and north. His conduct in these engagements won for him the complete confidence of the army, and during the siege of Paris his troops formed the north-east section of the investing force. After the conclusion of the armistice he was left in command of the German army of occupation, a position which he held till the fall of the Commune. On the conclusion of peace he was made an inspector-general of the army and field-marshal. On the death of his father on the 29th of October 1873 he succeeded to the throne. His reign was uneventful, and he took little public part in politics, devoting himself to military affairs, in which his advice and experielice were of the greatest value, not only to the Saxon corps but to the German army in general. In 1897 he was appointed arbitrator between the claimants for the principality of Lippe. King Albert married in 1853 Carola, daughter of Prince Gustavus of Vasa, and granddaughter of the last king of Sweden of the house of Holstein. He died on the 19th of June 1902.
ALBERT, surnamed THE DEGENERATE (c. 1240-1314), landgrave of Thuringia, was the eldest son of Henry III., the Illustrious, margrave of Meissen. He married Margaret, daughter of the emperor Frederick II., in 1254, and in 1265 received from his father Thuringia and the Saxon palatinate. His infatuation for Kunigunde of Eisenberg caused his wife to leave him, and after her death in 1270 he married Kunigunde, who had already borne him a son, Apitz or Albert. He wished to make Apitz his successor in Thuringia, a plan which was resisted by his two elder sons, and a war broke out which lasted until 1307, when he abandoned Thuringia, in return for a yearly payment, but retained the title of landgrave (see THURINGIA.) Albert, who had married Elizabeth, daughter of Hermann III., count of Orlamunde, after the death of his second wife in 1286, died on the 13th of November 1314.
See F. X. Wegele, Friedrich der Friedige, Markgraf vonMeissen, und die Wettiner seiner Zeit (Nordlingen,1820); F. W. Tittmann, Geschichte Heinirich desErlauchten Markgraven zu Meissen (Leipzig, 1863).
ALBERT (FRIEDRICH RUDOLF ALBRECHT), ARCHDUKE (1817-1895), Austrian field-marshal, was the eldest son of the archduke Charles (Karl Friedrich), and was born on the 3rd of August 1817 at Vienna. After being educated under the careful superintendence of his father, he entered the Austrian (H.K.) army as a colonel of infantry in 1837, and was transferred to the cavalry arm in 1839, becoming a major-general in 1840. A brief period of leave in this year he spent at the great n:an0-uvres in Italy, to learn the art of troop-leading from the first soldier in Europe, Radetzky. He then took over the command of a brigade of all arms at Graz. In 1844 he married Trincess Hildegarde of Bavaria. He had been made a lieutenant field-marshal in the previous year, and was now placed in command of the forces in Upper and Lower Austria. In this position he did much to maintain and improve the efficiency of the troops under his command, at a time when nearly all armies in Europe, with the exception of Radetzky's in Italy, had sunk to the lowest level. The influence of Radetzky over the young archduke was indeed remarkable. At this time the Austrian generals and staff officers had committed themselves blindly to the strategical method of the archduke Charles, the tradition of whose practical soldiership survived only in Radetzky and a few others. Albert chose to follow the latter, and was thus saved from the pseudoscientific pedantry which brought defeat to the Austrian arms in 1359 and in 1866. His first serious service came in March 1848, when it became his duty, as district commander, to maintain order in Vienna by force, and at the outbreak of revolution in Vienna during the month of March he was in command of the troops who came into collision with the rioters. Owing to the collapse of the government it was impossible to repress the disturbances, and he was relieved from a post which brought much unpopularity and was not suitable to be held by a member of the imperial family. He went at once to the seat of war in Italy, and fought under Radetzky as a volunteer throughout the campaign of 1848, being present at the action of bastrengo and the battles of Santa Lucia and Custozza. In the following campaign he applied for and obtained the command of a division in the II. corps (FZM. d'Aspre), though his previous grade had been that of a general commanding-in-chief. The splendid fighting of the corps at Novara was decisive of the war, and Radetzky named d'Aspre, Count Thurn, and the archduke as the general officers worthy of the greatest rewards. The field-marshal indeed recommended, and almost insisted, that Albert should receive the much-prized order of Maria Theresa. In 1850 he became a general of cavalry, and in 1851 military and civil governor of Hungary. In this important and difficult position he remained until 1860, when he was relieved at his own request. Shortly afterwards he was appointed to succeed Radetzky as commander-in-chief in Italy, and in 1863 he was promoted field-marshal. In the following year the archduke lost his wife, soon after the marriage of their elder daughter to Duke Philip of Wurttemberg. In 1859 and 1864 he was sent on important military and diplomatic missions to Berlin. When war became imminent in 