Prince Albert Casimir of Saxony, Duke of Teschen (11 July 1738 – 10 February 1822) was a Saxon prince from the

House of Wettin The House of Wettin () was a dynasty which included Saxon monarch, kings, Prince Elector, prince-electors, dukes, and counts, who once ruled territories in the present-day German federated states of Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The dynas ...

who married into the

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (; ), also known as the House of Austria, was one of the most powerful dynasties in the history of Europe and Western civilization. They were best known for their inbreeding and for ruling vast realms throughout Europe d ...

imperial family. He was noted as an art collector and founded the

Albertina The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt (First District) of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well ...

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, one of the largest and finest collections of

old master print An old master print (also spaced masterprint) is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition (mostly by Old Masters). The term remains current in the art trade, and there is no easy alternative in English to distingu ...

s and

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

s in the world.

Biography

Albert was a younger son of King

Augustus III of Poland Augustus III (; – "the Saxon"; ; 17 October 1696 5 October 1763) was List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as List of rulers of Saxony, Elector of Saxony i ...

(who was also

Elector of Saxony The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony ( or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356 to 1806 initially centred on Wittenberg that came to include areas around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz. It was a ...

) and his wife,

Maria Josepha of Austria Maria Josepha of Austria (Maria Josepha Benedikta Antonia Theresia Xaveria Philippine, , ; 8 December 1699 – 17 November 1757) was the List of Polish consorts, Queen of Poland, Grand Duchess of Lithuania and List of Saxon royal consorts, Elec ...

, a first cousin of Empress Maria Theresa, being the eldest daughter of

Emperor Joseph I Joseph I (Joseph Jacob Ignaz Johann Anton Eustachius; 26 July 1678 – 17 April 1711) was Holy Roman Emperor and ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1705 until his death in 1711. He was the eldest son of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor from his thi ...

. Prince Albert of Saxony, Duke of Teschen, was also one of the godparents to his namesake,

Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Franz August Karl Albert Emanuel; 26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861) was the husband of Queen Victoria. As such, he was consort of the British monarch from Wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, th ...

. Young Albert was specifically chosen by

Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen (Maria Christina Johanna Josepha Antonia; 13 May 1742 – 24 June 1798), was the fifth child of Maria Theresa of Austria and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. Married in 1766 to Prince Prince Albert of Saxony ...

to be her husband, after her romance with Louis Eugen of Württemberg. This was a special favour granted by her mother, Empress

Maria Theresa of Austria Maria Theresa (Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the ruler of the Habsburg monarchy from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position in her own right. She was the sovereig ...

, because marriages of imperial children were usually used for diplomatic purposes. Still, the betrothal and wedding had to wait until the death of her father, Emperor Francis I, and the wedding decorations were black because it occurred during the official mourning period after his death. From his father-in-law's estate, Albert received the territory of Teschen in

Austrian Silesia Austrian Silesia, officially the Duchy of Upper and Lower Silesia, was an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Habsburg monarchy (from 1804 the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 the Cisleithanian portion of Austria-Hungary). It is la ...

and was accordingly given the title of ''Duke of Teschen.'' The Silesian

Duchy of Teschen The Duchy of Teschen (), also Duchy of Cieszyn () or Duchy of Těšín (), was one of the Duchies of Silesia centered on Cieszyn () in Upper Silesia. It was split off the Silesian Duchy of Opole and Racibórz in 1281 during the feudal divisio ...

had been inherited by Emperor Francis through his father's Gonzaga ancestry, as compensation for the lost

Duchy of Montferrat The Duchy of Montferrat was a state located in Northern Italy. It was created out of what was left of the medieval March of Montferrat after the last Palaeologus heir had died (1533) and the margraviate had been briefly controlled by the Emperor ...

, taken from them in favor of the dukes of Savoy. Archduchess Maria Christina, the daughter of Francis of Lorraine, received the duchy among her dowry. Prince Albert of Saxony thus became the Duke of Teschen, the only non-Habsburg to become such after the title passed into Habsburg control. Their only daughter; *Princess Maria Theresia Josepha Johanna Nepomucena of Saxony (b.

, 16 May 1767 - d.

