This article has multiple issues. Please helpimprove it or discuss these issues on thetalk page.(Learn how and when to remove these messages) This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Lower Saxon Circle" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(September 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in German. (March 2012)Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the German article. Machine translation, likeDeepL orGoogle Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consideradding a topic to this template: there are already 1,762 articles in themain category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. Youmust providecopyright attribution in theedit summary accompanying your translation by providing aninterlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary isContent in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Niedersächsischer Reichskreis]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template{{Translated|de|Niedersächsischer Reichskreis}} to thetalk page. For more guidance, seeWikipedia:Translation. (Learn how and when to remove this message)

TheLower Saxon Circle (German:Niedersächsischer Reichskreis) was animperial circle of theHoly Roman Empire. It covered much of the territory of the medievalDuchy of Saxony (except forWestphalia), and was originally called theSaxon Circle (German:Sächsischer Kreis) before later being better differentiated from theUpper Saxon Circle by the more specific name. An unusual aspect of this circle was that, at various times, the kings ofDenmark (inHolstein),Great Britain (inHanover) andSweden (inBremen) were allPrinces of severalImperial States.

The first plans for a Lower Saxon Circle originated fromAlbert II of Germany in 1438. An Imperial Saxon Circle was formally created in 1500, but in 1512 it was divided into anUpper Saxon and Lower Saxon Circle. The division was only codified in 1522, and it took a while before the separation was completely implemented by theImperial Chamber Court. Furthermore, the first mention of an Upper Saxon Circle, a Lower Saxon Circle or the Netherlands occurred much later on. The term Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) was first used only in 1548.

The Lower Saxon Circle included the easternmost part of currentLower Saxony, the northernmost part ofSaxony-Anhalt (excluding theAltmark),^[1]Mecklenburg,Holstein (excludingDithmarschen),Hamburg,Bremen, in addition to small areas inBrandenburg andThuringia. For the most part, it was a continuous territory except for small enclaves likeHalle andJüterbog.Nordhausen andMühlhausen were also areas outside the continuous portion of the imperial circle. Within the circle was thePrince-Bishopric of Verden, which was in personal union with theArchbishopric of Bremen since 1502. The Counties ofSchaumburg andSpiegelberg were also part of the personal union, but they were not a part of the Lower Saxon Circle.

By the downfall of theHoly Roman Empire, the circle had 2,120,00 inhabitants and an area of 1,240 square miles. Concerning religion, almost all the citizens were Protestant. The exception was the partially CatholicBishopric of Hildesheim.

A large part of the circle was made up of territories ruled by theHouse of Welf. With theProtestant Reformation the newly convertedArchbishopric of Magdeburg was ruled from 1513 by administrators from the Brandenburg line of theHouse of Hohenzollern. Also, in 1648 theBishopric of Halberstadt was given to theMargraviate of Brandenburg. TheArchbishopric of Bremen, after the Reformation, was ruled by Danes and Swedes, and after 1715 by the House of Welf. Through theDuchy of Oldenburg, the king ofDenmark became a prince of the imperial circle.

Also as a result of their possessions in the imperial circles, the kings ofPrussia,Sweden, andGreat Britain, who governed theElectorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg, became princes of the empire. Out of the entire empire, the Lower Saxon Circle was ruled the most by foreign kings. Regardless of this, the House of Welf's strong position with the Lower Saxon Circle prevented the dukes ofMecklenburg and the kings of Denmark from completely dominating.

The circle was made up of the following states:

Name	Type of entity	Comments
Bremen	Duchy	Archbishopric of Bremen established in 787 byCharlemagne, secularized in 1648 as fief ofSweden, ceded toGreat Britain in 1715; 12th seat to theReichstag
Bremen	Imperial City	8th Rhenish City from 1186
Brunswick-Calenberg	Duchy	Subdivision ofBrunswick-Lüneburg from 1494, united with Celle in 1705 to formHanover, 34th seat to theReichstag
Brunswick-Celle	Duchy	Subdivision ofBrunswick-Lüneburg from 1269 until 1705, 32nd seat to theReichstag
Brunswick-Grubenhagen	Duchy	Subdivision ofBrunswick-Lüneburg from 1291 until 1596, 36th seat to theReichstag
Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel	Duchy	Subdivision ofBrunswick-Lüneburg from 1269, includedBlankenburg, becameDuchy of Brunswick after Napoleon, 38th seat to theReichstag
Gandersheim	Imperial Abbacy	Established in 852 by DukeLiudolf of Saxony,Immediacy confirmed by KingHenry the Fowler in 919, contested by Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, 18th Prelature of the Rhine
Goslar	Imperial City	From 1290
Halberstadt	Prince-Bishopric	Established by Charlemagne in 804, secularized in 1648 asPrincipality of Halberstadt held byBrandenburg
Hamburg	Imperial City	9th Rhenish City from 1189
Hildesheim	Prince-Bishopric	Established in 815 byLouis the Pious; 27th seat to theReichstag
Holstein	Duchy	Established in 1474, held by the Danish RoyalHouse of Oldenburg, from 1648 residence inGlückstadt
Holstein-Gottorp	Duchy	Subdivision of Holstein from 1544 until 1773
Lübeck	Prince-Bishopric	Established in 1160 byHenry the Lion, 49th seat to theReichstag
Lübeck	Imperial City	3rd Rhenish City, from 1226
Magdeburg	Prince-Archbishopric Duchy	Established in 955 byOtto I asArchbishopric of Magdeburg, secularized in 1680, held byBrandenburg
Mecklenburg-Schwerin	Duchy	Established in 1352
Mecklenburg-Güstrow	Duchy	Subdivision of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1520 until 1552, again from 1621 until 1695
Mecklenburg-Strelitz	Duchy	Subdivision of Mecklenburg-Schwerin from 1701
Mühlhausen	Imperial City	From 1251
Nordhausen	Imperial City	From 1220
Rantzau	County	Established in 1650, held by the Danish Royal House of Oldenburg from 1734
Ratzeburg	Prince-Bishopric	Established in 1154 by Henry the Lion, secularized in 1648 as Principality of Ratzeburg, held by the Dukes of Mecklenburg, Mecklenburg-Strelitz from 1701
Regenstein	County	From about 1160, united with Blankenburg in 1368, held by the Dukes of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel from 1599
Saxe-Lauenburg	Duchy	Established in 1296, in 1689 fell to the Dukes of Brunswick-Calenberg, 66th seat to theReichstag
Schwerin	Prince-Bishopric	Established in 1154 by Henry the Lion, residence atBützow from 1239, secularized in 1648 as a principality held by the Dukes of Mecklenburg-Schwerin

• The list of states making up the Lower Saxon Circle is based on that in theGerman Wikipedia articleNiedersächsischer Reichskreis.

• Imperial Circles in the 16th Century – Historical Maps of Germany

• Lower Saxon Circle
• Circles of the Holy Roman Empire
• History of Lower Saxony
• 1500s establishments in the Holy Roman Empire
• 1500 establishments in Europe

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from September 2021
• All articles needing additional references
• Articles needing translation from German Wikipedia
• Articles with multiple maintenance issues
• Articles containing German-language text