The Frisian Tribe: a short history
source: i-friesland by Andrea Buma

Frisia in Roman times
The Romans under Augustus managed to defeat the Belgae and the Batavians (the ancestors of the Dutch).  The Frisians originally formed a treaty with the Romans at the River Rhine in 28 AD.  But 16 years later when taxes became repressive, they hung the taxman and defeated the Romans under Tiberius at the famous Battle of Baduhennawood.  The Frisii were known and respected by the Romans and written about by several sources. Tacitus wrote a particularly fascinating treatise about the Germanic peoples in 69 AD, describing the habits of the Germanic people, as well as listing numerous tribes by name.  Of the many tribes mentioned, the Frisians are the only ones that have preserved their ancient name.

Friesland had been early settled, with evidence of terp-building, the distinctive raised settlements, starting in 700 BC. The people began to be a distinctive tribe in around 200 BC.  They were displaced from their homeland to Flanders and Kent, England due to heavy flooding in 250 AD.  Habitation of the area remained impossible for the next 150 years.  When some of the Frisians returned around 400 AD there were already Saxons and Jutes settled there, and the Frisian people merged with them, maintaining the identity and traditions of the Frisian tribe.  The Frisians were closely related to the Saxons and the Frisian language remains the closest surviving language to English.

Frisia in the Dark Ages
The next two hundred years saw huge migrations and the Germanic peoples began to form their own states. The main Germanic tribes in Western Europe were the Jutish, Saxon, Frankish, Burgondish, Goth, Vandals, and Frisians.

The Frisians were early empire-builders among the scattered tribes of the Dark Ages and by the sixth century were the most coherent and prosperous tribe among the Germanic people, controlling an area stretching from northern Jutland in Denmark to Flanders in Belgium.  Most of inland Europe was in those days impassable due to poor roads and lawlessness, and the Frisians dominated sea-going trade, ranging as far a field as the Baltics, Russia, Scandinavia, and England.  Indeed, the North Sea was then known as Mare Frisicum. 

Trade was mainly Frisian cloth, slaves, herring from the rich banks off the coast of Sweden, and timber from the Baltic region.  While most of the rest of Europe was operating a barter system, the Frisian traders used a silver currency, called sceats.  These were gained through interaction with Vikings and probably minted in England and Friesland as well.

This Golden Age of Frisia lasted until the end of the 600s but the Frankish empire (present-day France and part of Germany) was an ever-present rival and threat.  Clovis had united the Franks and converted to Christianity in 496 and the Pope in Rome had blessed them as heirs to the Roman Empire.

Frisia captured Utrecht and Dorestad, which formed the northern border of the Frankish empire, on Clovis’ death in 511.  But in 628 the Frankish king Dagobert defeated a combined Saxon and Frisian force, gained Utrecht back, and established a church there to start converting the heathen Frisians.

The most famous Frisian king, Redbad, defeated Charles “The Hammer” Martel in the early 700s, rid the Frisian empire of the church, and at his death in 719 left a pagan Frisia of renown.  But Frisia’s glory was short-lived and Martel defeated and killed Redbad’s son Hrodbad in 734 and incorporated the Frisian empire into the Frankish. 

The Frisians would play a leading role on the world stage no longer, but slowly sink into obscurity.  Amazingly they managed to preserve a distinct identity and incredible independence.

East Frisia, which is in present-day northern Germany, remained a free fragment of the empire until conquered by Charlemagne in 785.  The great Frankish leader formed the first strong, centralized government in early medieval Europe.  He codified the laws of all the conquered people. The Frisians produced the Lex Frisonium, which is fascinating for the picture it presents of a people in a state of flux, caught between the ancient pagan ways and the new Catholic creed taught by missionaries like Liudger and Boniface. 

The Carolingian empire started to fragment with the death of Charlemagne and by 840 century the Franks were forced to grant Friesland to the Danes as a feudal property.  But by the end of the century the Frisians murdered the Danish King Godfried and evicted the Danes from their territory.  Smaller Viking raids would continue for another couple of hundred years.  In 925 the Frisians accepted the rule of Charlemagnian counts and the rule of these counts continued until the early 1100s. 

The Medieval era
After the decline of the Frankish government feudal structures disappeared from Friesland and the people were free farmers, shipbuilders, and fishermen.  The Dutch counts frequently turned an acquisitive eye to the farmlands of Frisia, but the people saw the Dutch as rivals in trade, not allies. The Frisians were particularly renowned animal breeders, and they developed the famous Frisian dairy cattle as well as the Frisian horse, favoured of medieval knights heading into battle.  The free Frisian cities of Stavoren, Bolsward, Leeuwarden and Dokkum grew rich through their membership in the burgeoning Hanseatic League, Europe’s first free trade organisation, formed in the 1200s.

The Frisians were largely self-governing in the Medieval Age.  They had no king, nor lords, and the people practised democracy.  There are 12th century law books with laws prefaced by “The people want…” which is unheard of in most of the rest of Europe until the French Revolution 700 years later.   Neighbouring nations, labouring under the bondage of feudalism, looked upon these self-sufficient and free born people in amazement and exclaimed “Every Frisian is born a nobleman.”

Unfortunately the strong streak of individualism in Frisian society eventually led to the creation of factions and a descent into civil war in the end of the 1300s.  Eventually they willingly submitted to annexation by the larger province of Holland in the early 1400s as a way of calming the chaos.  Dutch government and civil servants were installed and from then the fortunes of Friesland are intertwined with those of the present-day Netherlands.