Verden (Aller), or Verden , is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, on the River Aller. It is the administrative centre of the district of Verden. Verden is famous for the alleged massacre of Saxons in 782, committed on the orders of Charlemagne (the "Bloody Trial of Verden"), for its cathedral, and for its horse breeding.******************In 782 Charlemagne had inflicted a new defeat on the Saxons in present-day Lower Saxony and ordered the execution of 4,500 of their leading citizens when they refused to swear fealty to him and to submit to the Christian faith. Modern research casts some doubt on the veracity of this allegation, as there may have been a clerical error in the old documents and the Saxons were merely exiled rather than executed. During the subsequent centuries the town grew steadily, and from the early 9th century onward was seat of a bishop until 1648. The Reformation was introduced in Verden in 1568 with the conversion of its bishop, Eberhard of Holle. Verden had gained the status of an imperial free city in the 15th century, but lost this status at the end of the Thirty Years' War when it became, together with the former bishopric, a Swedish possession as imperial fief, under the name of Principality of Verden. Hanover purchased the Principality of Verden in 1719, and when Hanover was annexed in 1866, the city became Prussian.*****************