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 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.
Life
Details of Ulrich's life are
difficult to ascertain, for 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.[1]
From age 12 on, Ulrich received
noble training as a page to a lady of much higher station
than he[2] then another four years as a squire to Margrave Henry of Istria,[3] son of Duke Berthold IV of Merania, he was knighted by the Babenberg duke Leopold VI of Austria in 1222. Ulrich is documented as a Styrian Truchsess in 1244/45, from 1267 to 1272 Marshal and in year 1272 also a provincial judge.
When Philip of Sponheim, the Archbishop-Elect of Salzburg,
was deposed by Pope
Alexander IV for
refusing to take holy orders, Philip raised an army to defend his title. In
1250, Ulrich agreed to fight for Philip's cause in return for Philip's
arranging a beneficial marriage of Ulrich's son, Ulrich II, to Kunigunde of
Goldegg and Philip added a dowry of 400 Salzburg pounds to the agreement. In
return Ulrich I agreed to provide Philip with 100 fighting men for his cause.[4] In August 1252 Philip's forces
decisively defeated his enemies at the Battle of Sachsenburg on the Drava, and Ulrich was one of seven who mediated the
ensuing peace.[5]
Leader of the Styrian nobility,
Ulrich had a hand in absorbing the duchy into the possessions of Rudolph
of Habsburg after
the ducal House of Babenberg had become extinct in 1246. It is possible that
Ulrich was one of the noblemen taken prisoner by King Ottokar
II of Bohemia in
1269. He owned three castles, besides Liechtenstein another at Strechau near Lassing in the Enns Valley[6] and the third at his birthplace Murau. When his son Ulrich II married, Ulrich bestowed
upon the couple the castle of Murau along with twenty vassals and revenue.[7]
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[8] and a brother named Dietmar IV of
Liechtenstein-Offenburg, who had a son named Gundaker.[9] 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.[10]
Ulrich died on 26 January 1275.[11] He was buried in Seckau in modern-day Austria.
Works
Ulrich wrote his stories at a time
when knightly ideals were just being promulgated from Western Europe. He
outlines rules for knights, ministeriales, and free nobles to follow to lead
honorable and courtly lives. There are several instances where he places the (unfree)
ministerials and the free nobles in one category separate from the knights to
point out the nobility of his own estate.[12]
·
Frauendienst
Ulrich is famous for his supposedly
autobiographical[13] poetry collection Frauendienst
(Service of the Lady). He writes of himself as a protagonist who does
great deeds of honor to married noblewomen, following the conventions of chaste
courtly love. The protagonist embarks on two
remarkable quests. In the first quest, he travels from Venice to Vienna in the guise of Venus, the goddess of love. He competes
in jousts and tourneys and challenges all the knights he
meets to a duel in the honour of his lady. He breaks 307
lances and defeats all comers. The noblewoman, however, mostly spurns his
affections and demands more deeds and even mutilation for even the honour to
hold her hand. In the second quest, he takes on the role of King Arthur ("Artus"), with his
followers becoming Arthurian Round
Table characters.
Regrettably, the first two pages of the beginning have been lost to time. The
protagonist, Ulrich, wanders through Styria and Austria in the guise of King
Arthur inviting all knights to "break lance" (that is, to joust)
three times with him for honor's sake. In this disguise he attended many
tournaments. The story illustrates how a worthy knight-errant was supposed to
wander about defeating opponents in honorable combat. The story intersperses
some songs and courtly advice to knights and some admonitions to greedy nobles
and faithless squires.[14]
The collection was finished in 1255.[15]
·
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 A Knight's Tale, played by Heath
Ledger, assumes the
title Ulrich von Liechtenstein when he poses as a knight. Being undefeated in
jousts, this was a worthy man's name to take. The name also proved to work well
in the plot and provided the necessary contrast to the hero's true name,
William Thatcher. However, the character claims to come from Gelderland, which was not in Styria but rather in the Low Countries.
Notes
1. Freed, pp. 249-251
2. Freed, p. 252
3.
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.
4.
Arnold, p. 105; Freed, p. 199
5.
Freed, p. 200-1
6.
Freed, p. 200
7.
Arnold, p. 178, Freed, p. 263
8.
Freed, p. 266
9.
Freed, pp. 199-200
10.
Freed, p. 262
11.
Freed, p. 250
12.
Freed, pp. 263-5
13.
Alluded to in stanza 397, lines
1-4. Freed, p. 250
14.
Freed, p. 254-5
Bibliography
·
Arnold, Benjamin. German Knighthood 1050-2300 Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1985)
· Freed, John B.Noble Bondsmen: Ministerial Marriages in the Archdiocese of Salzburg, 1100-1343 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995)
· von Liechtenstein, Ulrich. The Service of Ladies, translated by J.W. Thomas, UK: Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2004, ISBN 1-84383-095-7
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