Ulrich von Lichtenstein (1200-1276) - a well-respected Austrian knight whose family founded the European principality bearing his name - swore his love to a high-born married princess. Standard practice for a chivalrous Christian knight. In his autobiography in verse, Frauendienst (or The Service of Women), he describes some of the acts he preformed over fifteen years to show his devotion: he stole and drank her bathwater; he sent her his pinkie, which he said he lost jousting in her honor (actually he had a friend cut it off); he mixed with lepers to beg alms from her.

Richard Zacks, An Underground Education (334)