in carrying out his plans. In concert with her he arranged
the king's marriage with Elizabeth Farnese of Parma. The
influence of the new queen being actively exerted on Alberoni's
behalf, he speedily rose to high position. He was made a
member of the king's council, bishop of Malaga, and in 1715
prime minister, and was raised to the dignity of cardinal in
1717. His internal policy was exceedingly vigorous. The
main purpose he put before.himself was to produce an economic
revival in Spain by abolishing internal custom-houses,
throwing open the trade of the Indies and reorganizing the
finances. With the resources thus gained he undertook to
enable King Philip V. to carry out an ambitious policy both in
Italy and in France. The impatience of the king and his wife
gave the minister no time to mature his plans. By provoking
England, France, Holland and the Empire at once it brought
a flood of disaster on Spain for which Alberoni was held
responsible. On the 5th of December 1719 he was ordered to
leave Spain, Elizabeth herself having taken an active part
in procuring the decree of banishment. He went to Italy, and
there had to take refuge among the Apennines, Pope Clement XI.,
who was his bitter enemy, having given strict orders for his
arrest. On the death of Clement, Alberoni boldly appeared at
the Conclave, and took part in the election of Innocent XIII.
(1721), after which he was for a short time imprisoned by the
pontiff on the demand of Spain. At the next election (1724)
he was himself proposed for the papal chair, and secured ten
votes at the Conclave which elected Benedict XIII. Benedict's
successor, Clement XII. (elected 1730), named him legate of
Ravenna, in which capacity he incurred the pope's displeasure
by the strong and unwarrantable measures he adopted to reduce
the little republic of San Marino to subjection to Rome. He
was consequently replaced by another legate in 1740, and soon
after he retired to Piacenza. Clement XII. appointed him
administrator of the hospital of San Lazzaro at Piacenza in
1730. The hospital was a medieval foundation for the benefit of
lepers. The disease having disappeared from Italy, Alberoni
obtained the consent of the pope to the suppression of the
hospital, which had fallen into great disorder, and replaced
it by a college for the education of seventy poor boys for the
priesthood, under the name of the Collegio Alberoni, which it
still bears. He died on the 16th of June 1752, leaving a sum
of 600,000 ducats to endow the seminary he had founded, and the
residue of the immense wealth he had acquired in Spain to his
nephew. Alberoni left a large quantity of manuscripts;
but the genuineness of the Political Testament, published
in his name at Lausanne in 1753, has been questioned.
An Histoire du Cardinal Alberoni up to 1719 was published by
Jean Rousset de Missy at the Hague in 1719. A laudatory life,
Storia del Cardinale Giulio Alberoni, was published by Stefano
Bersani, a priest educated at his college, at Piacenza, in
1861. Giulio Alberoni e il suo secolo, by Giovanni Bianchi
(1901), is briefer and more critical. See also Lettres
intimes de J. Alberoni, edited by M. E. Bourgeois (1892).
ALBERT (1522-1557), prince of Bayreuth, surnamed THE WARLIKE,
and also ALCIBIADES, was a son of Casimir, prince of Bayreuth,
and a member of the Franconian branch of the Hohenzollern
family. Born at Ansbach on the 28th of March 1522, he lost
his father in 1527 and came under the guardianship of his uncle
George, prince of Ansbach, a strong adherent of the reformed
doctrines. In 1541 he received Bayreuth as his share of
the family lands, and as the chief town of his principality
was Kulmbach he is sometimes referred to as the margrave of
Brandenburg-Kulmbach. His restless and turbulent nature
marked him out for a military career; and having collected
a small band of soldiers, he assisted the emperor Charles
V. in his war with France in 1543. The peace of Crepy in
September 1544 deprived him of this employment, but he had won
a considerable reputation, and when Charles was preparing to
attack the league of Schmalkalden, he took pains to win Albert's
assistance. Sharing in the attack on the Saxon electorate,
Albert was taken prisoner at Rcchlitz in March 1547 by John
Fredeack, elector of Saxony, but was released as a result
of the emperor's victory at Muhlberg in the succeeding
April. He then followed the fortunes of his friend Maurice,
the new elector of Saxony, deserted Charles, and joined the
league which proposed to overthrow the emperor by an alliance
with Henry II. of France. IIe took part in the subsequent
campaign, but when the treaty of Passau was signed in August
1552 he separated himself from his allies and began a crusade
of plunder in Franconia. Having extorted a large sum of
money from the burghers of Nuremberg, he quarrelled with his
supporter, the French king, and offered his services to the
emperor. Charles, anxious to secure such a famous fighter,
gladly assented to Albert's demands and gave the imperial
sanction to his possession of the lands taken from the bishops
of Wurzburg and Bamberg; and his conspicuous bravery was of
great value to the emperor on the retreat from Metz in January
1553. When Charles left Germany a few weeks later, Albert
renewed his depredations in Franconia. These soon became so
serious that a league was formed to crush him, and Maurice
of Saxony led an army against his former comrade. The
rival forces met at Sievershausen on the 9th of July 1553,
and after a combat of unusual ferocity Albert was put to
flight. Henry II., duke of Brunswick, then took command of
the troops of the league, and after Albert had been placed
under the imperial ban in December 1553 he was defeated by Duke
Henry, and compelled to fly to France. He there entered the
service of Henry II., and had undertaken a campaign to regain
his lands when he died at Pforzheim on the 8th of January 1557.
