Frisian Kingdom

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Frisian Kingdom
Fryske Keninkryk (
Poppo
History 
• Established
c. 600
• Disestablished
734
CurrencySceat[1]
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Germania
Francia
Today part ofNetherlands
Germany
Belgium

The Frisian Kingdom (West Frisian: Fryske Keninkryk), also known as Magna Frisia, is a modern name for the post-Roman Frisian realm in Western Europe in the period when it was at its largest (650–734). This dominion was ruled by kings and emerged in the mid-7th century and probably ended with the Battle of the Boarn in 734 when the Frisians were defeated by the Frankish Empire. It lay mainly in what is now the Netherlands and – according to some 19th century authors – extended from the Zwin near Bruges in Belgium to the Weser in Germany. The center of power was the city of Utrecht.

In medieval writings, the region is designated by the Latin term Frisia. There is a dispute among historians about the extent of this realm; There is no documentary evidence for the existence of a permanent central authority. Possibly, Frisia consisted of multiple

Redbad established an administrative unit. Among the Frisians at that time, there was no feudal system.[2]

Pre-Migration Period

The ancient Frisii were living in the low-lying region between the Zuiderzee and the River Ems. In the Germanic pre-Migration Period (i.e., before c. AD 300) the Frisii and the related Chauci, Saxons, and Angles inhabited the Continental European coast from the Zuyder Zee to south Jutland.[3] All of these peoples shared a common material culture, and so cannot be defined archaeologically.[4] What little is known of these early Frisii and their kings is provided by a few Roman accounts about two Frisian kings visiting Rome in the 1st century: Malorix and Verritus. It has been postulated that by AD 400 the Frisii abandoned the land and disappeared from archeological records. However, recent excavations in the dunes of Kennemerland show clear evidence of a continuous habitation.[5][6]

Migration Period

Frisia suffered marine transgressions that made the land largely uninhabitable during the 3rd to 5th centuries. Whatever population may have remained dropped dramatically.[7][8][9]

In the 6th century, Frisia received an influx of new settlers, mostly Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who would come to be known as "Frisians" even though they were not necessarily descended from the ancient Frisii.[10]

A legendary king of the Migration Period is

Hengest took command, and the sides engaged in a peace treaty; but Hengest and the Danes later avenged Hnæf's death and slaughtered the Frisians. Some late 6th or early 7th-century coins in the Merovingian style survive that commemorate an obscure figure known as Audulf.[12] Some Dutch historians consider him to have been a regional lord or king[13]
although he is otherwise unattested.

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 with its center of power in Dorestad.[14]

Social classes

The earliest Frisian records name four social classes, the

serfs, but in later times might buy their freedom.[15]
: 202 

History of wars

Main article:
Frisian-Frankish Wars

The 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 contemporary 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.[16]: 795  While Wilfrid was at Aldegisel's court, Ebroin offered Aldegisel a bushel of gold coins in return for Wilfrid, alive or dead. Aldegisel himself is said to have torn up and burned the letter from the Frankish mayor in front of the ambassadors and his household. It has been surmised by some that Aldegisel's kindness to Wilfrid was a mode of defiance of Frankish domination. During his stay, Wilfrid attempted to convert the Frisians, who were still pagan at that time. Wilfrid's biographer says that most of the nobles converted,[17] but the success was short-lived.[18]

Redbad

sceattas
c.710–735
Great fibula of Winaam from the 7th century, found in 1953

In 680,

Merovingian kingdom of the Franks. In 689, however, Redbad was defeated by Pepin of Herstal in the battle of Dorestad[20] and compelled to cede Frisia Citerior (Nearer Frisia) to the Franks
.

