This surname of ALBERG was originally derived from the Old English personal name ALVRED, composed of the elements AELF (elf) and ROED (council). This name owed its popularity as a given name in England chiefly to the fame of Alfred the Great (849-899) who was the Anglo-Saxon King of Wessex born at Wantage in Berkshire the fifth and youngest son of King Aethelwuls. At the age of four he was taken to Rome to be confirmed by Pope Leo lV and soon afterwards visited the Frankish court of Charles lst, the Bald, with his father. He succeeded his brother Aethelred I as King in l87l when Viking invaders were occupying the northern east of England, and Wessex was under constant attack. Early in l878 the Danish Army burst into Wessex and drove Alfred into hiding in the marshes of Somerset. He recovered sufficiently to defeat the Danes decisively at the Battle of Edington in Wiltshire. He captured London in 886. He promoted education and learning, fostered all the arts and inspired the production of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He died in October 899 and was buried in Winchester. The name has numerous variant spellings which include ALLBRIGHT, AUBERT, ABERT, ALLEBRACH, OBRECHT, OBERT, OLBRICHT, ALBRECHT, ALIBERTI and ALBERTO, to name but a few. There are many notables of the name including Albert I (1255-1308) who was the king of Germany, the son of Rudolph I of Habsburg. He was elected king of Germany in opposition to the deposed Adolf of Nassau, whom he then defeated and killed in battle at Gollheim (1298). He proceeded energetically to restore the power of the monarchy and reduce that of the electoral princes, but was murdered while crossing the River Reuss by his disaffected nephew John. Albert, Prince Consort to Queen Victoria (1819-61) born at Schloss Rosenaux, near Coburg. He was the younger son of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. In 1840 he married his first cousin, Queen Victoria, a marriage that became a lifelong love-match. He was given the title of Prince Consort in 1857. Throughout their marriage he was, in effect the Queen's private secretary. Ministerial distrust and public misgivings because of his German connections, limited his political influence, although his counsel was usually judicious and far-sighted. He died of typhoid in 1861, occasioning a long period of seclusion by his widow. The Albert Memorial in Kensington Gardens was erected in his memory in 1871.