View source for Hugo von Montfort

{{Short description|Austrian minstrel}}
{{no footnotes|date=February 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
[[File:Hugo Von Montfort.png|thumb|A fresco of the last court minnesinger, Hugo von Montfort, from Pfannberg Castle|330x330px]]
'''Hugo von Montfort''' (1357 &ndash; 4 April 1423) was an [[Archduchy of Austria|Austrian]] [[minstrel]] of the [[Late Middle Ages]].

==Life==
Hugo VII was a scion of the comital house of [[Counts of Montfort (Swabia)|Montfort]] at [[Bregenz]], head of an old and influential [[Swabia]]n family of nobles, holding numerous high administrative posts. By his mother Countess Ursula of [[Château de Ferrette|Ferrette]] (''Pfirt''), he was related with the Austrian [[House of Habsburg]]. About 1373 he married the [[Duchy of Styria|Styrian]] countess Margaret, granddaughter of Count [[Ulrich V, Count of Pfannberg|Ulrich V of Pfannberg]] and widow of Count Hans of [[Counts of Celje|Cilli]]. With his wife's estates around [[Burgruine Pfannberg|Pfannberg]] in the [[Mur (river)|Mur]] valley, he vastly increased the area controlled by the House of Montfort. Upon Margarte's death about 1395, he secondly married Countess Clementia of [[Counts of Toggenburg|Toggenburg]]. In 1399 he also acquired [[Burg Festenburg|Festenburg Castle]] in eastern Styria. In 1402 Hugo married, for the third time, the [[Bohemia]]n noble Anna of [[Jindřichův Hradec|Neuhaus]], widow of the Styrian governor Hans of [[Stadeck]].

As second-born son, he had prepared for an ecclesiastical career, but spent most of his adult life as a politician in the Habsburg service: as commander in chief of the [[duke|ducal]] Austrian troops in [[Kingdom of Italy (medieval)|Italy]], as ''[[Hofmeister (office)|Hofmeister]]'' of Duke [[Leopold IV, Duke of Austria|Leopold IV]], as governor of Styria (1412–1415), and as ''[[Vogt|Landvogt]]'' in the [[Thurgau]], [[Aargau]], and [[Black Forest]] regions of [[Further Austria]]. Hugo died aged 66 at Pfannberg and was buried in the parish church of [[Bruck an der Mur]] in [[Upper Styria]].

==Works==
Hugo wrote [[song]]s and ''Minnebrief'' [[rhyme]]s, as well as political and didactic speeches. About 1402 he had a first [[manuscript]] of his works drawn up. Approximately 40 of his texts are preserved in an elaborate 1414 [[codex]]. Though still standing in the shadow of his famous contemporary [[Oswald von Wolkenstein]], he is today considered one of the last important representatives of the German ''[[Minnesang]]''.

== Photo gallery ==
<gallery mode="nolines" widths="300">
File:Hugo von Montfort Wappen cpg329.jpg|alt=|Montfort coat of arms, 1414 codex
File:Bregenz Oberstadt Brunnen Hugo von Montfort.jpg|alt=|Montfort statue in [[Bregenz]]
File:Bregenz Oberstadt Brunnen Hugo von Montfort detail.jpg|alt=|Montfort statue in [[Bregenz]] (detail)
</gallery>

==Recordings==
* ''Die lieder des Hugo von Montfort: "Fro welt, ir sint gar húpsch und schón"'' [[Eberhard Kummer]]. ORF Alte Musik CD3011 [CDx2+DVD]

==Further reading==
*Wernfried Hofmeister: ''Hugo von Montfort. Das poetische Werk''. De Gruyter, Berlin 2005, {{ISBN|3-11-017604-1}}
*Anke Sophie Meyer: ''Hugo von Montfort. Autorenrolle und Repräsentationstätigkeit''. Kümmerle, Göppingen 1995, {{ISBN|3-87452-855-3}}

{{Commons category|Hugo VIII, Count of Montfort-Pfannberg}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hugo von Montfort}}
[[Category:1357 births]]
[[Category:1423 deaths]]
[[Category:Minnesingers]]
[[Category:People from Styria]]
[[Category:Medieval Knights of the Holy Sepulchre]]
[[Category:15th-century Austrian writers]]
[[Category:15th-century poets from the Holy Roman Empire]]