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- BIOGRAPHY
Ulrich was born about 1365, the third son of Johann I, Herzog von Mecklenburg-Stargard and his third wife Agnes von Lindau-Ruppin. Ulrich and his wife Herzogin Margarete von Pommern-Stettin, the daughter of Swantibor I, Herzog von Pommern-Stettin and Burggräfin Anna von Nürnberg, had three children, of whom only their son Heinrich would have progeny.
The Mecklenburg-Stargard line was born when Mecklenburg, which had been jointly ruled by Ulrich's father Johann and his elder brother Albrecht II, was split in 1352, at the urging of Johann. Johann became lord of Stargard, Sternburg and Eldenburg, and the first duke of Mecklenburg-Stargard. In 1358 Albrecht purchased the county and city of Schwerin to which he moved his residence from Wismar, and became the first duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. When Ulrich II, the son of Ulrich's son Heinrich, did not leave a male heir, the Mecklenburg-Stargard line became extinct with him in 1471. Heinrich IV-II 'der Dicke', great-grandson of Albrecht II, again ruled over all of Mecklenburg.
Little is recorded about Ulrich, apart from one episode. In 1409 Queen Margrete I of Denmark's adopted son and Denmark's future king, Erik X, son of Wartislaw VII, Herzog von Pommern, forced the Schauenburgers to surrender the city of Flensburg to him. War broke out in 1410, and Eric conquered the islands of Als and Aero. In 1411, the Schauenburgers retook Flensburg, but in 1412 both sides agreed that Ulrich I of Mecklenburg-Stargard should settle the dispute. Ulrich awarded the city to Denmark, and Margrete took possession of it.
Queen Margrete of Denmark had had earlier dealings with Ulrich's cousin Albrecht III, the second son of his uncle Albrecht II, who was elected king of Sweden in 1363. However, soon after Albrecht III succeeded his father in the government of Mecklenburg (in 1383), Queen Margrete appeared as a rival claimant to the throne of Sweden. In 1389 Margrete took Albrecht prisoner, and did not release him until, after six years of captivity, he renounced all claims to the Swedish throne.
Ulrich died on 8 April 1417.
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