Ulrich von Liechtenstein
Ulrich von Liechtenstein (ca. 1200 – 26 January 1275) was a German minnesinger and poet of the Middle Ages. He wrote poetry in Middle High German and was author of noted works about how knights and nobles may lead more virtuous lives. Ulrich was a member of a wealthy and influential ministerialis family from Liechtenstein in Styria. He was born about 1200 at Murau in the Duchy of Styria, located in the present-day country of Austria.
Ulrich wrote his stories at a time when knightly ideals were just being promulgated from Western Europe. He outlines rules for
Details of Ulrich's life are difficult to ascertain. Much of what scholars know relies heavily upon information gleaned from his often-fictional, self-styled autobiographical work the Frauendienst (trans. Service of Ladies). Separating fact from stylized hyperbole has proven difficult for historians.[2]
Life
From the age of 12 onwards, Ulrich received training as a
When
Leader of the Styrian nobility, Ulrich had a hand in absorbing the duchy into the possessions of
Many aspects of his life are unrecorded, but some genealogy survives. He had a brother named Hartnid who served as Bishop of Gurk from 1283 to 1298[9] and a brother named Dietmar IV of Liechtenstein-Offenburg, who had a son named Gundaker.[10] Besides Ulrich's son, Ulrich II, he had a daughter named Diemut (who married Wulfing of Trennstein), a son named Otto II and a son-in-law named Herrand II of Wildon by an unnamed daughter.[11]
Ulrich died on 26 January 1275.[12] He was buried in Seckau in modern-day Austria.
Works
Frauendienst
Ulrich is famous for his supposedly autobiographical
Frauenbuch
Frauenbuch was a dialogue set in 1240, published in 1257, lamenting the decay of chivalric courtship.
Popular culture
The protagonist of the 2001 film
Notes
- ^ Freed, pp. 263-5
- ^ Freed, pp. 249-251
- ^ Freed, p. 252
- ^ Freed states that "The text (stanza 29) says Margrave Henry of Austria, but Heinrich of Mődling was never styled a margrave. Some scholars have thus been inclined to identify Ulrich's teacher as Margrave Heinrich IV of Istria." Freed, p. 252 n. 82.
- ^ Arnold, p. 105; Freed, p. 199
- ^ Freed, p. 200-1
- ^ Freed, p. 200
- ^ Arnold, p. 178, Freed, p. 263
- ^ Freed, p. 266
- ^ Freed, pp. 199-200
- ^ Freed, p. 262
- ^ Freed, p. 250
- ^ Alluded to in stanza 397, lines 1-4. Freed, p. 250
- ^ Freed, p. 254-5
- ISBN 9781136775192.
Bibliography
- Arnold, Benjamin. German Knighthood 1050-1300 Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985)
- Freed, John B.Noble Bondsmen: Ministerial Marriages in the Archdiocese of Salzburg, 1100–1343 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995)
- Murray, Alan V., 'Tourney, Joust, Foreis and Round Table: Tournament Forms in the Frauendienst of Ulrich von Liechtenstein', in Pleasure and Leisure in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age: Cultural-Historical Perspectives on Toys, Games, and Entertainment, ed. Albrecht Classen (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019), pp. 365–94
- Ulrich von Liechtenstein, The Service of Ladies, translated by J.W. Thomas, UK: Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2004, ISBN 1-84383-095-7