Angrian

The Angrians are the people of Angria, the middle-Weser country around Minden and one of four Old Saxon subdivisions between Westphalia and Eastphalia. Their name descends from the Angrivarii, a Germanic tribe recorded by Tacitus that joined Arminius against Rome at the Teutoburg Forest in the year 9.

Absorbed into the Saxon confederation, they faced Charlemagne in the Saxon Wars, their commanders making peace near Bückeburg in 775; Minden became a bishop's see in 803, anchoring local Christianization. When Frederick I deposed Henry the Lion in 1180 and split Saxony under the Gelnhausen Charter, Angria passed to Bernhard of Anhalt, after which its old name fell out of use.

In the thirteenth century the middle Weser lands formed the core of the County of Hoya, inherited in 1582 by Brunswick-Lüneburg; old Angria lived on as a Low German region divided among the Empire's bishoprics, counties and duchies. In 1815 Prussia revived the title Duke of Angria among its royal styles.