Lower Saxon Circle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A map of the Imperial Circles as at the beginning of the 16th century.  The Lower Saxon Circle is shown in red.
A map of the Imperial Circles as at the beginning of the 16th century. The Lower Saxon Circle is shown in red.

The Lower Saxon Circle (in German, Niedersächsischer Reichskreis) was an Imperial Circle of the Holy Roman Empire.

An unusual aspect of this circle was that at various times the kings of Denmark, Great Britain, and Sweden were all princes of a number of the member states.

[edit] Composition

The circle was made up of the following states:

Name Type of entity Comments
Blankenburg am Harz Principality Held by the Dukes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1731
Bremen Archbishopric Secularized as a duchy in 1648 and then held by Sweden until 1719
Bremen Imperial City
Brunswick-Celle Principality Subdivision of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Brunswick-Grubenhagen Principality Subdivision of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg
Brunswick-Calenberg Principality, Duchy Subdivision of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Calenberg dukes managed to get all of Brunswick except Wolfenbüttel
Brunswick-Lüneburg Duchy Later became known as the Electorate of Hanover
Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel Principality, Duchy Became Duchy of Brunswick in 1815
Goslar Imperial City
Halberstadt Bishopric Secularized as a principality held by Brandenburg in 1648
Hamburg Imperial City
Hildesheim Bishopric
Holstein Duchy
Holstein-Glückstadt Duchy
Holstein-Gottorp Duchy
Lübeck Bishopric
Lübeck Imperial City
Magdeburg Archbishopric Secularized as a duchy held by Brandenburg in 1680
Mecklenburg Duchy Partitioned into Mecklenburg-Güstrow and Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1621, re-unified in 1695, and partitioned finally into Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg-Strelitz in 1701
Mecklenburg-Güstrow Duchy
Mecklenburg-Schwerin Duchy
Mecklenburg-Strelitz Duchy
Mühlhausen Imperial City
Nordhausen Imperial City
Rantzau County Held by the King of Denmark from 1734
Ratzeburg Bishopric Secularized as a principality held by the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1648
Regenstein County
Saxe-Lauenburg Duchy
Schwerin Bishopric Secularized as a principality held by the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in 1648

[edit] Sources

The list of states making up the Lower Saxon Circle is based on that in the German Wikipedia article Niedersächsischer Reichskreis.


In other languages