As a small child his parents sent Ulrik to his maternal grandparents Ulrich, Duke of Mecklenburg and his consort Duchess Elizabeth of Denmark.

In the following years Ulrik stayed partly at Kalundborg castle or at Sorø Abbey, or he accompanied his parents on their journeys in Denmark.

Until his death in 1588 his father Frederick II wielded his influence in order to provide his second-born Ulrik with prebendaries within the Holy Roman Empire, such as a canonicate at the Minster of Straßburg (Strasbourg), or the post of administrator in a Lutheran-ruled prince-bishopric.

When in 1590 Sophie and Ulrich met in Wolfenbüttel on the wedding of their (grand)daughter Elisabeth, she gained his promise to provide Ulrik with the succession in the prince-bishopric.

To cathedral provost Heinrich von der Lühe she promised that as long as Ulrich I will be alive her son the to-be-elected coadjutor would not demand any appanage further charging the revenues of the prince-bishopric.

Ulrich claimed a greater right of his House of Nikloting to provide a candidate, however, the chapter insisted on its privilege to freely elect the administrator, but was not averse to choosing an indigenous prince accepted by the ducal family.

The Ulrich's Chancellor Jacob Bording and the capitular Dean Otto Wackerbarth conceptualised the election capitulation, comparable to those signed by the administrators of the prince-bishoprics of Bremen, Lübeck, and Ratzeburg.

The chapter then postulated Ulrik as coadjutor and Ulrich I sent his daughter a copy of the writ recording it (documentum postulationis) on 7 May 1591 with Sophie testifying its reception on 15 May.

Ulrich I in his function as Duke of Mecklenburg-Güstrow and his ducal councillors refused, fearing to lose any say in the prince-bishopric and its complete alienation as estate under Nikloting influence.

So Ulrik, worried about his sustenance, claimed an actual rule in the Duchies of Holstein and Schleswig, however, giving rise to strong tensions between him and his elder brother, the still minor King Christian IV of Denmark.

[2] News of his arrival, the feasting, entertainments, and his travels in Scotland with James VI spread to Berwick-upon-Tweed in England, where there was some doubt if the honoured guest was Ulrik or his brother Christian IV.

[4] On his return there were banquets at Holyrood Palace and in John MacMorran's house in Riddle's court in Edinburgh, which included sugar works made by Jacques de Bousie.

It was secretly planned that when the Duke left Scotland he would be accompanied with Scottish ambassadors on a mission to Denmark and Germany to promote James' title to the English crown after the death of Queen Elizabeth and secure promises of military support.

[19] At the wedding of Philip Herbert and Susan de Vere on St John's day, 27 December 1604, Ulrik escorted the bride into church with his nephew, Prince Henry.

He upset Nicolo Molin again when he sat in the Venetian's place of honour opposite Prince Henry at the wedding of Philip Herbert and Susan de Vere.

[20] Molin felt that Ulrik, who had also missed his supper, made up for this by standing hatless in the royal box during the three-hour masque and ballet that finished off the evening.

[21] A week after the wedding, on Twelfth Night, Prince Charles was made Duke of York and Ulrik attended the entertainment arranged by his sister, Inigo Jones and Ben Jonson's Masque of Blacknesse.

The actor Richard Burbage arranged a revival of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost for Ulrik and Anne in January 1605, performed either at the house of Robert Cecil or Henry, Earl of Southampton.

[23] Ulrik also tried to form a theatre company of his own, led by the actor Martin Slater, who had been in Scotland in 1599 with Lawrence Fletcher and may have met Holstein there (or more likely in London in 1597).

[24] Slater and Aaron Holland planned to convert stables forming a square courtyard of an inn into a new theatre, by adding galleries.

Probably in February 1605, King James thought of bringing Princess Elizabeth from Coombe Abbey to Greenwich Palace to meet Ulrik.

The Privy Council wrote to the courtier Roger Aston that Anne of Denmark had suggested delaying this, because the hall used for plays and masques had collapsed and she herself was pregnant, (with Princess Mary).

It was said that he had been trying to raise soldiers to fight in Hungary, though John Chamberlain thought they would not achieve much, "with a Man able to do them no more good," referring to Ulrik's lack of funds.

[41] Molin wrote that the Queen would not speak to her younger brother for two months because she felt Ulrik had presumed too much to have free unimpeded access to her state apartments.

Ulrik, his brother Christian IV and his grandfather Ulrich I signed and sealed this election capitulation, stipulating the following: The chapter had dropped (1) to demand its enfeoffment with Uelitz and Wichmannsdorf, (2) to oblige Ulrik to run brickworks in order to repair the Schwerin Cathedral, and (3) to absolve the civil servants of the prince-bishopric from obeying the administrator in case of his breach of the election capitulation.

The commander-in-chief of the prince-bishopric Wedige von Leisten took the prince-episcopal castles, fortresses and armoury into custody and sealed the private rooms of the deceased administrator.

On 27 March the chapter, gathered in Bützow, addressed Ulrik to take up the administration, and the next day Provost Joachim von Bassewitz travelled to Ulrich I's daughter the Danish Queen dowager Sophie, who then stayed in Güstrow, to orally negotiate the affairs of the prince-bishopric, the funeral of Ulrich I and to forward the chapter's letter to her son Ulrik (29 March).

In addition, the provost demanded to return the inventory list of all estates of the prince-bishopric and the chapter, which Ulrich I had earlier taken to his residence in Bützow.

In December 1616 Ulrich II attended the enfeoffment of his paternal nephew, Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp, as Duke of Schleswig (ducal share) in Kolding.

His mother Sophie, his sisters Elisabeth, Duchess dowager of Wolfenbüttel and Augusta, Duchess dowager of ducal Holstein and Schleswig, as well as his nephews Ulrik, the future administrator Ulrich III, and Christian, and Adolf Frederick I, Duke of Mecklenburg including all their entourages attended Ulrich II's funeral in the Collegiate Church of Ss.