Albert V, Duke of Bavaria
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Albert V, Duke of Bavaria (29 February 1528 - 24 October 1579), (German: Albrecht V., Herzog von Bayern), was Duke of Bavaria from 1550 until his death.
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[edit] Lineage
He was born in Munich to William IV, Duke of Bavaria and Marie of Baden-Sponheim. His maternal grandparents were Philipp I, Margrave of Baden-Sponheim and Elizabeth of the Palatinate. Elizabeth was a daughter of Philip, Elector Palatine of the Rhine (1448 - 1508) and Marguerite of Bavaria-Landshut. Marguerite was a daughter of Louis IX, Duke of Bavaria and Amalia of Saxony.
[edit] Political activity
Albert was educated at Ingolstadt under good Catholic teachers. In 1547 he married Anne Habsburg of Austria, a daughter of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547), daughter of King Ladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his wife Anne de Foix, the union ending the political rivalry between Austria and Bavaria.
Albert was now free to devote himself to the task of establishing Catholic conformity in his dominions. A strict catholic, Albert was a leader of the German Counter-Reformation. Incapable by nature of passionate adherence to any religious principle, and given rather to a life of idleness and pleasure, he pursued the work of repression because he was convinced that the cause of Catholicism was inseparably connected with the fortunes of the house of Wittelsbach. He took little direct share in the affairs of government and easily lent himself to the plans of his advisers, among whom during the early part of his reign were two sincere Catholics, Georg Stockhammer and Wiguleus Hundt. The latter took an important part in the events leading up to the treaty of Passau (1552) and the peace of Augsburg (1555). For the first time since the 13th century the Jesuites were called again to Munich.
Duke Albert had destined his third son, Ernest, for the clerical vocation; in 1565 he became a canon at Salzburg, and soon afterward at Cologne, Treves, and Würzburg as well; in the autumn of 1565 he likewise became bishop of Freising. Albert's wishes no doubt centered upon the neighboring archdiocese of Salzburg; but in 1569, when Elector Salentin of Cologne incurred difficulties with the curia for non-recognition of the Council of Trent and was contemplating resignation, Ernest was proposed by his father, who had the support of the Spanish government at Brussels, as Salentin's successor. At the imperial diet of Speyer, in 1570, the negotiations with Salentin were so far advanced that Ernest went to Cologne in November, and served his first residence there as canon till May, 1571, such being the preliminary condition in the line of election.
Salentin's resignation, however, was deferred, and in 1573 he actually submitted to the Council of Trent, and was thereupon confirmed by the curia as archbishop, foregoing the priestly consecration. In 1577, after the Bavarian court had failed in an attempt to secure Münster for Ernest, efforts looking to Cologne were resumed and prosecuted more zealously than before. Moreover, the support of the curia now heightened the hope of some practical result. Duke Ernest, who for a time, in 1572, had well-nigh thwarted all his father's plans by a suddenly outcropping disinclination to ward the spiritual vocation, was sent to Rome in the spring of 1574, for a sojourn of nearly two years, by way of reward for submitting to his father's will. At Rome he won the particular good-will of the pope, so that Gregory XIII resolved to support, with all his might, Ernest's installation as coadjutor to Salentin; in fact, the advancement of Bavarian family interests appeared to be the only possible way of recovering a more secure standing for the Roman Catholic Church in Lower Germany. The status which had been gained in 1573 by the election of Ernest as bishop of the small see of Hildesheim could not as yet, by itself alone, afford a very trustworthy base of support.
But against the common plans of Salentin, the curia, and the Bavarian court, opposition manifested itself on the side of the chapter at Cologne; when, in 1577, Salentin resigned, Ernest was defeated, at the new election, by Gebhard Truchsess, who was elected by the Protestants and the lukewarm Catholics of the chapter. Duke Albert, as well as the papal nuncio Portia, protested against the election; but as both the emperor and the electors espoused Gehbard's cause, and as he passed for a good Catholic, receiving priestly consecration in March, 1578, and swearing to the Council of Trent, the curia disregarded the Bavarian protest and in March, 1580, confirmed the election.
[edit] Cultural activity
Albert was a patron of the arts and founded not only several collections and the yard library in Munich but also appointed Orlando di Lasso and many other artists, this led to a huge burden of debts (½ Mio. Fl.). He was also the principal of the Antiquarium in the Munich Residenz, the largest renaissance hall north of the Alps.
[edit] Family and children
With Anne of Habsburg he had seven children:
- Charles, born and died in 1547
- William V, Duke of Bavaria (29 September 1548 – 17 February 1626)
- Ferdinand (20 January 1550 – 30 January 1608)
- Marie Anne (21 March 1551 – 29 April 1608)
- Maximiliana Maria (4 July 1552 – 11 July 1614)
- Friedrich (26 July 1553 – 18 April 1554)
- Ernest of Bavaria (17 December 1554 – 17 February 1612), Archbishop and prince-elector of Cologne 1583-1612
Albert is buried in the Frauenkirche in Munich.
[edit] References
This article includes content derived from the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914, which is in the public domain.
| Preceded by William IV |
Duke of Bavaria 1550–1579 |
Succeeded by William V |
