RUDOLF VON EMS was one of the leading German vernacular authors of the thirteenth century, active from about 1220 to the mid-1250s. By this time military affairs had formed an important theme in German literature for several centuries, at first in heroic poetry that was transmitted largely in oral form, then from the twelfth century onwards in increasingly complex strands of written literature that combined German traditions with new concerns drawn to a large extent from French and (directly or indirectly) Latin literature. In the medieval literary processing of warfare Rudolf's works have a strong claim to interest in that they bring together these various strands, connecting the worlds of secular, knightly nobility and of religion and school learning. Moreover, since we can locate some of these works among the nobility associated with the Staufen royal court, we have here a writing of warfare that throws light on the concerns of an important section of German society at a politically sensitive time.

Rudolf stemmed from a family of ministeriales, that is to say knightly vassals, in Hohenems in the northern Alps. He describes himself in Willehalm von Orlens as a squire, ‘knappe’ (l. 15627), and the internal evidence of his works shows that he had a good education that allowed him to convey features of Latin learned culture to a lay audience, as well as drawing on French literature.