Hermann der Damen and Heinrich von Meissen, surnamed _Frauenlob_ for his songs in praise of women, were famous for their _Leiche_, allegorical sacred songs on the order of the 'sequences,’ with melodies strictly adapted to a text, consisting of irregular stanzas with little repetition. Of the songs of the two greatest Minnesinger, Wolfram von Eschenbach and Walther von der Vogelweide, only the poems exist: the melodies passing for theirs are of doubtful origin. The greatest patrons of _Minnegesang_ among the sovereigns of Germany were the Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa), who died in 1190; Conradin, the last of the Hohenstauffen, who died 1268; and Wenceslaus of Bohemia, a contemporary of Conradin. Minnegesang was not to the same extent as Troubadour poetry a courtly art, yet the castles of these sovereigns naturally became centres of development, as did also the courts of the Austrian dukes, when Heinrich von Melk, der Küremberger, Dietmar von Eist and Nithart (Neidhart) held forth; the courts of the margraves of Bavaria and Swabia, where we find the margrave of Rietenburg, Meinloh von Seveningen, Spervogel, and Reinmer von Zweter; and finally the castle of the landgrave of Thuringia, which boasted of such bright ornaments as Tannhäuser, Heinrich von Veldecke, Walter von der Vogelweide, and Wolfram von Eschenbach, of whom the last two have attained the rank of national poets. The formal, stately character of Minnesong prevented its becoming as popular as the Troubadour song in France. Another reason for this is the fact that the more pronounced caste feeling of the Germans forbade them to enlist the assistance of musicians of inferior station. Whatever accompaniment there may have been was provided by the poet-singers themselves. VII