[1] Albert de Louvain was born in 1166 as the second of two sons to Duke Godfrey III, Count of Leuven, and his first wife Margareta van Limburg.

Albert de Rethel was a maternal-uncle of Empress Constance who had planned to support him with the Emperor but had been captured by Sicilians earlier.

Outside of the city they attacked Albert with their swords and struck him on the head which crushed his skull and caused him to fall, where they made sure they killed him prior to making an escape.

[5] The immediate reaction to the murder was an uprising of the princes of Lower Lorraine led by the dukes of Brabant and Limburg, brother and uncle respectively of the slain bishop.

They formed a group that eventually came to include the archbishops of Cologne and Mainz and other princes, and laid waste the territory of Dietrich of Hochstaden.

The reputation of the holiness of Albert de Louvain soon spread after his death and was hailed as a martyr, thus, leading to the opening of his cause for canonization.

[6] The Vita Alberti episcopi Leodiensis was probably written around 1194 or 1195 by an anonymous monk of Lobbes, from information supplied by Abbot Werrich, who knew Albert well.