Ulrich

(1487–1550), Duke of Württemberg, succeeded his uncle Eberhard II as duke of Württemberg in 1498 and was declared of age in 1503. He embarked upon a military career in the service of the Emperor Maximilian, fighting with the imperial army in Bavaria in 1504, accompanying the emperor on his unfinished journey to Rome in 1508 and marching with the imperial army to France in 1513. His imperial ties were confirmed when in 1511 Ulrich married Sabina, daughter of Albrecht III, duke of Upper Bavaria-Munich, and niece of the Emperor Maximilian.

Ulrich's domestic policies were inept and his methods for raising taxes widely resented, and in 1514 a rising known as the ‘poor Conrad’ (armer Konrad) was suppressed only after Ulrich had made concessions to the Estates in return for financial assistance. He embarked on an affair with the wife of a knight, Hans von Hutten, and in 1515 killed the jealous husband in the course of a violent argument. Ulrich's wife Sabina and her supporters sought refuge under the protection of her brother Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria and persuaded the emperor to place Ulrich under imperial interdiction, and Hans's relative Ulrich von Hutten excoriated Ulrich in print. On the death of Maximilian in January 1519, Ulrich supported the candidacy of Francis I and occupied Reutlingen; the Swabian League mobilized its forces and drove Ulrich from Württemberg, which was subsequently sold by the League to the Emperor Charles V. The imperial occupation of the duchy was to continue until 1534.

Ulrich spent his years of exile in the Swiss Confederation, France, and Germany. He initially fought in the army of Francis I, and in 1523 converted to Protestantism under the influence of Oecolampadius. At the outbreak of the Peasants' War he styled himself ‘Ulrich the Peasant’, raised an army from the Swiss cantons and adjoining areas north of the Rhine, and invaded Württemberg in February 1525; his Swiss mercenaries were recalled because of the defeat of Francis I at the battle of Pavia, and Ulrich was forced to withdraw. In 1526 Philip of Hesse declared his support for the campaign to restore the duchy to Ulrich, but the invasion was delayed until April 1534; on 13 May 1534 the Habsburg armies of Charles V and his brother Ferdinand I were defeated by the forces of Ulrich and Philip of Hesse at the battle of Lauffen. In February 1535 Ulrich was formally restored to the duchy under the terms negotiated in June 1534 in the Treaty of Kaaden, under which Ulrich was recognized as the lawful duke but was subject to the suzerainty of Austria.

Ulrich promptly introduced the Reformation into Württemberg, suppressing the monasteries and sequestering church property as a means of replenishing his treasury. In April 1536 he joined the Schmalkaldic League and in 1546 fought against the emperor in the Schmalkaldic War. He was quickly defeated by the duque de Alba, whose army occupied Württemberg; under the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Heilbronn signed in January 1547, Ulrich was allowed to keep his duchy (despite the protestations of Ferdinand) but was forced to hand over large sums of money and control of his defensive fortresses and to appear as a suppliant before the emperor at Ulm. He was subsequently obliged to submit to the Augsburg interim in May 1548. Ulrich died on 6November 1550 at Tübingen and was buried in the Stiftskirche.