Dreingau is the medieval name of one of five

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country ( Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the No ...

pagi (i.e., boroughs) in what today is the Münsterland in

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regi ...

. During the Middle Ages documents referred to it as ''Dreine'', ''Dreni'', ''Drieni'', ''Dragini'', ''Dragieni'', ''Drachina'' or ''Treine''.Soekelland B: Ueber die Straßen der Römer und Franken zwischen der Ems und Lippe. Münster, 182
Google Books
/ref> The name came into use around the year 800, and is hardly used anymore today. It has survived only in the name of the town Drensteinfurt, and in the name of a regional newspaper, the ''Dreingau-Zeitung''.

Location

The origins of the name Dreingau are disputed; it might derive either from a medieval term denoting a "fertile land," or might describe a "dry land". Considering that the Saxon pagi still held extensive marshlands at this time, both interpretations might well be equivalent. Although the sources are frequently inconsistent or ambiguous in assigning various places to the Dreingau, the consensus is that the ''pagus'' was of roughly triangular shape, with the

Lippe Lippe () is a ''Kreis'' ( district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Herford, Minden-Lübbecke, Höxter, Paderborn, Gütersloh, and district-free Bielefeld, which forms the region Ostwestfalen-Lippe ...

between

Lippstadt Lippstadt () is a town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest town within the district of Soest. Lippstadt is situated about 60 kilometres east of Dortmund, 40 kilometres south of Bielefeld and 30 kilometres west of Paderborn. G ...

and Lünen forming the southern border, and with the city of Greven as the anchor point in the North. Close to the Lippe river was the large forest ''Ihtari'' (later known as ''Ihteri'' and then ''Ichtern''). South of the Dreingau was the ''pagus'' Bracbant, home to tribes of the Bructeri; to the West was Bursibant around

Rheine Rheine () is a city in the district of Steinfurt (district), Steinfurt in Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city in the district and the location of Rheine Air Base. Geography Rheine is on the river Ems (river), Ems, approx. north of Münst ...

; other neighboring areas were the Skopingau centered on

Schöppingen Schöppingen is a municipality in the district of Borken in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located approximately south-west of Steinfurt. The Master of the Schöppingen Altarpiece derives his name from an altarpiece that ...

, and the Stevergau around

Coesfeld Coesfeld (; Westphalian: ''Koosfeld'') is the capital of the district of Coesfeld in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. History Coesfeld received its city rights in 1197, but was first recorded earlier than that in the biography of ...

. Notable places mentioned in medieval documents in the context of the Dreingau include the village ''Wernina'' (now

Werne Werne an der Lippe (; Westphalian: ''Wäen'') is a town in the Federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the Unna district in Germany. It is located on the southern edge of the Münsterland region near the Ruhrgebiet. The population of Werne ...

), ''Seliheim'' (now Selm), and

Liesborn Abbey Liesborn Abbey (german: Kloster Liesborn) was a Benedictine monastery (originally for nuns or women's collegiate foundation) in Liesborn, in what was originally the Dreingau, now a part of Wadersloh in the district of Warendorf in North Rhine-West ...

but there is little mention of

Münster Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state d ...

History

The Dreingau had been a theatre of war even before it got its name. In the times of the expansionist drive of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Medite ...

against the Germanic people the Battle of the Lupia River in 16 BC and the Battle of Idistaviso in 16 AD mark the period when the Dreingau area was either a staging point or a battlefield. It figured centrally in the

Saxon Wars The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the thirty-three years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of tribesmen was defeated. In all, 18 campaigns were fough ...

Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Em ...

from 772 onward. During the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battl ...

the Dreingau was devastated by troops led by Christian the Younger of Brunswick.

References

External links

*Dreingau source information o
Regnum Francorum online
{dead link, date=December 2016 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes Former states and territories of North Rhine-Westphalia History of Münster Types of administrative division Münster (region)