Albert I of Habsburg
Albert I of Habsburg took the German throne by killing the man who held it and lost it to his own nephew. Born around 1255, he was the eldest son of Rudolf I, the first Habsburg king, who had used his reign to acquire Austria and Styria for the family. Albert governed those duchies from 1282 and did it harshly enough that the Austrian nobility revolted twice. When Rudolf died in 1291 the electors passed over Albert precisely because he was strong, and chose Adolf of Nassau instead. Albert waited. Adolf alienated the Rhineland archbishops, took English money for a French war he did not fight, and tried to seize Thuringia; a diet at Mainz declared him deposed in June 1298 and elected Albert. The two armies met at Göllheim in July. Adolf was killed in the fighting, possibly by Albert himself. He then governed with more competence than his reputation allows. He suppressed the Rhine tolls the archbishops had multiplied, protected Jewish communities against the Rintfleisch massacres, and abandoned his father's alliance with the papacy — Boniface VIII declared his election invalid and Albert ignored him until the pope needed him against France. He pressed claims to Bohemia, Hungary, Meissen and Thuringia, with mixed success. His attempt to recover the family's ancestral Swiss lands is the historical background to the Swiss Confederation's founding legends and to the William Tell story, though the connection is later invention. He was murdered in 1308 by his nephew John, whose inheritance he had withheld, while crossing a river with a small escort.
- Lived: 1255 CE – 1308 CE
- Nationality: German
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state, military_leader
