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The Frisians are an ethnic group of northwestern Europe, inhabiting an area known as Frisia. They are a Germanic people.
HistoryPre Roman times
In Roman timesThe Frisians were able to form a treaty with the Romans at the River Rhine in 28, avoiding conquest. But sixteen years later, when taxes became repressive, they hanged the tax collector and defeated the Romans under Tiberius at the Battle of Baduhennawood. The Frisii were known and respected by the Romans and written about by several sources. Tacitus wrote a treatise about the Germanic peoples in 69, describing the habits of the Germanic people, as well as listing numerous tribes by name. [3] Of the many tribes mentioned, the name 'Frisii' is the only one that is still used. [4] Friesland had been early settled, with evidence of terp-building, the distinctive raised settlements, starting in 700 BC. Frisii where mentioned by Roman historian Tacitus[5] and, before him, by Pliny the Elder[6]. According to inscriptions found in Roman Britain [7] they served the Roman Army and used frisiavones as a synonym. Expansion to the south-west occurred probably as early as 70 AD, when the westernmost parts of the rivermouth were abandoned by the Canninefates in the aftermatch of the Batavian revolt by Julius Civilis. Emigration to Flanders [8] and Kent [9] happened peacefully within Roman jurisdiction and probably reached a height in 250s, due to heavy flooding. Around 290 AD Constantius Chlorus mentioned Frisians among the pirates that raid Britain, but in the records the Saxons took over this reputation in the fourth century. This coincide with archeological evidence that habitation of the original area remained scarce for about 150 years and only recovered in 400s. It has been suggested that by then a part of the Frisians had already merged with the Saxons, to whom they were closely related. The Frisian language remains the closest surviving language to English. [10] The Roman historian Tacitus, in his Germania, mentioned the Frisians among people he grouped together as the Ingvaeones. Two different types, or classes are mentioned by Tacitus, the maiores Frisii and the minores Frisii. Divided by the soil of their farmlands, the maiores Frisii or Clay Frisians populated fertile clay soil increasing the size of their harvests, livestock and even their posture. The small and relatively unhealthy minores Frisii (Sand Frisians) farmed on sand lands, and, consequently, their crops lacked size or number compared to those of the maiores Frisii. According to Tacitus even the armies of the maiores were larger and better equipped.
Their territory followed the coast of the North Sea from the mouth of the Rhine river up to that of the Ems, their eastern border according to Ptolemy's Geographica. Pliny the Elder states in Belgica that they were conquered by the Roman general Drusus in 12 BC, after several uprisings that have been mentioned by Tacitus. The most noted of these is their partake in the Batavian rebellion. Thereafter the Frisians largely sank into historical obscurity, until coming into contact with the expanding Merovingian and Carolingian empires. In the 5th century, during this period of historical silence, many of them no doubt joined the migration of the Anglo-Saxons who went through Frisian territory to invade Great Britain, while those who stayed on the continent expanded into the newly-emptied lands previously occupied by the Anglo-Saxons. By the end of the sixth century the Frisians occupied the coast all the way to the mouth of the Weser and spread farther still in the seventh century, southward down to Dorestad and even Bruges. This farthest extent of Frisian territory is known as Frisia Magna. The empire that came in to being after the fall of the Western Roman Empire was governed by a king or a duke. The earliest document referring to an independent state ruled by a king is dated 678. Early attempts to Christianize Frisia were unsuccessful in converting the fierce pagan Frisians and various monks were murdered or banished, such as the legendary example of the murder of Saint Boniface near Dokkum. King Radbod was even able to beat the mighty Charles Martel in 714 to preserve independence. Twenty years later Charles Martel got his revenge and effectively subjugated the entire Frisian empire. Christianity was also enforced by the Christian Franks and in Utrecht a Bishop was installed to see to Christian affairs in Frisia. Not until the early 800s did they fully reclaim their independence from the Frankish grip. Christianity had however taken root and had been adopted by most Frisians. Kings or Dukes of FrieslandThe princes of the Frisians in the early Middle Ages were:
The last three were certainly historical figures. The first four may be only legendary. What their exact title was depends on the source. Frankish sources tend to call them dukes; other sources often call them kings. Friesland in the Middle Ages
Freedom of the Frisian People, Frisian LawIn the 8th century, Charlemagne freed the people of Friesland from swearing fealty to foreign overlords "That all Frisians would be fully free, the born and the unborn, so long as the wind blows from heaven and the child cries, grass grows green and flowers bloom, as far as the sun rises and the world stands". This is from a 12th century law text [11] written in Old Frisian using the poetic saga-style of Scandinavian epics. There are a substantial number of existing Frisian law texts and some of these have yet to be studied. There is currently a Frisia Project at the University of Amsterdam that is studying the ancient history of Friesland. But the tantalising tidbits of Frisian history that are already known reveal a people not much given to making their mark on history, except when provoked, and then fighting with a legendary fierceness to protect their freedom. Frisian MigrationsThe Frisian people also migrated to other areas in Europe. Migrations to England during the early middle ages (along with the Angles, Saxons and Jutes) have been particularly well characterized through genetics, linguistics, and archeology. [12] The Frisian language has much in common with Old English. Modern historyImage:German Bight.jpg Satellite view of the German Bight. The modern remnants of Frisia Magna are small and scattered. Most of it became dominated by its expanding neighbors: the Saxons (who were moving north and west) and the Franks (who were pushing north and east). Western and Middle Frisia are solidly within the modern state of the Netherlands, which now includes the "heartland" of the Frisians from the North Sea coast from Alkmaar in the modern province of Noord-Holland, along the coasts of the modern provinces of Friesland and Groningen, and up to the mouth of the Ems. Culturally, it has shrunk down to the province of Friesland alone. The Frisian language is now spoken there and in parts of the Wadden Sea islands of Terschelling and Schiermonnikoog (West Frisian language), in the German municipality of Saterland (Saterland Frisian language) and in parts of the German district North Frisia (North Frisian) on the coast of Jutland. North Frisia language is under heavy pressure from Low German, Standard German, and Danish and faces possible extinction. The East Frisian Low Saxon (a dialect of the Low Saxon) is spoken in East Frisia. See also
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