Prince-Bishopric of Verden

Origins

The diocese of Verden was founded around 800 in the wake of Charlemagne's wars against the Saxons. Its bishops acquired estates on the Aller and the lower Weser. After the fall of Henry the Lion in 1180 they ruled a secular territory as imperial princes, though their cathedral city of Verden was largely self-governing and they resided at Rotenburg.

Rule and society

The territory was a thinly settled land of heath and moor. Its bishops were usually drawn from the princely houses of northern Germany, especially Brunswick-Lüneburg. The Reformation spread in the 16th century, and Lutheran administrators such as Philip Sigismund of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel replaced Catholic bishops. In the Thirty Years War the see was held by the Danish prince Frederick, later Frederick III of Denmark.

Decline and legacy

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 secularised the see as the Duchy of Verden and gave it to Sweden, which ruled it with Bremen. Denmark seized it in 1712 and sold it to the Electorate of Hanover in 1715. It is now in Lower Saxony.