Ulrich of Denmark (1611–1633)

Ulrich was born in 1611 . A few years later, Christian IV drew all his influence to provide his third son Frederick and Ulrich with possessions or offices of prince-bishops within the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1622, Ulrich received the rank of canon of the Bremen Cathedral , where his brother Frederick was appointed coadjutor in September 1621 - in fact, heir to the title of prince-bishop. In addition, in 1622, Ulrich was elected coadjutor of Prince-Bishop of Schwerin , where his uncle Ulrich II served as Prince-Bishop. The plan for the further provision of the Pomeranian bishopric of Cummin to Ulrich failed.

When his uncle Ulrich II died suddenly in 1624 , Ulrich and his grandmother, the Danish queen Sofia Mecklenburg-Güstrow , attended a funeral and burial in the monastery church in Bücov. Sofia successfully promoted the succession of Ulrich as Prince-Bishop of Schwerin, although he was only 13 years old.

In 1627, Ulrich graduated from the Soryo Abbey Academy and went on a journey to the Netherlands and France, returning in the spring of 1628 .

Shortly after that, in the same year, he went to war under the command of the King of Sweden Gustav II Adolf as part of his invasion of Prussia during the Polish-Swedish war (1626-1629) . He was marked by the king before returning to Denmark in November 1628. At the same time, the forces of the Catholic League, Albrecht Wallenstein, conquered most of Jutland, forcing Christian IV to sign the Treaty in Lübeck on May 22, 1629 , declaring, among other things, that Christian IV, on his own behalf and on behalf of his sons, waives his rights to the bishopric. Thus, Ulrich lost Schwerin.

Military career

In support of his maternal uncle Christian IV, King of England, Ireland, Scotland, Charles I sent English and Scottish mercenaries to the swamps of western Schleswig . In June 1629, Ulrich received the task of ensuring their repatriation to the North Sea. He then traveled through Glukstadt to the Dutch Republic and took part under the command of the stadator Frederick-Heinrich of Orange at the siege of 's-Hertogenbosch. After this, Ulrich returned to Denmark. In April 1630, he accompanied his father in his campaign against Hamburg.

At the same time, Christian IV tried to get close to Emperor Ferdinand II and Wallenstein to restore his sons to their possessions in Schwerin and Ferden. To this end, Ulrich participated in Regensburg in the Sejm of the electoral princes in July-November 1630 , where he met with Leopold V, the Archduke of Austria, brother of Ferdinand II, and Wallenstein, but the efforts of the Danish king were in vain. The electoral princes, fearing the emperor's position would be strengthened, sent Wallenstein to resign and decided to requisition the property of the Lutherans (Ulrich was a Lutheran, like his family) in favor of the Catholic Church.

Then Ulrich, in search of livelihood, went to England through the Dutch Republic to visit his cousin, King Charles I, asking him to pay an annual pension. Ulrich spent the winter of 1630/31 in Denmark, before going back to fight under the command of the Protestant rulers of Brandenburg and Saxony.

Meanwhile, the Swedish Lutheran troops conquered the bishopric of Schwerin occupied by Catholics, so Ulrich hoped to restore his rule with the help of Gustav Adolf. To this end, Ulrich even calculated a marriage with Princess of Sweden Christina. But despite these efforts and new negotiations by Christian IV with the princes, the emperor and Wallenstein did not accept the restoration of Ulrich.

Tired of traveling, 21-year-old Ulrich received his father’s consent to go to Saxon military service. In February 1632 he arrived at the court of Johann George I, Elector of Saxony . He did not like the Dresden court life, where people were more concerned about comfort than the ongoing war. So Ulrich was very happy when he went camping as a colonel of the Saxon army in March 1632 and soon advanced to the rank of general of the Saxon artillery.

In Denmark, Ulrich hired a cuirassier company and, at its head in the summer, joined the Saxon army of Hans Georg von Arnim-Boyzenburg in Silesia. He probably participated in the capture of Gross-Glogau and remained in Neis for a year. In a Jesuit college, he found the sky globe Tycho Brahe , who sent home to Denmark as a war trophy. After a quiet and peaceful winter of 1632/1633, hostilities resumed in January, and Ulrich was able to distinguish himself.

At the same time, the plans for the marriage of Ulrich and Christina of Sweden reappeared, but they were eventually rejected by Axel Oxensherna . Ulrich, meanwhile, received the opportunity to get even with Wallenstein for the loss of possessions on the battlefield. In May 1633, Wallenstein was re-appointed commander of the imperial army. His attempts to negotiate with the Protestant rulers regularly led to truces, during one of which Ulrich met Wallenstein. Ulrich interrupted the negotiations and joined the battle with the forces of Wallenstein, inflicting a serious defeat on the imperial Croatian horsemen. However, new peace negotiations began between the parties, and Ulrich participated in them.

On August 11, 1633 , during one of the meetings in the framework of the negotiations in Shveydnitsa, Ulrich was mortally wounded by a treacherous shot of an imperial rider and died the next night. His body was first delivered to Lignitz, and from there to Dresden , where it remained until the spring of 1634 . The remains of the prince were eventually transported to the chapel of Christian IV in Roskilde Cathedral in 1642 .

In addition to courage, Ulrich can be described as having extensive knowledge in the field of languages, broad literary interests, possessing some talents in painting, music and the recitation of poems. In particular, in his letters to his father, he quoted Martin Opitz , who at that time was considered the main German poet. In 1631, Ulrich published a small satirical essay “Strigelis vitiorum” with ridicule of immoderation in drinking.

• Julius Albert Fridericia, Ulrik, 1611-33, Hertug , in: Dansk biografisk leksikon , vol. XVIII: Ubbe - Wimpffen, pp. 75seqq.
• Georg Christian Friedrich Lisch, "Katharine Hahn, Gemahlin des Herzogs Ulrich, Prinzen von Dänemark, Administrators des Bisthums Schwerin" , in: Jahrbücher des Vereins für Mecklenburgische .). Che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che che Georg 23 (1858), pp. 33-40
• Franz Schildt, Das Bisthum Schwerin in der evangelischen Zeit , in: Jahrbücher des Vereins für Mecklenburgische Geschichte und Altertumskunde , Verein für Mecklenburgische Geschichte und Altertumskunde (ed.), Vol. 49 (1884), pp. 145-279, here pp. 177–191