The

episcopal see in Utrecht from 695, founded for Willibrord,[23][24][25] and a marriage was arranged between Grimoald the Younger the oldest son of Pepin, and Thiadsvind, the daughter of Redbad, in 711.[16]
: 794 

After Pepin died, in 714, Redbad took advantage of the battle for succession in

Neustrasian mayor of the palace, Ragenfrid
. In 716, the
Anglo-Saxon bishop. They spent a year together attempting to convert the Frisians to Christianity, but their efforts were frustrated when Redbad retook possession of Frisia, burning churches and killing many missionaries.[29] Willibrord and Boniface were forced to flee to the protection of Charles Martel. The Frisian army returned to the north with a large war loot. Redbad made plans to invade Francia for the second time and mobilised a large army, but before he could do this he died of an illness in 719. 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.[16]: 795  Now protected by the Franks, Willibrord returned to Frisia.[30]
: 90 

Poppo

There was a rebellion against Frankish rule in the region of

Oldeboorne, one of the Frisians' chief commercial centers at the time.[31] The Franks appear to have coveted the trade that passed through there and through Domburg and Dorestad.[33] The Frisians commanded by Poppo used boats to land their army and surprise the Franks. However the Franks had constructed a fortified encampment once on shore and the Frisian army was defeated in the Battle of the Boarn. Poppo was killed in combat and his army was pushed back to Eastergoa.[31][28][30] The death of Poppo marked an important phase in the destruction of Frisian paganism. Charles ordered pagan shrines and sanctuaries to be destroyed and carried back to Francia "a great mass of spoils" (magna spolia et praeda).[31]

The Franks annexed the Frisian lands between the

Boniface returned in 754 to once again attempt to convert the Frisians. He baptized a great number and summoned a general meeting for confirmation at a place not far from Dokkum, between Franeker and Groningen. Instead of the converts he expected, a group of armed inhabitants appeared. The Frisian warriors were angry because he had destroyed their shrines and slew the archbishop, looting his chests and destroying his books. The Frisians consisted of loosely bonded tribes centered on war bands but without great power. In the second half of the 7th century the Frisian kingdom reached its maximum geographic development.[38]

After the Frankish conquest

The Danish king Gudfred who in 810 let his fleet invade Frisia. 17th century engraving.

In 772, the Frankish king Charlemagne attacked the Frisians east of the Lauwers with a large army. He defeated them in several battles and so brought an end to the Frisian independence, expanding the Frankish Empire further to the east, where the Saxon Wars would begin. The Saxon leader Widukind organized resistance to the Franks, in 782 the Frisians east of the Lauwers also joined the uprising. The uprising expanded to Frisian lands in the west that had been pacified earlier. This led to an en masse return to paganism by the population, marauders burned churches and the priests had to flee south. The Carolingians conquered the area east of the Lauwers in 785, when Charlemagne defeated Widukind. They 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".[15]: 205  Charlemagne eventually crushed this revolt, but faced another uprising by the Frisians in 793 - driven by the conscription of Frisians into the Frankish army. Under the leadership of dukes Unno and Eilrad,[30]: 310  the uprising arose east of the Lauwers and spread to other Frisian lands. This again led to a temporary return to paganism, and again priests had to flee. This uprising was also suppressed by the Franks. During this time Charlemagne imposed the Lex Frisionum, a penal code which stratified Frisia into Nobility, Freemen, Serfs and Slaves.

In 810 the Danish king Gudfred let a fleet consisting of 200 ships invade Frisia, and claiming the territory as a part of his Danish kingdom. The Danish king though was shortly after the invasion killed by one of his own men, and his fleet withdrew to Denmark before it came to any clash with regular Frankish forces.

Frisia was granted to the Danish Viking Rorik of Dorestad[39] between 841 and 880, followed by another Danish Viking Godfrid, Duke of Frisia until he was killed in 885.[40] The area was subsequently under Gerolf of Holland.[41]

Before 1101, sources talk about counts ruling over

Hainault, Bavaria-Straubing, and the Duchy of Burgundy. The titles eventually lost their importance, and the last count, Philip II of Spain
, only mentioned them halfway through his long list of titles.

