Albert I (; c. 1175 – 7 October 1260) was a Duke of

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

Angria Angria or Angaria (german: Engern, ) is a historical region in the present-day German states of Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia. The chronicler Widukind of Corvey in his '' Res gestae saxonicae sive annalium libri tres'' denoted i ...

, and

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regi ...

; Lord of Nordalbingia; Count of Anhalt; and

Prince-elector The prince-electors (german: Kurfürst pl. , cz, Kurfiřt, la, Princeps Elector), or electors for short, were the members of the electoral college that elected the Holy Roman Emperor, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. From the 13th century ...

and Archmarshal of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

. Even though his grandfather Albert the Bear had held the Saxon dukedom between 1138 and 1142, this Albert is counted as the first.

Biography

A member of the

House of Ascania The House of Ascania (german: Askanier) was a dynasty of German rulers. It is also known as the House of Anhalt, which refers to its longest-held possession, Anhalt. The Ascanians are named after Ascania (or Ascaria) Castle, known as ''Schlos ...

, Albert was a younger son of Bernard III, Duke of Saxony, and Judith (Jutta) of Poland, daughter of Mieszko III the Old. After his father's death in 1212, the surviving sons of the late duke divided his lands according to the laws of the House of Ascania: The elder Henry received Anhalt and the younger Albert the Saxon duchy. Albert supported

Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV (1175 – 19 May 1218) was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1209 until his death in 1218. Otto spent most of his early life in England and France. He was a follower of his uncle Richard the Lionheart, who made him Count of Poitou in 1 ...

, in his wars against the

Hohenstaufen The Hohenstaufen dynasty (, , ), also known as the Staufer, was a noble family of unclear origin that rose to rule the Duchy of Swabia from 1079, and to royal rule in the Holy Roman Empire during the Middle Ages from 1138 until 1254. The dynast ...

. In 1218, Albert's maternal uncle Prince-Archbishop Valdemar of Denmark, who had been deposed from his Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen, found refuge in Saxony, before he joined the Loccum Abbey as monk. On 22 July 1227, Albert I asserted as fellow victor in the Battle of Bornhöved, commanding the Holy Roman left flank, his earlier disputed rank as

liege lord Homage (from Medieval Latin , lit. "pertaining to a man") in the Middle Ages was the ceremony in which a feudal tenant or vassal pledged reverence and submission to his feudal lord, receiving in exchange the symbolic title to his new position ( ...

of the

Counts of Schauenburg and Holstein The Counts of Schauenburg and Holstein were titles of the Frankish Empire. The dynastic family came from the County of Schauenburg near Rinteln (district Schaumburg) on the Weser in Germany. Together with its ancestral possessions in Bückebur ...

, a privilege, however, lost by his successor John V in 1474. After Bornhöved Albert reinforced and extended his fortress and castle in Lauenburg upon Elbe, which his father Bernard had erected in 1182. Albert came into conflict with Ludolph I,

Prince-Bishop of Ratzeburg The Diocese of Ratzeburg (german: Bistum Ratzeburg, la, Dioecesis Ratzeburgensis) is a former diocese of the Catholic Church. It was erected from the Diocese of Oldenburg c. 1050 and was suppressed in 1554. The diocese was originally a suffragan ...

, and duly imprisoned Ludolph, where he was badly beaten, and later sent into exile. After Albert's death at Lehnin Abbey, his sons, the elder

John I John I may refer to: People * John I (bishop of Jerusalem) * John Chrysostom (349 – c. 407), Patriarch of Constantinople * John of Antioch (died 441) * Pope John I, Pope from 523 to 526 * John I (exarch) (died 615), Exarch of Ravenna * John ...

and the younger Albert II, ruled together as Dukes of Saxony, with John succeeded by his three sons Albert III, Eric I and John II, until before 20 September 1296 they split Saxony into Saxe-Lauenburg and Saxe-Wittenberg, with the brothers jointly ruling the former, and Albert II ruling the latter.Cordula Bornefeld, "Die Herzöge von Sachsen-Lauenburg", in: ''Die Fürsten des Landes: Herzöge und Grafen von Schleswig, Holstein und Lauenburg''

e slevigske hertuger; German E, or e, is the fifth Letter (alphabet), letter and the second vowel#Written vowels, vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worl ...

