Eldest son of Rudolf of Habsburg, he was invested with the duchies of Austria and Styria in 1282. On Rudolf's death in 1291, Albrecht was forced to accept the election of Adolf of Nassau as German King (Emperor Elect), but in 1298 he mustered sufficient allies to enable him to defeat Adolf at Gollheim, near Worms.
He was elected king at Frankfurt on July 27 and crowned at Aix on August 24. Pope Boniface VIII declined to recognise him until 1303 when Albrecht  admitted the right of the pope to bestow the imperial crown and promised that none of his sons should be elected king without papal consent. In 1306 he secured the crown of Bohemia for his son Rudolf, but tried in vain to impose his own claims on Thuringia in 1307.
His action in abolishing all tolls established on the Rhine since 1250 led to the formation of a league against him by the Rhenish archbishops and the Count Palatine of The Rhine; however, aided by the towns, he soon crushed the rising. He was on the way to suppress a revolt in Schwaben when he was murdered on May 1, 1308, at Windisch on the Reuss by his nephew Johann, whom he had deprived of his inheritance.
Although a hard, stern man, he had a keen sense of justice when his selfish interests were not involved; and few of the German Kings possessed so practical an intelligence. He encouraged the cities and, not content with issuing proclamations against private war, formed alliances with princes in order to enforce his decrees. The serfs, whose wrongs seldom attracted notice in an age indifferent to the claims of common humanity, found a friend in this severe monarch, and he protected even the despised and persecuted Jews.
 

Source: Leo van de Pas