*** Welcome to piglix ***

Duchy of Bremen

Duchies of Bremen and Verden
Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden (de)
Hertigdömet Bremen och
Hertigdömet Verden
(sv)
States of the Holy Roman Empire, enfeoffed to
1) the Swedish Crown in 1648
2) the Hanoverian Crown in 1733
1648–1807
1813–1823
annexed by Westphalia (1807–1810) and France (1810–1813)


Coat of arms

Former Bremen-Verden as of 1730 (in light pink) pasted over today's state borders (grey) and former region borders (white, as of 1977) with broken lines, indicating their changes between 1731 and 1977. At the northern tip the Land of Hadeln and Cuxhaven are excluded.
Capital Stade
Languages Low Saxon, German
Religion Lutheranism (official),
some Calvinists, very few Jews and Catholics
Government Absolute monarchies in personal union
Monarch
 •  1648–1654
 - 1654–1660
Christina
Charles I Gustav
 •  1660–1697 Charles II
 •  1697–1712 Charles III
 •  1715–1727 Georg I Louis
 •  1727–1760 Georg II Augustus
 •  1760–1820 George III
 •  1820–1823 George IV
Governor-general
 •  1646–1663 Hans Christoffer Königsmarck
 •  1668–1693, de facto
    interrupted 1676–1679
Henrik Horn
Legislature Landschaft (also Stiftstände), convening at Landtage or Tohopesaten (diets)
Historical era Absolutism (European history)
 •  Prince-bishoprics of
    Bremen and Verden
    secularised by the
    Peace of Westphalia
 
 
 
May 15, 1648
 •  First Bremian War
 - Danish invasion
 - Second Bremian War
 - Occup. in Scanian War
1653–1654
1657–1658
1666
1675–1679
 •  Danish occupation
    (Great Northern War)
 - Purchase by Hanover
    from Danes a. Swedes
    ()
 - Assignment of Hadeln
 - French invasion
    (Seven Years' War)

1712–1715

1715 and
1719
1731

1757
 •  Brandenburg-Prussian
    occupation (Second
    Coalition ag. France
)
 - French occupation
    (Conv. of Artlenburg)
 - Prussian occupation
 - French occupation (4th     Coalition ag. France)
 - Annex. by Westphalia
 - Annexed by France
 

1801
1803–
1805
1806

1807
1807–1810
1810–1813
 •  Restitution
    (Battle of the Nations)

1813
 •  Real union with
    Royal Hanover as
    High-Bailiwick of Stade
  1823
Area
 •  1803
(Duchy of Bremen)
5,325.4 km² (2,056 sq mi)
 •  1806
(Duchy of Verden)
1,359.7 km² (525 sq mi)
 •  ca. 1805
(Land of Hadeln)
311.6 km² (120 sq mi)
Population
 •  1803
(Duchy of Bremen) est.
180,000 
     Density 33.8 /km²  (87.5 /sq mi)
 •  1806
(Duchy of Verden) est.
20,000 
     Density 14.7 /km²  (38.1 /sq mi)
Currency Rixdollar
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen Prince-Archbishopric of Bremen
Bishopric of Verden Bishopric of Verden
Free Imperial City of Verden Verden (Aller)
Hadeln Land Hadeln
Kingdom of Hanover
Prince-Bishopric of Münster


Coat of arms

Bremen-Verden, formally the Duchies of Bremen and Verden (German pronun­cia­tion: [ˈfɛːɐ̯dən]; German: Herzogtümer Bremen und Verden), were two territories and immediate fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire, which emerged and gained Imperial immediacy in 1180. By their original constitution they were prince-bishoprics of the Archdiocese of Bremen and Bishopric of Verden.

In 1648, both prince-bishoprics were secularised, meaning that they were transformed into hereditary monarchies by constitution, and from then on both the Duchy of Bremen and the Duchy of Verden were always ruled in personal union, initially by the royal houses of Sweden, the House of Vasa and the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, and later by the House of Hanover.

With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Bremen-Verden's status as fiefs of imperial immediacy became void; as they had been in personal union with the neighbouring Kingdom of Hanover, they were incorporated into that state.

The territory belonging to the Duchies of Bremen and Verden covered a rough triangle of land between the mouths of the rivers Elbe and Weser on the North Sea, in today's German federal states of Hamburg and Bremen (the Elbe-Weser Triangle). This area included most of the modern counties (German singular: Kreis) of Cuxhaven (southerly), Osterholz, Rotenburg upon Wümme, Stade and Verden, now in Lower Saxony; and the city of Bremerhaven, now an exclave of the State of Bremen. The city of Bremen and Cuxhaven (an exclave of Hamburg) did not belong to Bremen-Verden. The Land of Hadeln, then an exclave of Saxe-Lauenburg exclave around Otterndorf, was not part of Bremen-Verden until 1731. Stade was the capital.


...
Wikipedia

...