Dreingau

During the Middle Ages documents referred to it as Dreine, Dreni, Drieni, Dragini, Dragieni, Drachina or Treine.

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 between Lippstadt and Lünen forming the southern border, and with the city of Greven as the anchor point in the North.

South of the Dreingau was the pagus Bracbant, home to tribes of the Bructeri; to the north was Bursibant around Rheine; other neighboring areas were the Skopingau centered on Schöppingen, and the Stevergau around Coesfeld.

In the times of the expansionist drive of the Roman Empire 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.

During the Thirty Years' War the Dreingau was devastated by troops led by Christian the Younger of Brunswick.