Lower Saxon Circle

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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 (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	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. Later united with Celle to form Hanover, containing all of Brunswick except Wolfenbüttel.
Brunswick-Lüneburg	Duchy	General name for all Welf territories in the region.
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.

v • d • e Holy Roman Empire – Lower Saxon Circle (1500–1806)

Ecclesiastical princes	Bremen* \| Halberstadt* \| Hildesheim \| Lübeck \| Magdeburg* \| Ratzeburg (until 1701) \| Schwerin*

Secular princes	Bremen† \| Brunswick: Blankenburg (until 1731), Calenberg‡, Celle, Grubenhagen‡, Lüneburg‡, Wolfenbüttel \| Hanover (from 1708)\| Holstein: Glückstadt, Gottorp \| Mecklenburg: Güstrow (until 1695), Schwerin, Strelitz \| Rantzau (until 1734) \| Regenstein \| Saxe-Lauenburg‡

Imperial cities	Bremen \| Goslar \| Hamburg \| Lübeck \| Mühlhausen \| Nordhausen

* until 1648 † from 1648 ‡ until 1708

v • d • e Circles of the Holy Roman Empire after the Imperial Reform

Created in 1500	Bavarian Circle · Franconian Circle · (Lower Rhenish) Westphalian Circle · Lower Saxon Circle · Swabian Circle · Upper Rhenish Circle

Created in 1512	Austrian Circle · Burgundian Circle · Electoral Rhenish Circle · Upper Saxon Circle