ALBERTO D'AUSTRIA

ALBERT of Austria. — Cardinal, son of Emperor Maximilian II, born at Neustadt in 1559, died at Brussels in 1621. He was soon sent to the court of Philip II of Spain to be educated in the genuine Habsburg tradition and to maintain closer ties between the two branches of the House. He was proposed for the purple by his father and his great cousin, and was decorated with it by Gregory XIII in 1577. He was Archbishop of Toledo, an excellent prelate for the integrity of his morals and for his reforming activity. When Philip II set his sights on him to make him the head of the Low Countries, which needed pacification and reorganization with a view to restoring them, at least nominally, to the longed-for independence, he was released from his ecclesiastical vows and given as a husband to Isabella of Austria, lady of those lands. He contended with France, from which he wrested Calais, Amiens and other important strongholds, then fought against Holland and finally attempted to reconcile his State with that country. Under his command, Ambrogio Spinola fought in the Low Countries. He was an excellent head of State; but he did not succeed, as he should have and as people expected of him, in securing independence for the kingdom of Belgium, not so much because he left no direct descendants, but because, by inclination and by will, he kept Belgium as a fief of Spain. He should not, however, be judged, as is usually done, with the ideas of the 19th and 20th centuries, i.e., as a reactionary.