Ulrike Louise was a daughter of Prince Frederick William of Solms-Braunfels (1696-1761) from his second marriage to Sophie Magdalene (1701-1744), a daughter of Count Otto of Solms-Laubach.
After her husband died in 1751, she took up government, with imperial permission, together with Landgrave Louis VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt, for her son Frederick V, who was only three years old when his father died.