Albert, Duke of Prussia

Albert married twice in his lifetime. His first wife was Princess Dorothea, daughter of King Frederick I of Denmark. The couple married in 1526 and had six children. However, only the oldest child, Anna Sophia survived.

After the death of his first wife in 1547, he married Anna Maria, daughter of Eric I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, in 1550. The couple had two children, a daughter named Elisabeth and a son called Albert Frederick who later became his successor.

He died of the plague on March 20, 1568 at Tapiau. His wife also died the same day. His tomb was designed by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt within the Königsberg Cathedral.

Albert was born into royalty on May 17, 1490 in Ansbach, Franconia. He was the third son of Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach and his mother, Sophia was the daughter of Grand Duke of Lithuania and King of Poland, Casimir IV Jagiellon and his wife, Elisabeth of Austria.

In his early years, he was trained at the court of Hermann IV of Hesse for a career in the Church. Hermann IV appointed him canon of the Cologne Cathedral.

By nature he was spiritually devoted but subjects such as mathematics and science also aroused his curiosity. At times, he even challenged the Church teachings supporting scientific observations. Nevertheless, he received enough support from Catholic ministersfor the advancement of his Church career.

Evolving from his Church life in 1508, he travelled to Italy with Emperor Maximilian I and later stayed in the Kingdom of Hungary for a brief period of time.

Following the death of Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Duke Frederick of Saxony in December 1510, Albert was selected to succeed him as the next Grand Master. The general expectation was to settle the ongoing quarrel with Poland over eastern Prussia taking advantage of Albert’s kinship with the King of Poland, his maternal uncle, Sigismund I.

The kinship however, couldn’t salvage the situation and a war ensued in December 1519 that lasted for the next two years and caused significant damage to East Prussia. Even the peace agreement that followed was unable to resolve the conflict.

The dispute was referred to eminent monarchs like Emperor Charles V but to no avail. Albert was keen to gather support and renew the war. Hence, he visited the Diet of Nuremberg in 1522, where he met Reformer Andreas Osiander who influenced him about Protestantism.

The following year, he met the religious reformer Martin Luther in Wittenberg, who advised him to transform Prussia from Teutonic Order to hereditary dukedom under the Polish crown. He liked the proposal and treaded vigilantly towards the transformation.

The suggestion was finally acknowledged by King Sigismund I of Poland in 1525. Prussia was to be treated as a Polish territory as confirmed by a treaty concluded at Kraków. On 10 February, 1525 Albert was endowed with the dukedom for himself and his inheritors.

A supporter of learning and Luther’s philosophy, he established the Königsberg University in 1544, as a competitor of the Roman Catholic Cracow Academy.

He also commissioned the printing of the Astronomical ‘Prutenic Tables’ compiled by Erasmus Reinhold and the foremost maps of Prussia by Caspar Hennenberger.