The legacy of Walther’s Sangspruch was a set of
models and patterns for a century of professional sing-
ers who followed. His love songs, on the other hand,
marked in a sense the end of Minnesang. The art had
soared in the songs of Morungen and Reinmar. Walther
moved through the exhausted concept of hôhe minne and
brought the love song back to earth. But after him no
other Minnesinger approached his or his predecessors’
mastery of the art.
See also Frederick II; Heinrich von Morungen;
Reinmar der Alte
Further Reading
Bäuml, Franz, ed. From Symbol to Mimesis: The Generation of
Walther von der Vogelweide. Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1984.
Bein, Thomas. Walther von der Vogelweide. Stuttgart: Reclam,
1997.
Brunner, Horst, et al. Walther von der Vogelweide: Die gesamte
Überlieferung der Texte und Melodien—Abbildungen, Materi-
alien, Melodiestranskription. Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1977.
——, et al. Walther von der Vogelweide: Epoche—Werk—
Wirkung. Munich: Beck, 1996.
Cormeau, Christoph, ed. Walther von der Vogelweide: Leich,
Lieder, Sangsprüche. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1996.
Goldin, Friedrich. “Walther versus Reinmar,” in The Regeneration
of Poetic Language in Medieval German Literature: Vernacu-
lar Poetics in the Middle Ages, ed. Lois Ebin. Kalamazoo:
Western Michigan University, 1984, pp. 57–92.
Hahn, Gerhard. Walther von der Vogelweide: Eine Einführung.
Munich: Artemis, 1986.
Halbach, Kurt Herbert. Walther von der Vogelweide, 4th ed.
Stuttgart: Metzler, 1983.
Jones, George Fenwick. Walther von der Vogelweide. New York:
Twayne, 1968.
McFarland, Timothy, and Silvia Ranawake, eds. Walther von
der Vogelweide: Twelve Studies. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1982.
Mück, Hans-Dieter. Walther von der Vogelweide: Beiträge zu
Leben und Werk. Stuttgart: Stöffl er and Schütz, 1989.
Müller, Jan-Dirk, and Franz Josef Worstbrock, eds. Walther von
der Vogelweide: Hamburger Kolloquium 1988 zum 65. Ge-
burtstag von Karl-Heinz Borck. Stuttgart: Hirzel, 1989.
Nix, Matthias. Untersuchungen zur Funktion der politischen
Spruchdichtung Walthers von der Vogelweide. Göppingen:
Kümmerle, 1993.
Scheibe, Fred Karl. Walther von der Vogelweide, Troubadour of
the Middle Ages: His Life and His Reputation in the English-
Speaking Countries. New York: Vantage, 1969.
Peter Frenzel
WENCESLAS
(November 26, 1361–Angust 6, 1419)
Wenceslas IV (Václav, Wenzel, king of the Romans
1378–1400, king of Bohemia until 1419) was the eldest
son of Charles IV by his third wife, Anna of Schwei-
dnitz. Wenceslas was born on November 26, 1361, in
Nuremberg. He was elected king of the Romans on
June 10, 1376, and assumed control of imperial affairs
as Staathalter in February of the following year. After
Charles’s death, he inherited the Bohemian crown.
Wenceslas has not enjoyed the good reputation of his
father. In particular, he has been generally condemned
for his sloth, vacillation, and drunkenness.
Wenceslas was faced immediately with several seri-
ous problems. First was the Swabian City League, es-
tablished July 4, 1376. The growth of the league, aimed
directly against the mortgage policies of his rather, led
to a major war, lasting until 1389. The second problem
was the Great Schism, which broke out in the fall of- Wenceslas supported the pope in Rome, Urban
VI. In 1380 he traveled to Paris in an attempt to con-
vince French King Charles V to withdraw support from
the Avignon pope, Clement II. When this effort failed,
on the advice of Urban VI, Wenceslas allied himself
with Richard II of England. The alliance and resulting
marriage between the English king and Wenceslas’s
sister Anna marked a total break with the traditional
pro-French Luxembourg policy. Within the empire, a
group of southern principalities, led by Leopold III of
Austria and Archbishop Pilgrim II of Salzburg, sup-
ported Clement VII.
During the fi rst years of his reign, Wenceslas sought
to resolve the problems of the cities. The Landfriede
(peace) of Nuremberg (1383) marks the fi rst attempt
to divide the empire into districts or counties (Kreise),
anticipating the later reforms of Albrecht II and Maxi-
milian I. After the league’s defeat at Döffi ngen (1388),
the Landfriede of Eger (1389) provided a modicum
of stability for the next several decades. The political
autonomy of the cities was recognized, while they were
banned from making further leagues.
After 1390, problems in Bohemia consumed most of
Wenceslas’s energy. He tended to support the towns and
lower nobility; this provoked resistance from the great
nobles and higher clergy. The archbishop of Prague,
Jan z Jenštejna (1379–1396) in particular proved a
serious opponent of the crown. The torture and murder
of the vicar general of Prague, John of Pomuk (March
20, 1393) by royal offi cials provoked a noble Fronde
in 1394. Wenceslas’s cousin, Margrave Jost of Mora-
via, joined with the nobles and took the king prisoner
(May 8, 1394) with the collusion of Duke Albrecht III
of Austria. Jost was named regent, but the interven-
tion of Wenceslas’s half-brother John of Görlitz and
Ruprecht II of the Palatinate led to the king’s release.
As Wenceslas now turned on his opponents, a civil
war broke out. The deaths of Albrecht III (August 29,
- and John of Görlitz (March 1, 1396) brought an
end to the fi ghting. Wenceslas’s other half-brother, king
Sigismund of Hungary, was able to negotiate a peace
settlement among Jost, Wenceslas, and the nobles. In
return, Sigismund was recognized as Wenceslas’s heir
and named imperial vicar.
WENCESLAS