**ALBERT I** (ALBRECHT), King of Germany and Duke of Austria. — Born c. 1248, eldest son of RUDOLF I of Habsburg. A strong and warlike man, an excellent administrator, he soon knew how to assert, both as duke in Austria (from 1252) and as king in Germany (from 1298), the rights of the crown against the many feudal lords, great and small, lay and ecclesiastical. His figure, deliberately portrayed by chroniclers according to their party, is still debated on certain points.
His personal life was above reproach; he lived in a happy marriage and had twenty-one children. In Austria, where he inaugurated the centuries-long dominion of the House of Habsburg, he had to overcome, after a long interregnum and the previous contests of pretenders, no small difficulties; he reformed the administration, restored the rights of the duke, and suppressed the nobles’ ambitions. In Germany, opposed by five electors (1298) to King ADOLPH of Nassau, he defeated him at Göllheim and was unanimously re-elected. BONIFACE VIII recognized him only in 1303. ALBERT fought, in favor of the free cities along the Rhine, against the dominant electors in those parts. He also reaffirmed sovereign rights in Germany against the manifold claims of the lords. He was assassinated by his nephew JOHN, called “the Parricide,” in 1308.