Verden

The Prince-Bishopric of Verden was an ecclesiastical state of the Holy Roman Empire on the Aller in Lower Saxony. In 1337 Bishop Johan ruled its lands from Verden.

Lutheran teaching spread from 1558, followed by a Protestant ordinance in 1568. During the Thirty Years’ War, the Catholic Francis of Wartenberg briefly regained the see from 1630 to 1634. The Peace of Westphalia secularized Verden in 1648, making it a Swedish principality governed with Bremen until 1712.