1493
The Battle of Bleckenstedt. In 1492, Duke Henry the Elder of Brunswick attempts to starve out the city of Brunswick in order to win it over for himself and his house once and for all. In 1493, the League of Cities of Lower Saxony instructed the city of Hildesheim to supply the distressed city with food and firewood. The townspeople meet the Duke at Bleckenstedt. After a long back and forth, the duke is defeated. He abandons his heavy and light artillery. The city of Brunswick is successfully supplied.

1518 - 1522
The Hildesheim Abbey feud begins with the von Saldern family, who invade the Abbey burning and robbing. A war develops in which most of the princes of Lower Saxony are drawn into. Dukes Henry the Younger of Brunswick-Lüneburg, Henry of Wolfenbüttel and Erich of Calenberg and Bishop Francis of Minden fight against Bishop John of Hildesheim, Duke Henry the Middle of Lüneburg and the Counts of Schaumburg, Diepholz and Hoya. In 1518, the bishop attempted to take Lichtenberg Castle in a coup d'état. The garrison, warned by a murderous fire in Lesse, beat back the attackers. They manage to set fire to the wooden bridge and the wooden fence in front of the castle. The war then moves away from our territory.

1522
Emperor Charles V grants victory to the Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg and authorizes the seizure of the so-called "Great Abbey". The bishops are only left with the "Small Abbey".

After 1522
Duke Henry the Younger of Brunswick expropriates the citizens of Salzgitter, who own a Salzkote. He has the heart of the town dismantled and builds a modern salt works for the time. The new salt works is given the name Salzliebenhall and becomes an independent estate community.

1552
Destruction of Lichtenberg Castle. In the feud between Duke Henry the Younger of Brunswick and Margrave Albrecht of Brandenburg, the guns of Count Vollrad of Mansfeld destroy the castle. Its defender is castle captain Berthold von Trochsdorf. Merian's engraving from 1650 shows the destroyed gate and the apparently blown up keep.

1565
Burning of witches: Under Duke Henry the Younger of Brunswick, "17 witches are burned in one day for Lichtenberg and Salzgitter".

1568
The Reformation is introduced in our region. As the villages of the Great Abbey have belonged to the Duchy of Brunswick since 1522, the Reformation is also introduced in them. The Barum superintendent Wagenfüer and the Salzgitter superintendent Tappen are obliged to send detailed "visitation reports" to the consistory in Wolfenbüttel, which have become historical and folkloristic treasure troves for our region.

1569
The convent of nuns at Steterburg Convent converts to Protestantism. The convent becomes a secular monastery.

1578 - 1587
The plague rages. It breaks out in two houses and the Ringelheim bathhouse.

1589 -1613
Duke Heinrich Julius of Wolfenbüttel sells the brewery and the three inns to the citizens of Salzgitter, which his father Heinrich the Younger had illegally taken from the town. However, he refuses to return the saltworks.

1602
During Duke Julius' battle against the unruly city of Brunswick, the city's inhabitants and their mercenaries plunder these villages in our region, among others: Beddingen, Bleckenstedt, Bruchmachtersen, Drütte, Engelstedt, Hallendorf, Heerte, Immendorf, Lebenstedt, Lesse, Lichtenberg, Osterlinde, Reppner, Salder and Thiede.

1618 - 1648
The Thirty Years' War. It reaches our territory in 1626. The Emperor's war aim was to return the "Great Abbey", which had been reformed under the Brunswicks, to the bishops and thus to the Counter-Reformation. Our region is the scene of two battles.

1626
The Danish King Christian IV, leader of the army of Lower Saxony, lies in the fortress of Wolfenbüttel. Wallenstein has his camp near Liebenburg and Tilly his near Oelber on the White Way. The so-called "little war" ensues, costing the peasants property and blood. -(27.8.) Battle of Lutter am Barenberg. The Lower Saxons are crushed by the combined troops of Wallenstein and Tilly. The famous General Christian IV, Fuchs, falls and is buried at his own request in the place where he was wounded. A memorial stone marks his grave west of Lutter on the Bundesstraße 6. Christian IV manages to escape captivity by the skin of his teeth. He is nursed back to health in Ringelheim Monastery.

1641
Imperial troops occupy the fortress of Wolfenbüttel until 1643. -
The battle of Thiede for the fortress of Wolfenbüttel. The Dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg form an alliance with the Swedes, French and Hessians to finally regain their fortress and residence in Wolfenbüttel. The imperial army under Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and Field Marshal Piccolomini is reinforced by 6,000 Bavarians under Field Marshal Baron Mercy. Archduke Leopold Wilhelm and Piccolomini take up their quarters in Salder Castle. The general assertion that during this time 14 cavalry regiments were quartered in the castle and ruined it must of course be modified. They were stationed in the villages of the Salder district to protect the Archduke and Piccolomini from raids. The Swedes had occupied the Thieder Lindenberg and Thiede. The battle, which mainly consisted of an attack by the Bavarian auxiliary corps on the heavily fortified Lindenberg, remained undecided. The Swedes withdrew and the dukes were now prepared to make peace with the Emperor. The "Swedish graves" in Bedding Forest date back to the battle. A Bavarian hospital for the wounded was located in the old Barumer Edelhof.

1641/1642
The Goslar Accord brings peace with the Emperor to the Duchy of Brunswick. The Dukes of Brunswick and Lüneburg agree to return the "Great Abbey", which had fallen to their dynasty as an imperial fief 120 years earlier, to the Bishopric of Hildesheim. A religious and ancillary decree stipulates that "neither the Catholics nor the Augsburg Confessions shall hate, malign or persecute or insult the relatives of one another for the sake of religion". Ringelheim Monastery is returned to the Benedictines and Liebenburg Castle is occupied by Catholic officials. This gives rise to new Catholic parishes.