Albert II of Habsburg
Albert II was the first Habsburg to hold the imperial title continuously in the family's possession thereafter, and he held it for eighteen months. Born in 1397, he became Duke of Austria at seven and was raised under regents. In 1422 he married Elizabeth of Luxembourg, the only child of the Emperor Sigismund, which is the marriage that made everything else possible. He fought the Hussites in Bohemia for Sigismund for years, without much success and with the Habsburg lands raided in return. Sigismund died in December 1437, ending the House of Luxembourg in the male line. Albert was crowned King of Hungary in January 1438, elected King of the Romans in March, and accepted as King of Bohemia — though a Bohemian faction elected a Polish prince against him and he never controlled the country. He never went to Rome and was never crowned emperor by the pope, which is why he is sometimes numbered differently. The reign was consumed by the Ottoman advance. He was campaigning against Murad II's forces in the Balkans in 1439 when Smederevo fell, and the army was destroyed by dysentery rather than by fighting. He died in October 1439 near Esztergom, of dysentery, aged forty-two. His son Ladislaus the Posthumous was born four months later and died at seventeen. The imperial title nonetheless stayed with the Habsburgs from Frederick III in 1440 until 1806, with a single four-year interruption — the longest continuous hold on it by any family. The union of Austria, Bohemia and Hungary he held for a year is the combination the Habsburgs recovered in 1526 and kept until 1918.
- Lived: 1397 CE – 1439 CE
- Nationality: Austrian
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state, military_leader
