Albrecht I (Braunschweig-Grubenhagen)

Albrecht I of Braunschweig-Grubenhagen (* around 1339 ; † 1383 ) was Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg , Prince of Braunschweig - Grubenhagen - Salzderhelden , ruled from 1361 until his death.

Albrecht I was the eldest son of Duke Ernst the Elder of Grubenhagen. Already co-regent during his lifetime, Albrecht ruled the principality of Grubenhagen after his death, apart from a few properties in Osterode and Herzberg , which he ceded to his brother Friedrich , and resided in Salzderhelden Castle near Einbeck , which is why he was also called the "Duke of Salt" .

He is praised as a lover of history and science; Nevertheless, the highway robbery flourished under him, to which he should not have been a stranger himself, as a result of which he got into many arguments with his neighbors. On June 29, 1361, Albrecht and his brother Johann gave the city of Braunschweig a letter of honor, fell into a feud with Count Otto von Waldeck and his son Heinrich that same year and was captured with his brother in the battle of Arnoldshausen in 1362. Only after a vowed original feud did he regain freedom.

The lands of Landgrave Friedrich des Strengen of Thuringia were particularly hard hit by Albrecht's raids and his vassals . After serious but unsuccessful warnings, the Landgrave moved into the Grubenhagener Land in 1365 with an army that was important for the time, as is claimed with eighteen thousand men, and camped in front of Einbeck and Salzderhelden, but had to leave after a few months without having achieved anything. On the occasion of this feud, a gun is mentioned for the first time in the Braunschweigischen Lands (“diz waz die first bush, dy yn dessin landin was heard”). But the landgrave devastated cities and villages, took and broke several of the robbery castles of Albrecht's vassals, forcing them to ask for peace. Albrecht soon broke the peace again, the landgrave covered his country again and Albrecht had to make himself comfortable at the storage facility in Eisenach until the dispute was settled .

Due to these feuds in financial distress, Albrecht felt compelled to pledge several of his possessions, for example in 1365 the bailiwick in and around Hameln to Count Johann von Spiegelberg, in 1372 the city of Hameln itself to Count Otto von Schaumburg and in 1370 to the city council Braunschweig his share in the soft forms Altewiek and Sack , the jurisdiction, the Jewish customs and in the mills of Braunschweig. In 1381 he sold several villages around Einbeck to the Bishop of Hildesheim for 300 Rhenish gold guilders.

With his wife Agnes, daughter of Duke Magnus with the chain of Braunschweig, Albrecht had a son, Erich . Albrecht probably died in 1383 and is buried in the Alexander monastery in Einbeck.

literature

• Ferdinand Spehr :  Albrecht II, Duke of Braunschweig . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 263 f.

predecessor	Office	successor
Ernst I.	Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Prince of Braunschweig-Grubenhagen 1361–1383	Erich I.