Ulrich

Ulrich (born Feb. 8, 1487, Reichenweier, Alsace—died Nov. 6, 1550, Tübingen, Württemberg) was the duke of Württemberg (1498–1519, 1534–50), a prominent figure in the German religious Reformation.

A grandson of Ulrich V, count of Württemberg, he succeeded his kinsman Eberhard II as duke of Württemberg in 1498, being declared of age in 1503. He obtained territories from the Palatinate through alliance with the Holy Roman emperor Maximilian I and with the Wittelsbachs of Bavaria but fell deeply into debt through keeping too splendid a court. A new tax (1514) provoked the peasant insurrection known as the “Poor Conrad” uprising. The States General then forced him to conclude the Treaty of Tübingen, whereby, in return for their assuming liability for his debts, he granted them important rights. Subsequent breaches of the treaty by Ulrich led to his being expelled by the Swabian League in 1519; and in 1520 the Swabian League sold Württemberg to the emperor Charles V, who in turn granted the territory to his brother Ferdinand.

Ulrich passed some time in Switzerland, France, and Germany, occupied with brigand exploits and in service under Francis I of France; but he never lost sight of the possibility of recovering Württemberg. About 1523 he announced his conversion to the new evangelical faith. On the disintegration of the Swabian League and with the aid of Francis I, Ulrich returned to Württemberg in 1534; and Ferdinand, who was preoccupied with war against the Turks, agreed to his restoration in the Treaty of Kaaden, on condition that he should hold Württemberg as an Austrian fief. Ulrich then invited Lutheran theologians to reform the church, dissolved the monasteries, confiscated ecclesiastical lands, and gave the universities and schools over to the new doctrine. Though the emperor Charles V occupied Württemberg again during his war against the League of Schmalkalden, he restored it to Ulrich on payment of a heavy war indemnity (1547).