ULRICH

born Feb. 8, 1487, Reichenweier, Alsace died Nov. 6, 1550, Tbingen, Wrttemberg duke of Wrttemberg (14981519, 153450), a prominent figure in the German religious Reformation. A grandson of Ulrich V, count of Wrttemberg, he succeeded his kinsman Eberhard II as duke of Wrttemberg 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 rising. The States General then forced him to conclude the Treaty of Tbingen, whereby, in return for their assuming liability for his debts, he granted them important rights. Subsequent breaches of the general peace by Ulrich led to his being expelled by the Swabian League in 1519; and in 1520 the Swabian League sold Wrttemberg 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 Wrttemberg, and in about 1523 he announced his conversion to the Protestant faith. On the disintegration of the Swabian League and with the aid of Francis I, Ulrich returned to Wrttemberg 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 Wrttemberg 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 Wrttemberg again during his war against the League of Schmalkalden, he restored it to Ulrich on payment of a heavy war indemnity (1547).