Albert IV (15 December 1447 – 18 March 1508;
German: Albrecht) was
Duke of Bavaria-Munich from 1467, and duke of the reunited
Bavaria from 1503.
Biography
Albert was a son of
Albert III, Duke of Bavaria and
Anna of Brunswick-Grubenhagen-Einbeck.[1] He was born in
Munich. After the death of his older brother
John IV, Duke of Bavaria he gave up his spiritual career and returned from
Pavia to Munich. When his brothers Christoph and Wolfgang had resigned Albert became sole duke, but a new duchy Bavaria-
Dachau was created from Bavaria-Munich for his brother Duke
Sigismund in 1467. After Sigismund's death in 1501, it reverted to Bavaria-Munich.
The marriage of
Kunigunde of Austria to Albert IV was a result of intrigues and deception, but must be counted as a defeat for
Emperor Frederick III. Albert illegally took control of some imperial
fiefs and then asked to marry Kunigunde (who lived in
Innsbruck, far from her father), offering to give her the fiefs as a dowry. The Emperor agreed at first, but after Albert took over yet another fief,
Regensburg, Emperor Frederick III withdrew his consent. On January 2, 1487, however, before the Emperor's change of heart could be communicated to his daughter, Kunigunde married Albert. A war was prevented only by intermediation by the Emperor's son,
Maximilian I. For Albert's wedding,
Grünwald Castle was extended in 1486/87 under the direction of Jörg von Weikertshausen. In 1491–1492, Albert fought the rebellious Löwlerbund. Albert finally decided to return territorial acquisitions in
Swabia in 1492 to avoid a war with the
Habsburg and the
Swabian League. He then also had to release Regensburg, which had been reunited with Bavaria in 1486, and had to reluctantly renounce
Further Austria when
Archduke Sigismund of Austria tried to make it over to Albert.
After the death of the last duke of
Bavaria-Landshut,
George in 1503, Albert managed to reunite the whole of Bavaria in a dreadful
war against George's heirs, the
Palatinate line of his
Wittelsbach family but had to transfer the most southern districts of Bavaria-Landshut to his brother-in-law Emperor Maximilian as compensation for his support:
Kufstein,
Kitzbühel and
Rattenberg passed to Maximilian in 1506 and were united with
Tyrol. For the Palatinate branch a new duchy of
Palatinate-Neuburg was created.
To avoid any future division of Bavaria, Albert decreed the everlasting succession of the firstborn prince in 1506. Nevertheless, his oldest son and successor
William IV, Duke of Bavaria had to share his power from 1516 onwards with his younger brother
Louis X, Duke of Bavaria. After the death of Louis X in 1545, the edict became effective until the end of Bavarian monarchy in 1918.
Bietenholz, Peter G.; Deutscher, Thomas Brian, eds. (1995). Contemporaries of Erasmus: A Biographical Register of the Renaissance and Reformation. Vol. 1–3. University of Toronto Press.
Thomas, Andrew L. (2010). A House Divided: Wittelsbach Confessional Court Cultures in the Holy Roman Empire, c. 1550-1650. Brill.