Albert was the younger son of John Cicero, elector of Brandenburg. Albert became archbishop of Magdeburg and administrator of the bishopric of Halberstadt in 1513, and he became elector and archbishop of Mainz the following year. In order to gain the agreement of Pope Leo X to his holding more than one diocese, which was contrary to church law, Albert made a large contribution toward the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. These funds, borrowed from the banking house of Fugger, were to be repaid through the sale of indulgences, half the proceeds going to Albert, the other half to Leo X. Luther condemned this practice in his Ninety-five Theses.

In 1518 Albert was created cardinal. A religious liberal, he was a friend of the humanists Ulrich von Hutten and Desiderius Erasmus. Late in life Albert became less tolerant of Protestantism and helped foster the German Counter-Reformation.

antipope in 1101. He was cardinal bishop of Silva Candida when elected early in 1101 as successor to the antipope Theodoric of Santa Ruffina, who had been set up against the legitimate pope, Paschal II, by an imperial faction supporting the Holy Roman emperor Henry IV in his struggle with Paschal for supremacy. Albert's uncanonical investiture provoked rioting in Rome, and he was stripped of his insignia and briefly imprisoned in the Lateran. He was then sentenced to confinement in the monastery of San Lorenzo, north of Naples, where he remained a monk the rest of his life.

last grand master of the Teutonic Knights (Teutonic Order) from 1510 to 1525, first duke of Prussia (from 1525), a Protestant German ruler known chiefly for ending the Teutonic Knights' government of East Prussia and founding a hereditary dukedom in its place.

Albert was the third son of Frederick of Hohenzollern, margrave of Ansbach-Bayreuth. In 1510 Albert was named grand master of the Teutonic Order and thus lord of East Prussia, which the order held under Polish suzerainty. A quarrel with the Poles, however, resulted in a war with Poland (1519–21) that caused considerable damage to East Prussia. During the truce that followed, the dispute remained unsettled.

In 1523 the religious reformer Martin Luther advised Albert to dissolve the Teutonic Order and transform his Prussian holdings into a hereditary dukedom under the Polish crown, a solution accepted by King Sigismund I of Poland in 1525. The Holy Roman emperor Charles V in the 1530s placed Albert, now a Protestant, under the ban of the empire and demanded the return of East Prussia to the Teutonic Knights, but the faithful remnant of the latter, with scattered bases in Germany, could do nothing against Albert.

Albert joined anti-imperial coalitions and cultivated Protestant Denmark and Sweden. At home, the East Prussian administration was secularized, but considerable privileges had to be conceded to the nobility before they would confirm his rule and grant him funds to govern.

In his later years, Albert fell under the influence of theological and political adventurers, and his reign became marred by violent disputes. The University of Königsberg, founded on his initiative in 1544, was long troubled by such difficulties. Quiet had once again been restored, orthodox Lutheranism declared binding, the succession finally settled, and the adventurers either expelled or executed, when Albert died.

king of Saxony from Oct. 29, 1873, Catholic king of a Protestant country who was nonetheless popular with his subjects. He also was a capable soldier who fought well in the Seven Weeks' War of 1866 and in the Franco-German War of 1870–71.

He was the eldest son of Prince John, who succeeded to the Saxon throne in 1854. An artillery officer at the age of 15, Albert had one year of university studies at Bonn before serving in the German Schleswig-Holstein campaign of 1849 against the Danes. He married Caroline, granddaughter of King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden, in 1853. In 1857 he was made general of infantry, and in 1862 he became a member of the upper house of the Saxon parliament.

Commanding the Saxon Army in the Seven Weeks' War, Albert effected an orderly retreat when the Prussians invaded Saxony. After the defeat of Austria and its allies, including Saxony, at Königgrätz (Sadowa) on July 3, 1866, Albert held his position tenaciously. Personally favourable to Prussia, Albert became commander of the XII Corps, formerly the Saxon Army, when his country entered the Prussian-dominated North German Confederation.

In the Franco-German War, Albert's corps played a major part in winning the battles of Gravelotte (August 18) and Sedan (Aug. 31–Sept. 2, 1870). From March 18 to June 8, 1871, he commanded the German army of occupation in France. Soon afterward he was made inspector general of the imperial German Army and was promoted to the rank of field marshal.

As king of Saxony, in succession to his father, Albert was mainly interested in military affairs but approved reforms in local administration, education, and taxation and encouraged industrialization. He left no children and was succeeded by his brother George.

prince of Monaco (1889–1922), seaman, amateur oceanographer, and patron of the sciences, whose contributions to the development of oceanography included innovations in oceanographic equipment and technique and the founding and endowment of institutions to further basic research.

Albert's love of the sea developed at an early age, and as a young man he served in the Spanish Navy. Later, he conducted his own oceanographic surveys on a series of increasingly large and well-equipped ships. His active involvement in oceanography continued even after he became ruler of Monaco—upon the death of his father, Charles III (1889)—and culminated in his establishment of the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco (1899) and the Oceanographic Institute in Paris (1906).

Albert was succeeded as prince of Monaco by his son, Louis II (1870–1949).