and Messina were already captured, and the island was on the point of submitting to the Spaniards, when, on the 10th August, 1718, Byng, at the battle of Passaro, took or destroyed the whole Spanish fleet. This fearful blow, instead of crushing the spirit, roused the energies of the intrepid cardinal. To give occupation to the British government at home, he conceived and proceeded to execute a scheme for restoring the exiled house of Stuart, with the aid of Charles XII. of Sweden and Peter the Great. But the death of Charles frustrated the daring enterprise. He also, in concert with a faction in France, formed a plan for seizing the Regent Orleans, and proclaiming Philip legitimate guardian of the youthful king of France. The plot, however, was discovered, and the regent instantly commenced hostilities, sending a formidable army into Spain. Undaunted by disappointments and difficulties, the cardinal now despatched from Cadiz, under the duke of Ormond, a fleet of ten ships of war, and numerous transports, having on board 6000 regular troops, with additional arms for 12,000 men. This formidable expedition, bound for Great Britain, would, it was hoped, excite and sustain a new insurrection. It was, however, dispersed and shattered by a tempest off Cape Finisterre. Only two frigates reached the British shores, and the few troops they landed were soon obliged to surrender. Such a succession of disasters overpowered the firmness of the Spanish court, and made Philip accede to the alliance. The cardinal became the victim of intrigues; for, as a foreigner, and far more as a fearless and impartial administrative reformer, he had necessarily incurred the rancour of many, while the enemies of Spain sought the destruction of a statesman whose talents might still render her formidable to the nations of Europe. Alberoni was the ablest prime minister Spain has ever had since Ximenes. The abuses he suppressed, and the improvements he introduced in connection with every department of the public service, during his brief administration, were truly wonderful. He is said to have usually devoted to business eighteen hours in the twenty-four. Ordered to quit Spain, he encountered disasters and privations in his journey, reached Italy with great difficulty in disguise, and, for several years, was exposed to peril and persecution. At length, on the death of Clement XI. in 1721, he was permitted to repair to Rome, and finally was restored by Innocent XIII. to all his rights and privileges as a cardinal. In 1732 he visited his native district, and was kindly received by Don Carlos, who had obtained the duchies of Parma and Piacenza. In 1734 he was appointed by Pope Clement XII. legate of Ravenna. After holding this charge for two or three years, continuing to display, notwithstanding his advanced age, his characteristic energy, vivacity, and public spirit, he retired from public life. He founded, and munificently endowed at Piacenza, an educational institution, which still exists and bears his name. He died in 1752, at the age of eighty-eight.—E. M.
ALBERS, Heinreich Philipp Franz, physician to the watering establishment at Rehburg, and author of a dissertation on the Rehburg mineral springs, and of numerous contributions to medical journals, was born at Hemeln 1768, and died 1830.
ALBERS, Johann Abraham, a German physician, born at Bremen in 1772; died 1821. He and Jurieu received jointly the prize offered by Napoleon in 1807, for the best essay on the croup. By contributing to periodicals, and by translating valuable treatises from English and French, he greatly promoted the progress of medicine and surgery in Germany.
ALBERSTEN, Henry Hamilton, a Danish poet, born at Copenhagen in 1592; died in Egypt 1630. He has left some poems, and a "Disputation concerning the Causes or Principles of Natural Things," both in Latin.
ALBERT. The chief princes and churchmen of this name follow in the alphabetical order of their countries:—
I.—ALBERTS OF AUSTRIA.
