(b 1357; d Bruck an der Mur, 4 April 1423). German Minnesinger. Born into the family of the dukes of Montfort-Bregenz, he is mentioned in numerous documents and some chronicles. He played a considerable role as a politician and undertook several journeys in the service of the Habsburgs. In 1377 he took part in Duke Albrecht III’s crusade against the Prussians and afterwards in Duke Leopold III’s war against Francesco Carrara of Padua in which Hugo led an invading army to Treviso (1381–2). After the battle of Näfels (1388) he became Austrian governor in Thurgau, Aargau and the Black Forest; from 1395 to 1397 he was master of the household to Duke Leopold IV. Twice widowed, he married for the third time in 1402. After 1400 he lived mostly in Styria of which he was governor from 1413 to 1415. In 1414 he spent some time at the Council of Konstanz, perhaps as the representative of Duke Ernst.
Hugo’s poems survive in D-HEu Pal.Germ.329, a volume prepared in Bregenz, possibly at the commission of the poet himself. There are 38 poems, eight of which have melodies by Bürk Mangolt, Hugo’s squire and minstrel. Two further poems, with music, added to the manuscript in a later hand, are in a different style and are probably not authentic (see especially Jammers, 1956).
Initially, Hugo’s poetry showed links with the classical Minnesang, but in its later phases it became typical of the later medieval age of realistic-didactic literature. As a writer Hugo was well read and talented, but as a poet he was untrained and without formal ambition. His thematic interests were love-poetry (mostly addressed to his wife), laments for the dead, renunciation of the world, criticism of his times and moral instruction.
P. Runge, ed.: Die Lieder des Hugo von Montfort mit den Melodien des Burk Mangolt (Leipzig, 1906)
E. Thurnher and others, eds.: Hugo von Montfort (Göppingen, 1978–81)
F.V. Spechtler and others, eds.: Hugo von Montfort: Gedichte und Lieder (Wiesbaden, 1988)
MGG1 (E. Jammers)
E. Jammers: ‘Die Melodien Hugos von Montfort’, AMw, xiii (1956), 217–35
A. Kayser-Petersen: Hugo von Montfort: Beiträge zum Gattungsproblem im Mittelalter (diss., U. of Munich, 1961)
G. Moczygemba: Hugo von Montfort (Fürstenfeld, 1967)
B. Wachinger: ‘Hugo von Montfort’, Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters: Verfasserlexikon, ed. K. Ruh and others (Berlin, 2/1977–)
I. Bennewitz-Behr: ‘“Fro Welt ir sint gar hüpsch und schön”: die “Frau-Welt”-Lieder der Handschriften mgf 779 und cpg 329’, Jb der Oswald von Wolkenstein-Gesellschaft, iv (1986–7), 117–36
F.V. Spechtler: ‘Hugo von Montfort: Politiker und Dichter’, Hugo von Montfort: Gedichte und Lieder (Wiesbaden, 1988), ii, 61–85
L. Welker: ‘Some Aspects of the Notation and Performance of German Song around 1400’, EMc, xviii (1990), 235–46
BURKHARD KIPPENBERG