Frisia

Subdivisions of Frisia

Section	Subdivision	Flag	Population (2020)	Area
North Frisia	Nordfriesland		167,147	2,047 km2 (790 sq mi)
	Heligoland		1,307	1.7 km2 (0.66 sq mi)
East Frisia	Ostfriesland (Aurich, Emden, Leer, Wittmund)		468,919	3,142 km2 (1,213 sq mi)
	Oldenburger Friesland (Friesland, Wilhelmshaven)		174,160	715 km2 (276 sq mi)
	Saterland		13,903	124 km2 (48 sq mi)
	Rüstringen (Butjadingen peninsula)		45,538	423 km2 (163 sq mi)
	Land Wursten		17,101	182 km2 (70 sq mi)
West Frisia	Fryslân		649,944	3,349 km2 (1,293 sq mi)
	West Friesland		554,464	1,174 km2 (453 sq mi)
	Ommelanden (Groningen)		586,309	2,325 km2 (898 sq mi)

History

Main article:

Frisian history

Roman era

The people, later to be known as

Frisian presence during the Early Middle Ages has been documented from North-Western Flanders up to the Weser River Estuary. According to archaeological evidence, these Frisians were not the Frisians of Roman times, but the descendants of Anglo-Saxon immigrants from the

Distant authors seem to have made little distinction between Frisians and Saxons. The Byzantine

During the 7th and 8th centuries, Frankish chronologies mention the northern Low Countries as the kingdom of the Frisians. According to Medieval legends, this kingdom comprised the coastal seelande provinces of the Netherlands, from the Scheldt River to the Weser River and further East. Archaeological research does not confirm this idea, as the petty kingdoms appear to have been rather small and short-lived.

The earliest Frisian records name four social classes, the

The establishment of the Frisian trade network played a significant role in maintaining regional peace during the late Middle Ages. While interpersonal violence was on the rise almost everywhere else in Europe, Northern Europe and especially Frisia managed to maintain low levels of violence due in part to its well-developed society and established rule of law, which were results of extensive trade.^[7]

The Frisian coastal areas were partly occupied by

The 15th century saw the demise of Frisian republicanism. In

Modern age

In the early 16th century, the pirate and freedom fighter Pier Gerlofs Donia (Grutte Pier) challenged Saxon authority in Friesland during a prolonged guerrilla war, backed by the Duke of Guelders. He had several successes and was feared by Hollandic authorities, but he died as a farmer in 1520. According to the legend he was seven feet tall. A statue of Grutte Pier by Anne Woudwijk [fy] was erected in Kimswert in 1985.

In the 1560s many Frisans joined the revolt led by William of Orange against the Habsburg monarchy. In 1577 the province of Friesland became part of the nascent Dutch Republic, as its representatives signed the Union of Utrecht. The city of Groningen was conquered by the Dutch in 1594. Since then, membership of the Dutch Republic was perceived as a guarantee for the preservation of civil liberties. Actual power, however, was usurped by the landowning gentry. Protests against aristocratic rule led to a democratic movement in the 1780s.

Frisian territories

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• When West Friesland was conquered by the County of Holland in 1289, this was the end of a series of wars between the county of Holland and Friesland that started at the end of the 11th century. The Dutch conquest occurred immediately after the disastrous St. Lucia's flood in which many Frisians in the area were killed. After the conquest the district of West Friesland, which also comprised the islands of Wieringen, Texel, and Vlieland, had its own seats in the Estates of Holland and West Friesland. When the province of Holland was split up in the constitutional reform of 1840, West-Friesland became a part of North Holland. The name of West Friesland has also been used by an intercommunal administrative board (samenwerkingsregio) and a water board.
• Friesland
  became an independent member of the Dutch Republic in 1581. It is now a Dutch province, in 1996 renamed as Fryslân.
• The islands of Terschelling, Ameland, and Schiermonnikoog were independent seignories, which were integrated into the province of Friesland during the 19th and 20th centuries.
• Groningen, formerly Stad en Lande (the city of Groningen and its surroundings), became an independent member of the Dutch Republic in 1594. Now it is a Dutch province. As a rule, its inhabitants do not consider their province as a part of Frisia, though the area has many cultural ties with neighbouring East Frisia.
• Federal Republic of Germany
  .
• Harlingerland was a seignory, inherited by the count of East Frisia in 1600.
• Jever was a seignory, annexed by the County of Oldenburg in 1573 and, after a prolonged period of Saxony-Anhalt, Russian, Dutch and French rule, reunited with Oldenburg in 1814. It is now part of the district of Friesland within the federal state of Lower Saxony.
• Kniphausen
  was a seignory, split off from the County of Oldenburg in 1667 and reunited with its surroundings in 1854 (effectively in 1813).
• Kingdom of Hannover
  .
• Butjadingen was a coastal republic, a remnant of the largely submerged district of Rüstringen. It was conquered by the Count of Oldenburg in 1514. After a period of Danish rule, it became part of the Duchy of Oldenburg in 1774, which remained a more or less independent state within the German Empire until 1918. Butjadingen is now part of the district of Wesermarsch within the federal state of Lower Saxony.
• Land Wursten was a coastal republic, conquered by the Prince-bishop of Bremen in 1525. It became part of the Duchy of Bremen-Verden. The latter was, after a period of Swedish rule, integrated into the Kingdom of Hanover in 1715. It is now part of the district of Cuxhaven within the federal state of Lower Saxony.
• Helgoland is part of the district of Pinneberg. North Frisia was never a part of the Holy Roman Empire
  .

During the late 19th and early 20th century, "Frisian freedom" became the slogan of a regionalist movement in Friesland, demanding equal rights for the Frisian language and culture within the Netherlands. The West Frisian language and its urban dialects are spoken by the majority of the inhabitants. In East Frisia, the idea of "Frisian freedom" became entangled with regional sentiments as well, though the East Frisian language had been replaced by Low German dialects as early as the 15th century. In Groningen, on the other hand, Frisian sentiments faded away at the end of the 16th century. In North Frisia, regional sentiments concentrate around the surviving North Frisian dialects, which are spoken by a sizeable minority of the population, though Lower German is far more widespread.

Regional political parties

Political party			Active in	Representation	European affiliation
	DF	Die Friesen De Freesen	East Frisia	None	None
	FNP	Frisian National Party Fryske Nasjonale Partij	Friesland	Senate of the Netherlands Provincial Council of Friesland	EFA
	SSW	South Schleswig Voters' Association Söödslaswiksche Wäälerferbånd	North Frisia	Federal Parliament of Germany Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein	EFA

Languages

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A half-million Frisians in the province of Friesland in the Netherlands speak

Maps

• 
  Location of Frisia (dark orange) in Europe
• 
  Historical settlement areas of the Frisians, and areas where a Frisian language is spoken
• 
  The Frisian territories in Lower Saxony (East Frisia)
• 
  Frisian colonisation (yellow) of southwestern Jutland during the Viking Age
• 
  Difference between the historical region and present-day district of Nordfriesland

Flag

While the subdivisions of Frisia have their own regional flags, Frisia as a whole has not historically had a flag of its own. In September 2006, a flag for a united Frisia – known as the "Interfrisian Flag" – was designed by the

The design was not accepted by the Interfrisian Council.^[9] Instead, the council adopted the idea of an Interfrisian flag and created a design of its own, containing elements of the flags of the council's three sections. Neither of the two flags is widely used.

See also

• Frisian Islands
• Frisian languages
• Frisian cuisine
• List of rulers of Frisia
• Eala Frya Fresena
• Stateless nation
• German Bight
• Wadden Sea
• Zuider Ee

Notes