Footnotes

  1. OCLC 604057407. Siebs' synthesis was extrapolated from survivals detected in later medieval documents.[15]

References

  1. ISBN 978-90-5911-323-7
  2. ISBN 9789088900785
    .
  3. ^ Haywood 1999:14, Dark Age Naval Power. Haywood uses the term 'North German' to distinguish them from the 'Rhine Germans' (the Caninnefates, Batavians, and "Frankish" tribes).
  4. ^ Haywood 1999:17–19, Dark Age Naval Power. Haywood cites Todd's The Northern Barbarians 100 BC–AD 300 (1987) for this conclusion.
  5. ISBN 9783110176889
    .
  6. ISBN 9789027264503
    .
  7. hdl:1887/2787
  8. ISBN 9783110176889
    .
  9. ISBN 9789027264503
    .
  10. ISBN 978-90-8964-078-9, archived from the original
    on 2017-08-30, retrieved 2019-02-06
  11. ^ Zocco 2007, p. 67, "in the most generally accepted reconstruction the first assault is from the part of the Frisians in a treacherous onslaught which excites the Danish strenuous defence". The term Frisian side avoids imputing specific responsibility to either Finn, Frisians, Jutes, or others.
  12. ^ Grierson, Philip (1973–1974), "Korte Bijdragen: A New Audulfus Frisia Triens", Jaarboek voor Munt- en Penningkunde (PDF), vol. 60/61, Amsterdam: Koninklijk Nederlands Genootschap voor Munt- en Penningkunde, pp. 153–156.
  13. ^ K.P.H. Faber, Audulfus, een Friese Koning, in Fryslân, Nieuwsblad voor geschiedenis en cultuur, no.4, 4e jaargang, December 1998.
  14. ISBN 9789053450499
    .
  15. ^
    JSTOR 2590857
    .
  16. ^
    OCLC 746889526
    .
  17. ^ Levison England and the Continent pp. 50–51
  18. ISBN 978-0-7867-1738-5
    .
  19. doi:10.1484/J.VIATOR.2.301538
    . Retrieved 2013-08-30.
  20. OCLC 622919217
    . Retrieved 2014-09-17.
  21. OCLC 622919217
    . Retrieved 2014-09-17.
  22. ^ Mershman, Francis. "St. Willibrord." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 5 Mar. 2014
  23. ^ it Liber Pontificalis (Corpus XXXVI 1, side 168) en Beda Venerabilis (Corpus XLVI9, page 218)
  24. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lins, Joseph (1912). "Archdiocese of Utrecht". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  25. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Mershman, Francis (1912). "St. Willibrord". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  26. ^ Kurth, Godefroid. "Charles Martel." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 20 Jul. 2014
  27. ^ Costambeys, Marios, Innes, Matthew, and MacLean, Simon. The Carolingian World, Cambridge University Press, 2011
  28. ^ a b "Geschiedenis van het volk der Friezen". boudicca.de (in Dutch). 2003. Archived from the original on 2009-06-08. Retrieved 2009-01-22.[self-published source]
  29. ^ RKK.nl retrieved 23 June 2014
  30. ^
    ISBN 9789053451670
    .
  31. ^ a b c d e Bachrach 2001, pp. 250–51.
  32. which?
    ]
  33. ^ Costambeys, Innes & MacLean 2011, p. 48.
  34. ISBN 90-6550-558-X
  35. ^ (in Latin) Alcuin, Vita Sancti Willibrordi, circa 795, chapter 14 (English translation)
  36. ^ Alcuin, chapter 10
  37. ISBN 90-6550-448-6
    (in Dutch)
  38. ISBN 9789053450499
    .
  39. ISBN 978-8771457209
    .
  40. ISBN 978-0860789918
    .
  41. ISBN 978-3319420400
    .
  42. ^ "Holland | Origin and meaning of the name holland by Online Etymology Dictionary".

Bibliography

  • Bachrach, Bernard
    (2001), Early Carolingian Warfare: Prelude to Empire, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press
  • Costambeys, Marios; Innes, Matthew; MacLean, Simon (2011), The Carolingian World, Cambridge University Press
  • Haywood, John (1999), Dark Age Naval Power: Frankish & Anglo-Saxon Seafaring Activity (revised ed.), Frithgarth: Anglo-Saxon Books,
    ISBN 1-898281-43-2
  • Zocco, Nicola (2007), "The Episode of Finn in Beowulf. Discharging Hengest" (PDF), Linguistica e Filologia, 24: 65–83

Further reading

  • 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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