The free Frisian lands

Who rules

Name

The Frisian lands and their judges (asega)

Title

No single holder: each Frisian land (terra) rules itself

Since

Self-governing lands from the eleventh century; the counts' attempts to rule them failed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries

Confidence

medium

West of the Lauwers: Westergo, Oostergo and the young peat lands of the Zevenwouden, where Holland and Utrecht share the comital rights (Frederick I, 1165) and Holland's half is held by the count's brother William, who sits at Oosterzee and calls himself count in Frisia. Between the Lauwers and the Ems: Humsterland, Langewold and Vredewold, Hunsingo, Fivelingo, the Oldambt and Reiderland, with the bishop of Utrecht's town of Groningen in their midst and the bishop of Münster as their spiritual lord. East of the Ems to the Weser (written as provinces by the nsw researcher): the Emsigerland, Brokmerland, Norderland, Harlingerland, Östringen, Rüstringen and Wangerland.

Overlord

The king in name only. Comital claims: Holland and Utrecht jointly in Oostergo and Westergo; Utrecht between the Lauwers and the Ems through Groningen; the bishop of Münster and the archbishop of Bremen east of the Ems.

What the realm holds

• West of the Lauwers: Westergo (with Stavoren, Bolsward and Franeker), Oostergo (with Leeuwarden and Dokkum) and the Zevenwouden, a land of peat being cleared
• Between the Lauwers and the Ems: Humsterland, Langewold and Vredewold, Hunsingo, Fivelingo, the Oldambt and Reiderland on the west bank of the Ems
• East of the Ems to the Weser: the Emsigerland, Brokmerland, Norderland, Harlingerland, Östringen, Rüstringen and Wangerland (nsw provinces)
• The islands: Terschelling, Ameland, Schiermonnikoog and the East Frisian islands

How it was acquired

The comital rights were granted to the bishops of Utrecht in 1077-1086 and to Holland by Lothar III and Frederick I; the Frisians resisted both. The Seventeen Statutes (Küren), compiled about 1080, are the first text to state the Frisian freedom.

Allies and rivals

The lands of Oostergo and Westergo backed William of Holland in 1195 and now host him. The West Frisians across the Vlie are kin and allies against Holland. Rivals: the counts of Holland, the bishop of Utrecht and his town of Groningen, the bishop of Münster's synodal courts, the counts of Oldenburg in the east. Neighbouring lands feud with each other.

The realm that morning

The Frisian lands govern themselves. William of Holland holds Holland's half of the comital rights in Oostergo and Westergo with the Frisians' consent and lives among them; the bishop of Utrecht's half is a claim; Groningen is the bishop's. No podestà or royal officer is named in the sources for that winter. The throne war does not reach them: no Frisian land is known to have taken a side.

Wealth

Cattle, horses, wool and cloth (the Frisian cloth sold since Carolingian times), dairy, salt from the peat and the tidal flats; the sea trade of Stavoren and the Frisian merchants with the Rhineland, England, Norway and the Baltic; mints of the old counts at Stavoren, Dokkum, Leeuwarden and Bolsward.

Military

No castles and no knights: every free landholder bears arms, and each land musters its own men. The Frisians fought on the Third Crusade by sea (1189). No numbers are recorded.

Threats

• Holland, which wants real lordship over Oostergo and Westergo
• The bishop of Utrecht and Groningen, pressing the lands east of the Lauwers
• Feuds between the Frisian lands themselves
• The North Sea: storm floods are breaking into the coast

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

1. 1200-1203William stays in Frisia as count for Holland's half; on Dirk VII's death (4 November 1203) he is in Frisia and the Frisians follow him into the Loon WarDepends on: William keeping the Frisians' goodwill and Dirk dying without a son Stopped by: A quarrel between William and the Frisians, or a settlement of the Holland succession

Where the sources disagree

• The realm id covers the lands from the Vlie to the Weser; West Frisia, though Frisian and free, lies west of the Vlie and is written as a province claimed by Holland.
• The Upstalsboom assemblies near Aurich and the redjeven (elected judges) are attested only from the thirteenth century; the Karlsprivileg is a later forgery (probably thirteenth century). In 1200 the Frisians claim their freedom by custom and their old law, and the judge in each land is the asega.

Evidence: The Frisian law texts survive in thirteenth-century and later copies; for 1200 itself the evidence is a few chronicle notices (the Egmond annals, the Quedam narracio) and the claims of Holland and Utrecht. Names of leading Frisians that winter are not pinned.

On the map: The ground is drawn by the province records (nld- west of the Ems, nsw- east of it).

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Egmond (12th century to about 1205). The house annals of Egmond, the counts of Holland's abbey, and the main native source for Holland around 1200. Read online
• Chronicle of the abbots of Wittewierum (Bloemhof), Emo of Wittewierum (from 1219 to 1237, continued by Menko to 1273). The chronicle opens only in 1204 with the founding of Emo's Premonstratensian house in the Groningen Ommelanden, so it has nothing for 1200 itself. Read online