Albert VI, also known as the Prodigal, from the House of Habsburg was, with his elder brother Emperor Frederick III, an Archduke of Inner Austria from 1424 and of Austria from 1457 until his death.
Background
Albert was born in Vienna, the son of Archduke Ernest the Iron of Inner Austria and his wife Cymburgis of Masovia.
Career
According to tradition, Albert was the exact opposite of Frederick, energetic and inclined to thoughtlessness. As Habsburg patriarch, heir of Inner Austria and regent of Further Austria, Tyrol and the Austria proper, he then ruled over all the dynasty"s hereditary lands. The conflict between the brothers escalated when Duke Ladislaus Posthumous of Austria died childless in 1457 and Frederick, Holy Roman Emperor since 1452, came into his inheritance.
Albert rose up and in 1458 occupied the western part of the Austrian archduchy "above the Enns" (later known as Upper Austria), which he ruled at Linz as a separate principality and, quite small, his portion of Habsburg patrimony.
After laying siege to Frederick in the Vienna Hofburg, he also took over the reign of Austria below the Enns (now Lower Austria) in 1462. In 1452 Albert had married Mathilde (Mechthild), daughter of Count Palatine Louis III. Both are credited for founding the University of Freiburg in 1457.