See J. Voigt, Morkgraf Albrecht Alcibiades
von BrandenburgKulmbach (Berlin, 1852).
ALBERT I. (c. 1100-1170), margrave of Brandenburg, surnamed
THE BEAR, was the only son of Otto the Rich, count of
Ballenstedt, and Eilika, daughter of Magnus Billung, duke of
Saxony. He inherited the valuable Saxon estates of his father
in 1123, and on his mother's death, in 1142, succeeded to
one-half of the lands of the Billungs. About 1123 he received
from Lothair, duke of Saxony, the margraviate of Lusatia,
and, after Lothair became German king, accompanied him on the
disastrous expedition to Bohemia in 1126, when he suffered
a short imprisonment. In 1128 his brother7in-law, Henry
II., margrave of the Saxon north mark, died, and Albert,
disappointed at not receiving this fief, attacked Udo, the
succeeding margrave, and was consequently deprived of Lusatia by
Lothair. In spite of this, he went to Italy in 1132 in the
train of the king, and his services there were rewarded,
in 1134, by the investiture of the north mark, which was
again without a ruler. For three years he was occupied in
campaigns against the Wends, and by an arrangement made with
Pribislaus, duke of Brandenburg, Albert secured this district
when the duke died in 1150. Taking the title margrave of
Brandenburg, he pressed the warfare against the Wends, extended
the area of his mark, did much for the spread of Christianity
and civilization therein, and so became the founder of the
margraviate of Brandenburg. In 1137 his cousin, Henry the
Proud, had been deprived by King Conrad III. of his Saxon
duchy, which was given to Albert. After meeting with some
success in his efforts to take possession, he was driven from
Saxony, and also from his mark by Henry, and compelled to
take refuge in South Germany, and when peace was made in 1142
he renounced the Saxon dukedom and received the counties of
Weimar and Orlamunde. It was possibly at this time that
Albert was made arch-chamberlain of the Empire, an office
which afterwards gave the margraves of Brandenburg the
rights of an elector. A feud with Henry the Lion, duke of Saxony,
was followed, in 1158, by a pilgrimage to the Holy Land,
and in 1162 Albert accompanied the emperor Frederick I.
to Italy, and distinguished himself at the storming of
Milan. In 1164 he joined a league of princes formed against
Henry the Lion, and peace being made in 1169, Albert divided
his territories among his six sons, and died on the 13th
of November 1170, and was buried at Ballenstadt. His
personal qualities won for him the surname of ``the Bear,''
and he is also called by later writers ``the Handsome.''
See L. von Heinemann, Albrecht der Bar (Darmstadt, 1864).
ALBERT III. (1414--1486), elector of Brandenburg, surnamed
ACHILLES because of his knightly qualities, was the third
son of Frederick I. of Hohenzollern, elector of Brandenburg,
and was born at Tangermunde on the 9th of November 1414.
After passing some time at the court of the emperor Sigismund,
he took part in the war against the Hussites, and afterwards
distinguished himself whilst assisting the German king, Albert
II., against the Poles. On the division of territory which
followed his father's death in 1440, Albert received the
principality of Ansbach; and although his resources were
very meagre he soon took a leading place among the German
princes, and was especially prominent in resisting the attempts
of the towns to obtain self-government. In 1443 he formed
a league directed mainly against Nuremberg, over which town
members of his family had formerly exercised the rights of
burgrave. It was not until 1448, however, that he found a
pretext for attack, and the war which lasted until 1453 ended
in a victory for the Nurembergers, and the recognition of their
independence. He supported the emperor Frederick III. in his
struggle with the princes who desired re-forms in Oiermany,
and in return for this loyalty received many marks of favour
from Frederick, including extensive judicial rights which
aroused considerable irritation among neighbouring rulers. In
1457 he arranged a marriage between his eldest son John, and
Margaret, daughter of William III., landgrave of Thuringia,
who inherited the claims upon Hungary and Bohemia of her
mother, a granddaughter of the emperor Sigismund. The attempt
to secure these thrones for the Hohenzollerns through this
marriage failed, and a similar fate befell Albert's efforts
to revive in his own favour the disused. title of duke of
Franconia. The sharp dissensions which existed among the
princes over the question of reform culminated in open warfare
in 1460, when Albert was confronted with a league under the
leadership of the elector palatine, Frederick I., and Louis
IX. (the Rich), duke of Bavaria-Landshut. Worsted in this
struggle, which was concluded in 1462, Albert made an alliance
with his former enemy, George Podebrad, king of Bohemia, a
step which caused Pope Paul II. to place him under the ban.
In 1470 Albert, who had inherited Bayreuth on the death of his
brother John in 1464, became elector of Brandenburg owing to the
abdication of his remaining brother, the elector Frederick II.
He was soon actively engaged in its administration, and by the
treaty of Prenzlau in 1472 he brought Pomerania also under his
supremacy. Having established his right to levy a tonnage on
wines in the mark, he issued in February 1473 the important
dispositio Achillea, which decreed that the mark of Brandenburg
should descend in its entirety to the eldest son, while the
younger sons should receive the Franconian possessions of the
family. After treating in vain for a marriage between one