, 17 May 1767) died in infancyhttps://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00013818&tree=LEO Upon the death of the widowed Albert in 1822, Teschen was granted to their adopted son,

Archduke Charles of Austria Archduke Charles Louis John Joseph Lawrence of Austria, Duke of Teschen (; 5 September 177130 April 1847) was an Austrian Empire, Austrian field marshal, the third son of Emperor Leopold II and his wife, Maria Luisa of Spain. He was also the youn ...

, who became Duke of Teschen and started the Habsburg-Lorraine branch of Dukes of Teschen. Albert was royal governor of

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

from 1765 to 1781, with his seat at

Bratislava Castle Bratislava Castle (, ; ; ) is the main castle of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. The massive rectangular building with four corner towers stands on an isolated rocky hill of the Little Carpathians, directly above the Danube river, in ...

and his summer residence in

Halbturn Halbturn () is a town in the district of Neusiedl am See in the Austrian state of Burgenland. It borders Hungary to the east and is near Andau, Gols, and Mönchof. History In 2008 a team of archeologists discovered a third-century AD amulet i ...

Castle at Neusiedl. He was then made Governor of the Austrian Netherlands, along with his wife. In

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, they built a palace in

Laeken (French language, French, ) or (Dutch language, Dutch, ) is a residential suburb in the north-western part of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. It belongs to the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, municipality of the ...

(the present-day home of the

Belgian royal family The monarchy of Belgium is the constitutional and hereditary institution of the monarchical head of state of the Kingdom of Belgium. As a popular monarchy, the Belgian monarch uses the title king/queen of the Belgians and serves as the ...

) as their seat. There, he assembled the beginnings of his vast art collection, which he took with him when the couple had to flee from Brussels to

in 1793, due to the French Revolution and following his military defeat by invasion forces at the

Battle of Jemappes The Battle of Jemappes (6 November 1792) took place near the town of Jemappes in Hainaut, Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium), near Mons during the War of the First Coalition, part of the French Revolutionary Wars. One of the first major off ...

. In Vienna, a palace adjoining the

Hofburg The Hofburg () is the former principal imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty in Austria. Located in the Innere Stadt, center of Vienna, it was built in the 13th century by Ottokar II of Bohemia and expanded several times afterwards. It also ser ...

, originally designed by Emanuel Teles Silva-Tarouca, was enlarged for them by architect Louis Montoyer. That palace is today called the

, after Albert, and houses the collection he started. Only two-thirds of his collection survives, because one of the cargo ships bringing it from Brussels sank ''en route''. After his return to Vienna, he used as an advisor Adam von Bartsch, the Curator of the Imperial prints collection and the greatest prints scholar of his age. After the early death of his wife in 1798 of

typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...

, Albert lived only for his art collection, which he bequeathed to his nephew and adopted son,

. Next door to his palace, in the '' Augustinerkirche'', Albert had a famous memorial to his wife carved by

Antonio Canova Antonio Canova (; 1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822) was an Italians, Italian Neoclassical sculpture, Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists,. his sculpture was ins ...

. The couple are buried in tombs 111 and 112 in the Tuscan Vault of the

Imperial Crypt The Imperial Crypt (), also called the Capuchin Crypt (''Kapuzinergruft''), is a burial chamber beneath the Capuchin Church and monastery in Vienna, Austria. It was founded in 1618 and dedicated in 1632, and located on the Neuer Markt square of ...

in Vienna, with their hearts in urns 40 and 28 in the nearby Herzgruft, and their viscera in urns 75 and 63 of the Ducal Crypt in Vienna's cathedral.

Ancestry

References

External links

Albertina Museum
(in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Albert Of Teschen, Duke, Prince 1738 births 1822 deaths People from Moritzburg People from the Electorate of Saxony German Roman Catholics Saxon princes Polish Prince Royals Dukes of Teschen House of Habsburg-Lorraine House of Wettin Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands German art collectors 18th-century art collectors 18th-century German philanthropists 19th-century art collectors Knights of the Golden Fleece of Spain Burials at the Imperial Crypt Burials at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna Albertine branch Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland) Sons of kings Art collectors from the Holy Roman Empire Sons of prince-electors