Albert II, Duke of Austria
Encyclopedia
Albert II of Austria known as the Wise or the Lame, was Duke of Austria.

Life

Albert II was born at Habsburg
Habsburg, Switzerland
Habsburg is a municipality in the district of Brugg in canton of Aargau in Switzerland. It lies about three kilometres southwest of the town of Brugg, the capital of the district of Brugg...

, the son of Albert I of Germany
Albert I of Germany
Albert I of Habsburg was King of the Romans and Duke of Austria, the eldest son of German King Rudolph I of Habsburg and his first wife Gertrude of Hohenburg.-Life:...

, Rex Romanorum
King of the Romans
King of the Romans was the title used by the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire following his election to the office by the princes of the Kingdom of Germany...

, and Elisabeth of Tirol
Elisabeth of Tirol
Elisabeth of Gorizia-Tyrol from the House of Meinhardin was Queen of the Romans, Queen of Germany and Duchess of Austria by marriage...

. He became the joint ruler of all Habsburg
Habsburg
The House of Habsburg , also found as Hapsburg, and also known as House of Austria is one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian Empire and...

 lands with his younger brother, Otto the Merry
Otto, Duke of Austria
Otto IV, the Merry was a Duke of Austria and the youngest son of Albert I of Germany and Elisabeth of Tirol.Otto was born in Vienna. He had two brothers, namely Frederick the Handsome and Albert II...

 in 1330, while increasing his possessions by the inheritance of his wife Joan, which was made up of the County of Pfirt and several cities.

Furthermore, Albert succeeded in establishing his claims on Carinthia and Carniola
Carniola
Carniola was a historical region that comprised parts of what is now Slovenia. As part of Austria-Hungary, the region was a crown land officially known as the Duchy of Carniola until 1918. In 1849, the region was subdivided into Upper Carniola, Lower Carniola, and Inner Carniola...

 against John of Bohemia. Reflecting his high reputation among the secular and Church leaders of Europe, in 1335 Pope Benedict XII
Pope Benedict XII
Pope Benedict XII , born Jacques Fournier, the third of the Avignon Popes, was Pope from 1334 to 1342.-Early life:...

 asked him to mediate
Mediation
Mediation, as used in law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution , a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties. A third party, the mediator, assists the parties to negotiate their own settlement...

 in the church's conflict with Emperor Louis the Bavarian
Louis IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Louis IV , called the Bavarian, of the house of Wittelsbach, was the King of Germany from 1314, the King of Italy from 1327 and the Holy Roman Emperor from 1328....

. Two years later, King Philip VI of France
Philip VI of France
Philip VI , known as the Fortunate and of Valois, was the King of France from 1328 to his death. He was also Count of Anjou, Maine, and Valois from 1325 to 1328...

 1337 asked him for help against Emperor Louis and King Edward III of England
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...

. Nevertheless, Albert remained faithful to the Emperor until Louis' death.

He established the "Albertinian House Rule" (Albertinische Hausordnung) to predetermine the rules of succession in the Austrian lands, although the rule was disregarded after his death until renewed by Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor
Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...

. Adopted as part of the Pragmatic Sanction
Pragmatic sanction
A pragmatic sanction is a sovereign's solemn decree on a matter of primary importance and has the force of fundamental law. In the late history of the Holy Roman Empire it referred more specifically to an edict issued by the Emperor....

, the Albertinian House Rule effectively remained one of the basic laws of Austria until 1918. Styria owes him its (former) constitution, the so-called "Mountain Book" (Bergbüchel); the same is true for Carinthia.

Albert began the construction of the Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 Choir in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, known as the Albertinian Choir. It has been speculated that he had temporal paralysis (explaining his nickname "Albert the Lame") caused by polyarthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disorder that may affect many tissues and organs, but principally attacks synovial joints. The process produces an inflammatory response of the synovium secondary to hyperplasia of synovial cells, excess synovial fluid, and the development...

. If so, however, it did not prevent him from fathering four children: Rudolf, who succeeded him as duke, Frederick (2nd Duke), Albert III (3rd Duke), and Leopold (3rd co-Duke).

Albert died at Vienna in 1358 and was buried in a monastery of his own foundation, Gaming Charterhouse
Gaming Charterhouse
Gaming Charterhouse is a former Carthusian monastery in Gaming near Scheibbs in the Mostviertel of Lower Austria.The monastery was founded in 1330 by Albert II, Duke of Austria, who intended it as a dynastic burial place. He himself was buried there after his death in 1358, as was his wife Johanna...

 in Lower Austria.

Family and children

He married 15 February 1324 Countess Johanna of Pfirt, daughter of Count Ulrich III of Pfirt and had the following children:
  1. Rudolf IV of Austria 1 November 1339, Vienna
    Vienna
    Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

     – 27 July 1365, Milan
    Milan
    Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

    ). Married but line extinct.
  2. Frederick III of Austria (1347, Vienna – 1362, Vienna). Died unmarried.
  3. Albert III of Austria (9 September 1349, Vienna – 29 August 1395, Castle Laxenburg
    Laxenburg
    Laxenburg is a town in the district of Mödling in the Austrian state of Lower Austria, near Vienna.- History :The place is well-known for its castle, Schloss Laxenburg, which, beside Schönbrunn, was the most important summer seat of the Habsburg dynasty....

    ).
  4. Leopold III (1 November 1351, Vienna – 9 July 1386, Sempach
    Sempach
    Sempach is a municipality in the district of Sursee in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland.-History:It has retained some traces of its medieval appearance, especially the main gateway, beneath a watch tower, and reached by a bridge over the old moat.About half an hour distant to the north-east, on...

    ).
  5. Catherine (1342, Vienna – 10 January 1381, Vienna), Abbess of St. Klara in Vienna.
  6. Margaret (1346, Vienna – 14 January 1366, Brno
    Brno
    Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...

    ), married:
    1. in Passau
      Passau
      Passau is a town in Lower Bavaria, Germany. It is also known as the Dreiflüssestadt or "City of Three Rivers," because the Danube is joined at Passau by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north....

       4 September 1359 Count Meinhard III of Gorizia-Tyrol
      Meinhard III of Gorizia-Tyrol
      Meinhard III was Duke of Upper Bavaria and the last Count of Tyrol from the House of Wittelsbach.Meinhard was the son of Duke Louis V of Bavaria with Countess Margaret of Gorizia-Tyrol and as such also the last descendant of Meinhard I, Count of Gorizia .-Biography:Meinhard III was born in Landshut...

      ;
    2. in Vienna 1364 Margrave Johann Heinrich of Moravia
      John Henry, Margrave of Moravia
      John Henry of Luxembourg, Czech: Jan Jindřich, German: Johann Heinrich , was Count of Tyrol from 1335 to 1341 and Margrave of Moravia from 1349 until his death....

      .

Ancestry

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