Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

FIGHTING FOR LOVE:
ULRICH VON LICHTENSTEIN
II
aname made famous by Hollywood, there
was a real Ulrich von Lichtenstein. Born of a
noble family in the Duchy of Styria (in what
is now central Austria) some time around 1200, he
was knighted along with 249 others at the betrothal
of the daughter of the Duke of Austria. He served as
an administrator in his native duchy, married and
had children; his son, also named Ulrich, married
the daughter of Conrad von Goldegg, a powerful
vassal and administrator of the Archbishop of
Salzburg. He died at the age of 78 and was buried in
Sekau, the site of a Benedictine monastery.
In this regard Ulrich's career is uninspiring,
typical of so many of the minor nobility across
Europe, and he would be of relatively little account
except that he was a Minnesanger, one of the
collection of German princes, nobles, knights and
clerics famed for their verse. His poem, Fraueridienst
or 'The Service of Ladies', rather than being a
retelling of heroic romance or a political poem, is a
supposedly autobiographical work detailing his
experience of fin amors.
Falling for his lady at the age of 12, whilst serving
as her page, Ulrich determined to serve her as a
wandering 'knight errant', proving his devotion and
love by deeds of arms. As was right and proper in
matters of courtly love the object of his desire was
older and more high-born than he, and spurned his
advances, declaring him to be of too little renown
and ugly because of his hare lip. Rather than give up
his pursuit, Ulrich had his lip operated on and
undertook to travel widely, building his reputation
as a fine tourneyer.
His lip was not the only physical sacrifice he was
to make. At Trieste he was struck on the hand,
leaving a finger hanging by a thread. Although a
doctor was able to save it, Ulrich had sent a message
to his lady that he had lost it. When she challenged
him for the lie, Ulrich had a friend cut it off and sent
it to her, attached to a love poem. Even though the
lady kept this macabre gift, still she declared herself
unmoved by his devotion.
He then embarked on perhaps the most bizarre
aspect of his already strange tale. He sent out a letter
in the guise of Venus to knights from northern Italy to
the border of Bohemia, challenging them to prove
their love for their ladies by jousting with him. Each
knight who broke a lance was to win a gold ring to
give to his lady, whilst each man unhorsed by Ulrich
was to bow in honour of Ulrich's (still unnamed and
secret) lady.
At each of the tournament venues on the journey
he arrived dressed as Venus, in gown, veil and a wig
of blonde tresses, and accompanied by a fine retinue
of servants and pages all clad in white. Many knights
took up the theme of this grand chivalric spectacle,
greeting him as the Goddess of Love, feting him
at banquets and pageants and appearing on the
tournament field in their finest array to fight with
him. One knight appeared wearing the habit of a
monk over his armour and a tonsured wig covering
his helmet. At first Ulrich refused to fight him;
dressing as a woman was acceptable in the context
of a chivalric pageant but, for Ulrich at least, dressing
as a monk was not. When he was persuaded by the
other knights to accept the challenge, he made sure
to make the knight pay for his blasphemy by striking
him square on the helmet, knocking him senseless.
The Venusfahrt, 'The journey of Venus', lasted
five weeks, during which time Ulrich fought in both