The fact that he married four years after taking office, suggests a birth date near the end of the range.
In 1310, Ulrich militarily assisted King John of Bohemia, a son of Emperor Henry VII.
In return the Emperor mortgaged him the Jews in the cities in his territory (Babenhausen, Hanau, Steinau an der Straße and Windecken) for 600 pounds of Heller.
In this process, the local nobility agreed to resolve their disputes in a court of law, rather than fighting a feud.
In 1320, King Louis IV mortgaged the district of Bornheimerberg to Ulrich II, as a payment for services rendered during a raid in the Alsace.
Ulrich II's maternal uncle, Count Louis V of Rieneck died in 1333.
Under an agreement Louis V had made with Ulrich I in 1296, Hanau would inherit Rieneck's feudal rights.
This gave rise to a complicated inheritance dispute, which involved other lines of the House of Rieneck and the two largest feudal lords in the area, the Electorate of Mainz and the Bishopric of Würzburg.