(Ger. Albrecht), archduke of Austria and emperor of Germany, born in 1248, died May 1, 1308. He was the son of Rudolph of Hapsburg, and succeeded to his hereditary estates, but the succession to the crown was conferred by the electors upon Adolphus of Nassau. Albert affected submission, and remitted to the new emperor the royal insignia. But on the coronation of Wenceslas of Bohemia he met four of the electors, and arranged with them a diet at Mentz, before which Adolphus was summoned to answer charges of high crimes and misdemeanors. Adolphus of course refused the requisition of any such tribunal, and the diet thereupon adjudged him guilty of contumacy, and deprived him of the crown. War was declared, the two armies met, July 2, 1298, near Gellheim, between Spire and Worms, and Albert unhorsed Adolphus in personal combat, whereupon the latter, continuing to fight, was soon despatched by the followers of his rival. Feigning a respect for the rights of the body of electors, Albert declined to exercise the supreme power until a diet had been formally convened, and he was duly elected and crowned at Aix-la-Chapelle. Pope Boniface VIII., however, stigmatized him as a murderer, and instituted a new combination against him, which was disconcerted by Albert's son Rudolph. Albert was now involved in hostilities with Bohemia, of which he made himself master for a short time; but the people rose, and he was obliged to retire.

He attempted to subjugate part of Switzerland, but in crossing the river Reuss in a boat was murdered by his nephew John of Hapsburg, whose possessions Albert had seized during his minority. John was assisted by three noblemen. Albert's daughter Agnes terribly avenged her father's murder, though not on John himself, who escaped to Italy, and died a monk. Albert was succeeded in Austria by his son Frederick the Handsome, and in the empire by Henry of Luxemburg.