1866, the archduke took command of the field army in Italy. The story of the campaign of 1866 in Italy will be found under ITALIAN WARS (1848-1870); the operations of the archduke, who disposed of greatly inferior forces, were crowned with success in the brilliant victory of Custozza (June 23), and his reputation as a general-in-chief was firmly established by only eight days of field operations, though it is possible that his chief of staff, Lieut. Field-Marshal von John, contributed not a little to the success of the Austrian arms. The result of Custozza was the retreat and complete immobilization of the whole Italian army, so that Albert was able to despatch the greater part of his troops to reinforce the Bohemian army, when, after being defeated by the Prussians, it fell back on Vienna. On the 10th of July the archduke was summoned to Vienna to take supreme command of the forces which were being collected to defend the capital, but peace was made before further hostilities took place. From this time, under various titles, he acted as inspector-general of the army. Like his father, and with better fortune, he was called upon to reorganize the military system of his country on an entirely new pian, learned, as before, by defeat. The principle of universal short service, and the theory of the armed nation, were necessarily the groundwork of the reforms, and the consequent preparation of all the national resources for their task in war, by the superintendence of peace administration, by the skilful conduct of man0-uvres, was thenceforward the task of his lifetime. In 1870 he conducted the military negotiatio:1s preparatory to an alliance with France, which, however, was not concluded. The tragic death of his daughter, Princess Mathilde, in 1867, and the death of his brother, Archduke Karl Ferdinand, in 1874, narrowed still further his family circle, and impelled him to even greater activity in his military duties, and to effective participation in the work of many military charities. IUe retained personal control of the army until his last illness, which he contracted at the funeral of his nephew Francis, ex-king of Naples. His only remaining brother, the archduke Wilhelm, had died a few months before, as the result of an accident. He himself died on the 18th of February 1895. His only son died in childhood, and his nephew Archduke Frederick (born 1856) inherited his great possessions, including the Albertina, a famous collection of books, manuscripts, engravings and maps, founded by Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen.
Amongst the military works of the Archduke Albert may be named Uber die Verantworllichkeil im Kriege (a work which created a great sensation, and was translated into English and French), Gledanken uber dem Militargeist, Uber die hohere Heitung im Kriege, and Kritische Betrachtunger uber den Feldzug 1866 in Italien. He also was the principal editor of the military works of his father.
See Duncker, F. M. Erzherzog Albrecht (Vienna and Prague, 189; Mathes v. Bilabruck, ``Gedenkrede auf Weiland Sr. K. u. K. H. Erzh. Albrecht,'' Mil.-Wissenschaftl. Verein, 1895; Teuber, F. M. Erzh. Albrecht, ein Lebensbild (Vienna, 1895).
ALBERT, MADAME (c. 1805-1846), French actress, whose maiden name was Theresc Vernet, was born of a family of players. She first appeared in children's and ingenile parts, and in comic opera, and it was not until 1827, two years after her Paris debut, that her great talents were seen and appreciated. In Caleb Valentine, Henry V., Madame Dubarry, Catherine II., Leontine,, Un duel sous le cardinal de Richelieu, and many other plays, her grace, beauty and distinction of manner made her the idol of Paris, and her circle of admirers was widened by long tours of the provinces and abroad. Ill-health compelled her to retire in 1846. She was twice married, about 1825 to Albert Rodrigues, an actor who played under his Christian name, and in 1846 to Eugene Bignon (1812-1858), the actor and playwright.
ALBERT OF AIX (fl. c. A.D. 1100), historian of the first crusade, was born during the later part of the 11th century, and afterwards became canon and custos of the church of Aix-la-Chapelle. Nothing else is known of his life except that he was the author of a Historia Hierosolymitanae expeditionis, or Chronicon Hierosolymitanum de bello sacro, a work in twelve books, written between 1125 and 1150. This history begins at the time of the council of Clermont, deals with the fortunes of the first crusade and the earlier history of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, and ends somewhat abruptly in 1121. It was well known during the middle ages, and was largely used by William, archbishop of Tyre, for the first six books of his Belli sacri historia. In modern times its historical value has been seriously impugned, but the verdict of the best scholarship seems to be that in general it forms a true record of the events of the first crusade, although containing some legendary matter. Albert never visited the Holy Land, but he appears to have had a considerable amount of intercourse with returned crusaders, and to have had access to valuable correspondence. The first edition of the history was published at Helmstadt in 1584, and a good edition is in the Recueil des historiens des croisades, tome iv. (Paris, 1841-1887).