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 count of Württemberg. He succeeded his kinsman Eberhard II. as duke of Württemberg in 1498, being declared of age in 1503. He served the German king, Maximilian I., in the war over the succession to the duchy of Bavaria-Landshut in 1504, receiving some additions to Württemberg as a reward; he accompanied Maximilian on his unfinished journey to Rome in 1508; and he marched with the imperial army into France in 1513. Meanwhile in Württemberg Ulrich had become very unpopular. His extravagance had led to a large accumulation of debt, and his subjects were irritated by his oppressive methods of raising money. In 1514 a rising under the name of “poor Conrad” broke out, and was only suppressed after Ulrich had made important concessions to the estates in return for financial aid. The duke’s relations with the Swabian league, moreover, were very bad, and trouble soon came from another quarter also. In 1511 Ulrich had married Sabina, a daughter of Albert III., duke of Bavaria-Munich, and niece of the emperor Maximilian. The marriage was a very unhappy one, and having formed an affection for the wife of a knight named Hans von Hutten, a kinsman of Ulrich von Hutten, the duke killed Hans in 1515 during an altercation. Hutten’s friends now joined the other elements of discontent. Fleeing from her husband, Sabina won the support of the emperor and of her brother William IV., duke of Bavaria, and Ulrich was twice placed under the imperial ban. After the death of Maximilian in January 1519 the Swabian league interfered in the struggle, and Ulrich was driven from Württemberg, which was afterwards sold by the league to the emperor Charles V.

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, and about 1523 he announced his conversion to the reformed faith. His opportunity came with the outbreak of the Peasants' War. Posing as the friend of the lower orders and signing himself “Ulrich the peasant,” his former oppressions were forgotten and his return was anticipated with joy. Collecting men and money, mainly in France and Switzerland, he invaded Württemberg in February 1525, but the Swiss in his service were recalled owing to the defeat of Francis I. of France at Pavia; the peasantry were unable to give him any serious support, and in a few weeks he was again a fugitive. During his exile Ulrich had formed a friendship with Philip, landgrave of Hesse; and his restoration, undertaken by Philip, is an event of some importance in the political history of the Reformation. In 1526 Philip had declared he was anxious to restore the exiled duke, and about the same time Francis I. and Zwingli had intimated their willingness to assist in a general attack upon the Habsburgs. Many difficulties, however, barred the way, and it was 1534 before Philip was prepared to strike. In January of that year Francis I. had definitely promised assistance; the Swabian league had just been dissolved; and, after a manifesto had been issued by Ulrich and Philip justifying the proposed undertaking, Württemberg was invaded in April 1534. Charles V. and his brother, the German king, Ferdinand I., could send but little assistance to their lieutenants, and on the 13th of May the troops of the Habsburgs were completely defeated at Lauffen. In a few weeks Ulrich was restored, and in June 1534 a treaty was negotiated at Kaaden by which he was recognized as duke by Ferdinand, but was to hold Württemberg under Austrian suzerainty. After some hesitation Ulrich yielded to the solicitations of Philip, and signed the treaty in February 1535.

The duke now lost no time in pressing on the teaching of the reformed doctrines of Luther and Zwingli. Many convents and monasteries were destroyed, and extensive seizures of church property formed a welcome addition to his impoverished exchequer. Taxation, however, was so heavy that he soon lost his temporary popularity. In April 1536 he joined the league of Schmalkalden, though he did not assent to some of the schemes of Philip of Hesse for attacking Charles V. In 1546 his troops fought against the emperor during the war of the league of Schmalkalden, but with disastrous results for Württemberg. The duchy was quickly overrun, and the duke compelled to

agree to the treaty of Heilbronn in January 1547. By this treaty Charles, ignoring the desire of Ferdinand to depose Ulrich again, allowed him to retain his duchy, but stipulated that he should pay a large sum of money, surrender certain fortresses, and appear as a suppliant before the emperor at Ulm. Having submitted under compulsion to the Interim issued from Augsburg in May 1548, Ulrich died on the 6th of November 1550 at Tubingen, where he was buried. He left a son, Christopher (1515–1568), who succeeded him.

ULRICI, HERMANN (1806–1884), German philosopher, was born at Pforten, Prussia, on the 23rd of March 1806. He was educated for the law, but gave up his profession on the death of his father, and devoted four years to the study of literature, philosophy and science. In 1834 he was called to a professorship at Halle, where he remained till his death, on the 11th of January 1884. His philosophical standpoint may be characterized as a reaction from the pantheistic tendency of Hegel’s idealistic rationalism towards a more pronouncedly theistic position. The Hegelian identity of being and thought is also abandoned and the truth of realism acknowledged, an attempt being made to exhibit idealism and realism as respectively incomplete but mutually complementary systems. Ulrici’s later works, while expressing the same views, are largely occupied in proving the existence of God and the soul from the basis of scientific conceptions, and in opposition to the materialistic current of thought then popular in Germany.

ULSTER, EARLS OF. The earldom of Ulster was the first title of honour in Ireland of English creation, and for more than a century was the only one. By many authorities (q.v.), the conqueror of Ulster, is held to have been the first earl of Ulster; “it is, however, certain,” says J.H. Round, “that this title was the invention of a late chronicler, and that it first appears in the Book of Howth, where we read of “Sir John Courcey, earl and president of Ulster.” The confusion probably arose from the words of a charter, dated the 29th of May 1205, by which King John confirmed to Hugh de Lacy, whom he then created earl of Ulster, a grant of Ulster “as John de Courci held it on the day when Hugh conquered and took him prisoner in the field”; these words referring not to the earldom but to the lands held by de Courci, and possibly also to the authority which he had exercised in the king’s name. The earldom therefore dates from this grant to de Lacy in 1205.

1st Earl of Ulster (d. 1242 ?), was descended from Walter de Lacy (d. 1085), who fought for William the Conqueror at Hastings. The family came from Lassy in Normandy, and after the Conquest Walter de Lacy obtained extensive grants of land on the Welsh marches. He was the first baron Lacy by tenure, and was probably a brother, certainly a kinsman, of Ilbert de Lacy, from whom were descended Roger de Lacy, justiciar in the reign of King John, and the (q.v.) of the de Lacy family. Although Walter had three sons, one of whom founded Llanthony Abbey, none of them left