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Knight of the week
Sir Brian:
Great news indeed! - Perhaps you can consider a new date for your knighting ceremony? I won't be available until after Mid-June but after that my schedule is wide open. :)
Lord Dane:
Glad you are feeling better Sir John. :D Now we can continue the forum's history lessons. 8)
Joshua Santana:
Excellent News! I am looking forward to reading your research!
Sir John of Felsenbau:
Gentlemen,
I'm still taking it easy with my back...and now it seems my computer is acting up....won't be able to have it checked out till the weekend.
As long as the temps aren't too hot...plus I still have much to finish setting up for my knighting. I'll keep you informed.
Sir John
Sir John of Felsenbau:
Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein wrote two books, the first "Frauendienst" is more of an auto biography. So I will start there. I used many sources to put this together, a lot from his writings himself.
Frauendienst:
Ulrich von Liechtenstein (1200–1278) was a medieval ministerialis and minnesinger, author of noted works about how knights and nobles may lead more virtuous lives, and a powerful leader in the 13th century Eastern Alps. He was born in 1200 at Murau in the Duchy of Styria, located in the present-day State of Austria. His family, a cadet branch of the Bavarian Aribonids named after Liechtenstein Castle near Judenburg.
Ulrich is famous for his supposedly autobiographical 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. However this is not the first famous tournament of Sir Ulrich for his Lady.
A little about the Lady first and how he became to know her. Her name was Beatrice II, Countess of Burgundy (House of Hohenstaufen). Born 1191 to: Otto I, Count of Burgundy and Margaret, Countess of Blois. (thereby a granddaughter of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.) From the time of her father's assassination at Besançon in 1200, she was next-in-line to the County, eventually succeeding Joanna after her death in 1205. Her uncle Philip of Swabia, German king since 1198, had ensured her Burgundian heritage. She was the Countess of Burgundy 1201 – 1231.
Ulrich, at the precocious age of five years (1205), while his favorite amusement was galloping his hobby-horse in the castle court-yard, Ulrich listened eagerly to and treasured in his heart the sayings of his fellow wooden-horsemen, perhaps a year or two older than himself, to the effect that true honor and happiness could be acquired only by faithfully serving a noble and lovely woman, and loving her as one's own life.
On June 21, 1208 (at age 17) Beatrice married Duke Otto of Merania, a member of the Bavarian House of Andechs, by whom she had 6 children. (Otto died in 1234)… The noble family originally resided in southwestern Bavaria at the castle of Niestens near Innsbruck, controlling the road to the March of Verona across the Brenner Pass, at Dießen am Ammersee and Wolfratshausen.
In 1212: Ulrich von Liechtenstein goes to Niesten Castle and serves as a page to the Countess Beatrice II. Undaunted by the fact that she is married and much older than he, he is enamored by her.
At the age of seventeen (1217) he goes off to the court of Margrave Henry of Istria (Henry II, 1204–1228, also Margrave of Carniola) son of Duke Berthold IV of Merania, to serve him as his Squire.
In 1220, After four years of such instruction, his father's death called him home to inherit his property, and he spent the next three years (1220-1222) that followed by tourneying in the noviciate of knighthood.
At Vienna, in 1222, during the great festival in celebration of the marriage of Leopold's daughter, he was knighted by Duke Leopold VI of Austria. Here he saw his lady again; Ulrich did not wake from his to do anything so practical as to speak face to face with her, but gaily rode off to a summer of adventure in twelve tournaments, wherein he invariably fared well, thanks to his devotion.
With the last of autumn, Ulrich's spirit grows heavy. He longs to see his lady, he knows that now he would speak to her. There are no tourneys to distract him, he asks that the countess allow him to be an acknowledged but distant and respectful admirer. She lets him know that he is much too ugly to be considered even in the role of a distant admirer, since he has a hairlip.
Ulrich rides off to find the best surgeon in the country, and submit to an operation. But the doctor decides that the time of year is unsuitable; he must wait until winter is past, keep his three lips until May. (1223)
At last spring(1223) comes and Ulrich returns to the doctor. Ulrich describes the discomfort which he experienced during the healing of the wound, in details which give an unpleasant notion of the methods of mediaeval surgery. As he was able to eat and drink scarcely anything, . Finally the lady allowed him to joust in her name, but she wouldn't part with as much as a ribbon for him to carry.
Another summer (1223) passed in tourneying, and during another winter he tried to amuse himself by making poetry for his lady. This time he sent her a more pretentious tribute, his first "Buchlein," a poem of some four hundred lines. The countess told the bearer that she recognized the merit of the poetry, but she would have nothing to do with it.
Summer again (1224), and the lover has diversion in the sports of chivalry. Anyone interested in the details of mediaeval tournaments will find in Ulrich's narrative a valuable and lively record of the tourney held at Friesach in 1224.
(To be continued)
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