ALBERT I., Duke of Austria, and Emperor of Germany, born in 1248. Son of Rudolph of Hapsburg, an ambitious prince of the Germanic empire, he was put forward by his father as a candidate for the imperial crown; but the family character, which was notoriously avaricious and tyrannical, rendered his pretensions odious, and the electors bestowed their suffrages on Adolphus of Nassau. At the diet of Mayence, however, in 1298, Adolphus was deposed, and Albert elected. The armies of the two princes encountered at Gelheim, a place situated between Worms and Spire, and there Albert, successful in a charge of cavalry, with his own hand dispatched his rival. A war with the Holy See threatened to be the first occupation of Albert, king of the Romans, but this was averted by the diplomacy of the emperor, who, to please the pontiff, allowed himself to be confirmed in his dominions by papal courrant. Several years of his reign were fruitlessly spent in an attempt to reclaim Holland, Zealand, and Friesland, formerly parts of the empire, and in a war with Wenceslas IV. of Hungary, whose province of Bohemia Albert claimed for his son Rudolph. In the former enterprise he was opposed and defeated by a count of Hainault; and in the latter, after a short period of success, during which Rudolph, as king of Bohemia, was made the instrument of his father's tyranny, he succumbed to the efforts of a people determined to defend their liberties at all hazards. His invasion of Thuringia in 1308 had no better success, and before he could collect an army for another campaign in that province, disturbances, which he had himself fomented, broke out in Switzerland, whither he hastened with what forces he could muster, determined to unite Helvetia to the empire. This design, the brave compatriots of Tell were spared the toil of frustrating, by a conspiracy of nobles, headed by Duke John, the emperor's nephew, who fell upon him while separated from his suite, and dispatched him with their daggers.—J. S., G.
ALBERT II., Duke of Austria, surnamed the Wise, fourth son of Albert I., succeeded in his minority to the estates of his father, his brothers having died without issue. He merited his surname by a course of conduct which presented in almost all respects a contrast to that of his father. He refused to put himself in competition with Charles, son of the king of Bohemia, when that prince claimed to succeed Louis of Bavaria, although urged, or rather commanded, by Pope John XXII. to assume the crown of Germany. Paralytic from his thirty-second year, he commanded in person the expeditions into Switzerland, which, like those of his father, adventured into a land of patriots only to find that neither force nor fraud could impose a foreign yoke, where every village and hamlet sent forth a band of warriors to dispute the first step of an invader. He besieged Zurich with an army of 16,000 men; but, baffled in every assault, and in danger of being overwhelmed by the forces of the Helvetic Confederation, reorganized for the defence of the place, he had to return to Vienna, leaving the possessions of the House of Hapsburg in the hands of the patriots. Died 1358.—J. S., G.
ALBERT III., Duke of Austria, son of the preceding, succeeded in his seventeenth year to one-half his paternal estates, the other half being claimed, contrary to the testament of Albert II., by his younger brother Leopold. Albert submitted to this partition with the temper of a man who had other ambitions than that of governing extensive dominions. Addicted to letters and the arts of peace, for which he did much, by founding several chairs at the university of Vienna, even after the death of Leopold had left him in temporary possession of the whole of his estates, he engaged in war only when his honour bound him to arm in behalf of his allies, or to assist those who claimed his help. He conciliated the people by repressing the insolence and forbidding the exactions of his barons, a rare effort in the cause of justice for the times in which he lived. He attempted unsuccessfully to rescue the inhabitants of Trieste from the yoke of Venice, and afterwards espoused the cause of some nobles of Bohemia who had revolted from their king. But while leading an army into that country, he was seized with an illness which proved fatal. He died in 1395.—J. S., G.
ALBERT IV., Duke of Austria, son of the preceding, succeeded his father in 1395. Shortly after his accession to power, he made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, leaving the government of his dominions in the hands of his cousin William, son of Leopold, an ambitious prince, who, like his father, had wrested from the head of the house a share of the family estates. On his return, he resumed the care of his duchies, but passed much of his time in a monastery, where he practised a rigid asceticism. His devotion to his duties as a brother of a religious order, procured for him the surname of "the Pious." Not deficient in administrative talent, he earned, by a wise arbitration of their disputes, the gratitude of his uncles Sigismund of Hungary and Wenceslas of Bohemia, both of whom named him successor to their kingdoms. He was engaged in subduing a revolt in the dominions of Sigismund, and had laid siege to the fortress of a refractory baron, when his career was terminated by poison administered by an agent of the besieged, September, 1404.—J. S., G.
ALBERT V., Duke of Austria and Emperor of Germany, son