Carsten Porskrog Rasmussen (ed.) on behalf of the Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, Neumünster: Wachholtz, 2008, pp. 373-389, here p. 375.

Marriages and issue

In 1222, Albert married Agnes of Austria (*1206–before 29 August 1226*) daughter of Duke Leopold VI of Austria * Bernard (d. after 1238) * Judith of Saxony, (1) ∞ 17 November 1239 King Eric IV of Denmark (*1216–1250*); and (2) ∞ Burchard VIII of Querfurt- Rosenburg, Burgrave of Magdeburg (1273–1313 recorded) * Ann Mary (Anna Marie; d. 7 January 1252), ∞ Duke Barnim I of

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to t ...

* Bridget (Brigitte Jutta) (d. 4 April 1266), fiancée of Otto of Brunswick and Lunenburg, ∞ before 1255 Margrave

of Brandenburg ounder of the Johannean line Brandenburg-Stendal* Mathilde (Mechthild) (d. 28 July 1266), ∞ ca. 1241 Count John I of Schauenburg and Holstein-Kiel In 1238, Albert married Agnes of Thuringia (*1205–1246*), daughter of Landgrave

Hermann I of Thuringia Hermann I (died 25 April 1217), Landgrave of Thuringia and (as Hermann III) Count Palatine of Saxony, was the second son of Louis II, Landgrave of Thuringia (''the Iron''), and Judith of Hohenstaufen, the sister of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa ...

* Agnes, ∞ Duke Henry III of Silesia- Breslau * Jutta, ∞ m. 1255, John I, Margrave of Brandenburg; 2m: Burkhard VIII of Rosenburg, Burgrave of Magdeburg * Margaret (d. 1265), ∞ 1264 Count Helmold III of

Schwerin Schwerin (; Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the capital and second-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as of the region of Mecklenburg, after Rostock. ...

In 1247, Albert married

Helene of Brunswick-Lüneburg Helene or Hélène may refer to: People * Helene (given name), a Greek feminine given name *Helen of Troy, the daughter of Zeus and Leda *Helene, a figure in Greek mythology who was a friend of Aphrodite and helped her seduce Adonis * Helene ( ...

(*1231–6 September 1273*), daughter of Duke

Otto the Child Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', '' Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorde ...

* Helene (*1247–12 June 1309*), (1) ∞ in 1266 Duke

Henry III the White Henry III the White ( pl, Henryk III Biały) ( – 3 December 1266), a member of the Silesian Piasts, was Duke of Silesia at Wrocław from 1248 until his death, as co-ruler with his brother Władysław. Life He was the third son of the Polish hig ...

of Silesia- Breslau, and (2) ∞ in 1275 Burgrave Frederick III of Nuremberg * Elisabeth (d. before 2 February 1306), (1) ∞ in 1250 Count

of Schauenburg and Holstein-Kiel, (2) ∞ in 1265 Count Conrad I of

Brehna Brehna is a town and a former municipality in the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 July 2009, it is part of the town Sandersdorf-Brehna. It is situated southwest of Bitterfeld. Important in this city is the chur ...

(* after 1248–30 July 1285*, in Wittenberg upon Elbe), co-ruling Duke of Saxony with his younger brother Albert II, resigned in 1282, John I married in 1257 Ingeborg Birgersdotter of Småland (*1247/or ca. 1253–1302*), daughter or grandchild of Birger jarl * Albert (Albrecht) II (*1250–25 August 1298*), co-ruling Duke of Saxony with his elder brother John II (till 1282), then with the sons of the latter (till 1296), then as the sole duke of the partitioned branch duchy Saxe-Wittenberg, ∞ in 1273 Agnes (aka Hagne) (*c. 1257–11 October 1322*, in Wittenberg), daughter of King Rudolph I of Germany * Rudolf (d. after 1269), ∞ Anna, daughter of Count Palatine Louis of Bavaria

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albert 01, Duke of Saxony Albert 01 1170s births 1260 deaths Year of birth uncertain Christians of the Fifth Crusade