Second Margrave War participant Electorate of Saxony
On July 9, 1553, the allied troops of Elector Maurice of Saxony and Duke Henry V of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel engaged Albert's troops at the massive Battle of Sievershausen. Brunswick and Saxony won a decisive victory, but at the cost of thousands of lives: Maurice himself was killed in the battle, while Henry lost both of his sons. With 12,000 casualties, the battle was one of the bloodiest to have been fought on Lower Saxon territory.
With his levied army mostly defeated, the path to Brandenburg-Kulmbach lay open for invasion. Troops from Brunswick, Bohemia, Bamberg, Nuremberg, and other parts of the Empire streamed into the Franconian heartland. Hof and Bayreuth were put to the flame, while countless castles and towns in Albert's domain were destroyed. On St. Conrad's Day, 26 November 1553, Albert's residence of Kulmbach was sacked and destroyed, with many civilians being massacred or fleeing the town. The Plassenburg closed its gates to the fleeing civilians and remained unconquered for almost another year, until July 1554. As the tide of the war decisively turned against Albert, the Imperial Ban against him was reinstated. Albert attempted to save his home and marched his troops into Franconia once more, but was again defeated in battle at Schwarzach, after which he was forced to surrender the Plassenburg, which was slighted. Albert initially fled to France, then finding refuge with the family of his sister Kunigunde, whose husband was Charles II, Margrave of Baden-Durlach. He died in Pforzheim a few years later, on January 8, 1557. His possessions underwent imperial sequestration under the administration of the Bohemian chancellor Count von Schlick, and after Albert's death they passed to his cousin, George Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, who oversaw a rebirth of the war-weary territories.