ALBERTO of Brandenburg-Ansbach, first duke of PRUSSIA. – Born on 16 May 1490 at Ansbach, died on 20 March 1568 at Tapiau. Destined for an ecclesiastical career, he entered the Teutonic Knights, and scarcely twenty years old, on 14 December 1510, was elected their grand master, the last of the Order. Installed on 22 December 1511, he continued the policy of his predecessor, Federico of Saxony, and sought to make himself independent of Poland. He refused to take the oath of vassalage, whereupon an unsuccessful war followed against the Poles, who devastated his territory from 1519 until 1521, when a four-year truce was concluded. A. took advantage of this to go to Germany to ask the German princes for help. His stay in Nuremberg in 1522 marked the beginning of his orientation toward the Lutheran reform, especially under the influence of Lazaro Spengler and the preaching of Andrea Oesander. Returning to Prussia the following year, he had several evangelical preachers sent to him by Luther, with whom he maintained a continuous correspondence. Having himself publicly embraced the new confession and laid down the office of 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 Polish vassalage by the Treaty of Kraków of 8 April 1525. This was followed by the systematic Protestantization of the entire duchy, where the Teutonic Order was condemned to disappear. In 1526, A. married Dorotea, daughter of Federico, king of Denmark. This was the first Protestant marriage among the Hohenzollerns. In 1544 A. founded a university, the Albertina, in the capital Königsberg, which became a centre of the new religion.
I, coll. 1546-50; H. Lang, Die Einführung der Reformation in Preussen, in Neue Kirchl. Zeitschr., 1925, pp. 845-894.