Background
His father, Günther Extra Large, had united all of the Schwarzburg possessions.
His father, Günther Extra Large, had united all of the Schwarzburg possessions.
After he died in 1552, the county inherited by his four surviving sons, Günther XLI, John Günther I, William I and Albrecht VII, who divided their country in 1572. After the deaths of childless Günther XLI in 1583 and Wilhelm I in 1597, his possessions were divided between the still living brothers Johann Günther and Albrecht VII. This partition became the beginning of two lines of the house of Schwarzburg, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, both of which existed until the post-World War I major governmental changes of 1918. Albrecht, studied at several German universities and in Padua.
From 1557 he resided at the court of the Prince of Orange-Nassau.