Minden

The Prince-Bishopric of Minden was an ecclesiastical state of the Holy Roman Empire on the middle Weser. In 1337 Louis of Brunswick-Lüneburg of the House of Welf ruled from Minden.

The Reformation took hold in the sixteenth century under the influence of neighbouring Welf duchies. Swedish troops occupied Minden during the Thirty Years' War and ended episcopal rule. The Peace of Westphalia secularized it in 1648 and granted it to Brandenburg; from 1719 Prussia administered it with Ravensberg as Minden-Ravensberg.