The early years of Duke Albrecht III’s reign were marked by the efforts of his brother Leopold III to divide the Habsburg lands. In 1379 this division took place, thus founding the Albertine and the Leopoldine lines of the dynasty: Albrecht received Lower and Upper Austria while his brother was given the other territories. Albrecht made unsuccessful attempts to secure the royal Roman-German crown. He owes his cognomen ‘with the plait’ to a chivalric order that he founded.