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| Albert V | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byHans Mielich | |
| Duke of Bavaria | |
| Reign | 7 March 1550 – 24 October 1579 |
| Predecessor | William IV |
| Successor | William V |
| Born | 29 February 1528 Munich |
| Died | 24 October 1579(1579-10-24) (aged 51) Munich |
| Burial | |
| Spouse | |
| Issue more... | William V, Duke of Bavaria Ferdinand Maria Anna, Archduchess of Austria Maximiliana Maria of Bavaria Ernest of Bavaria |
| House | House of Wittelsbach |
| Father | William IV, Duke of Bavaria |
| Mother | Marie of Baden-Sponheim |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Albert V (German:Albrecht V.) (29 February 1528 – 24 October 1579) wasDuke of Bavaria from 1550 until his death. He was born inMunich toWilliam IV andMaria Jacobäa of Baden.
Albert was educated atIngolstadt byCatholic teachers. On 4 July 1546 he marriedAnna of Austria, a daughter ofFerdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor andAnna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547), daughter of KingLadislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary and his wifeAnne de Foix. The union was designed to end the political rivalry between Austria and Bavaria. In 1550, Albert succeeded his father as duke of Bavaria.
Albert was now free to devote himself to the task of establishing Catholic conformity in his dominions. A strict Catholic by upbringing, Albert was a leader of the GermanCounter-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 thehouse of Wittelsbach. He took little direct share in the affairs of government, nevertheless, 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 andWiguleus Hundt. The latter took an important part in the events leading up to thePeace of Passau (1552) and thePeace of Augsburg (1555).
Duke Albert made strenuous efforts to procure for his son,Ernest of Bavaria, election asArchbishop-elector of Cologne. These efforts would not pay off until after Albert's death; however, a member of theWittelsbach house of Bavaria would be Archbishop of Cologne for almost two centuries thereafter.
As successor of his uncleErnest of Salzburg, Duke Albert was since 1560 administrator and owner of the mortgage of the county ofGlatz, before he returned the redeemed county to EmperorMaximilian II in 1567.
In 1546, Albert and his father William IV ordered the construction ofDachau Palace (completed 1577), aRenaissance style four-winged palace with a court garden which eventually become the preferred dwelling of the rulers of Bavaria.
In 1552, Albert commissioned an inventory of the jewelry which he and his wife Anna owned. The resulting manuscript, still held by theBavarian State Library, was theJewel Book of the Duchess Anna of Bavaria ("Kleinodienbuch der Herzogin Anna von Bayern"), and contains 110 drawings byHans Muelich.[1] Albert was apatron of the arts and a collector whose personal accumulations are the basis of theWittelsbach antique collection of Greek and Roman antiquities, the coin collection, and the Wittelsbach treasury in theMunich Residenz founded by him to house the jewels of the Wittelsbach dynasty; some of his Egyptian antiquities remain in thecollection of Egyptian art. His personal library founded in 1558 has come to theBavarian State Library in Munich, inheritor of the Wittelsbach court library. In 1559 Albert founded thePaedagogium in Munich.
Albert bought whole collections in Rome and Venice; in Venice, after tiresome drawn-out negotiations with the aged Andrea Loredan, he purchased the Loredan collection virtually in its entirety: 120 bronzes, 2480 medals and coins, 91 marble heads, 43 marble statues, 33 reliefs and 14 various curiosities, for the sum of 7000 ducats; "they were all exported from Venice secretly at night in large chests".[2] At the same time, squabbles among the heirs ofGabriele Vendramin thwarted him in his attempt to purchase the single most important collection in Venice and paintings and antiquities, drawings by the masters and ancient coins.[3] To house his extensive collection of antiquities he commissioned theAntiquarium (created 1568–1571) in theMunich Residenz, the largestRenaissance hall north of the Alps.
Albert appointedOrlando di Lasso to a court post and patronized many other artists; this led to a huge burden of debts (½ Mio. Fl.).
Albert died in 1579 in Munich and was succeeded by his son William. He is buried in theFrauenkirche in Munich.
WithArchduchess Anna of Austria he had seven children:
Albert is buried in theFrauenkirche in Munich.
| Ancestors of Albert V, Duke of Bavaria |
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This article incorporates text from a publication in thepublic domain: Goetz, Walter (1908)."Albert V. of Bavaria and the Counter-Reformation of Bavaria". In Jackson, Samuel Macauley (ed.).New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Vol. 1 (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls. pp. 104–105. Retrieved6 September 2021.Hofkleiderbuch (Abbildung und Beschreibung der Hof-Livreen) des Herzogs Wilhelm IV. und Albrecht V. 1508–1551. (Court and Coat of Arms Book of Bavarian Dukes:William IV and Albert V) at theBavarian State Library[permanent dead link]
