Background
He was the younger son of Burgrave Frederick III from his second marriage with the Ascanian princess Helene, daughter of Duke Albert I of Saxony.
He was the younger son of Burgrave Frederick III from his second marriage with the Ascanian princess Helene, daughter of Duke Albert I of Saxony.
In 1307, he and King Albert I of Germany led an Imperial Army into the Battle of Lucka against the Wettin margraves Frederick I of Meissen and Dietrich IV of Lustia, and were defeated. In 1331 he purchased the town of Ansbach, nucleus of the later Hohenzollern Principality of Ansbach established in 1398. c. ca.