- Frisian Kingdom
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Frisian Kingdom
Magna Frisia600–734 
→The Frisian Realm
Capital Dorestad, Utrecht and others Language(s) Old Frisian Religion Germanic paganism Government Monarchy King - c. 678 Aldgisl - c. 680 - 719 Redbad - 719 - 734 Poppo History - Established 600 - Disestablished 734 Area 50.000 km2 (19 sq mi) Currency Sceat [1] The Frisian Kingdom (West Frisian: Fryske Keninkryk), also known as Magna Frisia, was a kingdom in what is now the Netherlands and northern Germany, established around 600 AD. The kingdom came to an end after the Battle of the Boarn (734) where it was defeated by the Frankish Empire.
Contents
Migration Period
During the Migration Period the ancient Frisii settled in the north and the west of the Low Countries.[2] The Frisians consisted of tribes with loose bonds, centered on war bands but without great power. In the second half of the 7th century the Frisian kingship reached its maximum geographic development.[3]
Social classes
The earliest Frisian records name four social classes, the ethelings (nobiles in Latin documents) and frilings, who together made up the "Free Frisians" who might bring suit at court, and the laten or liten with the slaves, who were absorbed into the laten during the Early Middle Ages, as slavery was not so much formally abolished, as evaporated.[4] The laten were tenants of lands they did not own and might be tied to it in the manner of serfs, but in later times might buy their freedom.[5]
History of wars
Main article: Frisian-Frankish WarsThe exact title of the Frisian rulers depends on the source. Frankish sources tend to call them dukes; other sources often call them kings. Only three Frisian rulers are named in written sources.
Aldgisl
Under the rule of the king Aldgisl, the Frisians came in conflict with the Frankish mayor of the palace Ebroin, over the old Roman border fortifications. Aldgisl could keep the Franks at a distance with his army. In 678 he welcomed the English bishop Wilfrid, who, like him, was not a friend of the Franks.[2]
Redbad
Frisian sceattas c.710–735
Great fibula of Wijnaldum from the 7th century, found in 1953Under Redbad, the tide turned in favour of the Franks: in 690 the Franks were victorious in the battle of Dorestad under the mayor of the palace Pepin of Herstal.[6] Though not all the consequences of this battle are clear, Dorestad became Frankish again, as did the castles of Utrecht and Fechten. It is presumed that the influence of the Franks now reached from south of the Oude Rijn to the coast, but this is not entirely clear because the influence of the Frisians over the central river area was not entirely lost. In any case there was an Archbishopric or bishopric of the Frisians founded for Willibrord[7] and a marriage was arranged between Grimoald the Younger the oldest son of Pepin, and Thiadsvind, the daughter of Redbad, in 711.[8]
After Pepin died, in 714, Redbad took advantage of the battle for succession in Frankish lands and regained southern Frisia. He made a treaty with the Frankish mayor of the palace Ragenfrid so that in 716 his armies could enter the Frankish land as far as Cologne, where they were victorious in the Battle of Cologne.[9] The army returned to the north with a large war loot. Redbad made plans to invade the Frankish empire for the second time and mobilised a large army, but before he could do this he fell ill and died in the autumn of 719.[10]
It is not certain who the successor of Redbad was. It is believed that there were troubles with the succession, because the Frankish opponent Charles Martel could easily invade Frisia and subjugate the land. The resistance was so weak that Charles Martel not only annexed Frisia Citerior ("nearer" Frisia south of the Rhine), but he also crossed the Rhine and annexed "farther" Frisia, to the banks of the river Vlie.[11]
Poppo
In 733 Charles Martel sent an army against the Frisians. The Frisian army was pushed back to Eastergoa. The next year the Battle of the Boarn took place. Charles ferried an army across the Aelmere with a fleet that enabled him to sail up to De Boarn. The Frisians were defeated in the ensuing battle,[11] and their king Poppo was killed.[9] The victors began plundering and burning heathen sanctuaries. Charles Martel returned with much loot, and broke the power of the Frisian kings for good.
After the Frankish conquest
After the Battle of the Boarn in 734, the Franks annexed the Frisian lands between the Vlie and the Lauwers. They conquered the area east of the Lauwers in 785, when Charlemagne defeated Widukind. The Carolingians laid Frisia under the rule of grewan, a title that has been loosely related to count in its early sense of "governor" rather than "feudal overlord".[12] The Lex Frisionum, the "Law Code of the Frisians" was recorded in Latin during the reign of Charlemagne.
References
- ^ De eerste koningen van Nederland, p. 22, Aspekt útjouwerij, p. 205. ISBN 9789059113237
- ^ a b Halbertsma, H. (1982), Frieslands Oudheid (pdf-file), page 792.
- ^ Van Es, W.A. en Hessing, W.A.M. (1994), Romeinen, Friezen en Franken, in het hart van Nederland, page 90.
- ^ Homans 1957 pp. 198-206 describes Frisian social institutions, based on the summary by B.E. Siebs, Grundlagen und Aufbau der altfriesischen Verfassung, in Untersuchungen zur Deutschen Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte CLXIV (Breslau) 1933; Siebs' synthesis was extrapolated from survivals detected in later medieval documents.
- ^ Homans 1957, p. 202.
- ^ Blok, D.P. (1968), De Franken, hun optreden in het licht der historie, pages 32-34
- ^ it Liber Pontificalis (Corpus XXXVI 1, side 168) en Beda Venerabilis (Corpus XLVI9, page 218)
- ^ Halbertsma, H. (1982), Frieslands Oudheid (pdf-file), page 794.
- ^ a b "Geschiedenis van het volk der Friezen". Boudicca.de. http://www.boudicca.de/friezen-nl1.htm. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
- ^ Halbertsma, H. (2000), Het rijk van de Friese Koningen, opkomst en ondergang, page 90.
- ^ a b Halbertsma, H. (1982), Frieslands Oudheid (pdf-file), page 795.
- ^ Homan 1957, p. 205.
- Note: The area of 50.000 km² in the infobox is after the Battle of Cologne.
Further reading
- H. Halbertsma Frieslands Oudheid, 2000, ISBN 9789053451670
- G. Verwey, Geschiedenis van Nederland, Amsterdam, 1995.
- P. Pentz e.o., Koningen van de Noordzee, 2003.
- J.J. Kalma e.o. Geschiedenis van Friesland, 1980.
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