ALBERTO DI BRANDEBURGO-ANSBACH, PRIMO DUCA DI PRUSSIA

ALBERT of Brandenburg-Ansbach, first Duke of Prussia. — Born 16 May 1490 at Ansbach; died 20 March 1568 at Tapiau. Destined for an ecclesiastical career, he entered the Teutonic Knights, and at the age of twenty, on 14 December 1510, he was elected Grand Master, the last of the Order. Installed on 22 December 1511, he continued the policy of his predecessor, Frederick of Saxony, and sought to make himself independent of Poland. He refused to swear the oath of vassalage, which led to an unfortunate war against the Poles who devastated his territory from 1519 until 1521, when a four-year armistice was concluded. Albert took advantage of this to go to Germany to seek help from the German princes. His stay in Nuremberg in 1522 marked the beginning of his orientation toward the Lutheran Reformation, especially under the influence of Lazarus Spengler and the preaching of Andreas Osiander. Returning the following year to Prussia, he had Lutheran preachers sent to him by Luther, with whom he maintained continuous correspondence. Having publicly converted to the new confession and resigned his office as Grand Master, he had himself created and recognized as head of East Prussia, transforming the religious state of the Teutonic Order into a temporal duchy, placed under the vassalage of Poland by the Treaty of Cracow on 8 April 1525. This was followed by the systematic Protestantization of the entire duchy, where the Teutonic Order was condemned to disappear. In 1526, Albert married Dorothea, daughter of Frederick, King of Denmark. This was the first Protestant marriage among the Hohenzollerns. In 1544, Albert founded a university, the Albertina, in the capital Königsberg, which became a center of the new faith.