Frisia
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Frisia (in West frisian: Fryslân ; in German and Dutch: Friesland; in Danish: Frisland) is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea (the German Bight). Frisia is the traditional homeland of the Frisians, a Germanic people who speak Frisian, a language closely related to the English language. Frisia extends from the northwestern Netherlands across northwestern Germany and into southwestern Denmark. It is commonly divided into three sections:
- West Frisia in North Holland, Friesland and Groningen
- East Frisia in Lower Saxony
- North Frisia in Schleswig-Holstein and South Jutland
The three groups of the Frisian Archipelago (the West, East and North Frisian Islands) stretch more or less correspondingly along these three sections of the Frisian coast.
Western Frisia is roughly identical with the Dutch province of Friesland, the northern part of North Holland province (called Westfriesland [see also West-Friesland]) and also modern Groningen province, though the Western Frisian language is only spoken in Fryslân proper. In West-Friesland, dialects with strong Frisian substrates are spoken (Low German and Low Franconian dialect variants, respectively). Note that Westfriesland is only the westernmost portion of the traditional region of West Frisia, all of which are within the northern Netherlands. In the northern province of Groningen people speak Gronings, a Saxon dialect.
East Frisia (German Ostfriesland) includes areas located in the northwest of the German state of Lower Saxony, including the districts of Aurich, Leer, Wittmund and Friesland, as well as the district-free cities of Emden and Wilhelmshaven/Rüstringen.
The portions of North Frisia within the state of Schleswig-Holstein are called Nordfriesland and stretch along the coast, and including also the coastal islands from the Eider River to the border of Denmark in the north. It is coterminous with the Schleswig-Holstein district of the same name. The island of Helgoland (English 'Helligoland' and North Frisian 'Lun'), is also part of traditional 'Northern Frisia'.
A half million Frisians of Fryslân (or Friesland) province in the Netherlands speak Frisian. Several thousand more Frisian language speakers, speaking a collection of dialects often unintelligible with each other and certainly unintelligible with forms spoken beyond Nordfriesland, are to be found in Nordfriesland in Germany, while a small number of speakers of the Sater-Frisian language are located in four villages of Lower Saxony in the Saterland region of Cloppenburg county, just beyond the boundaries of traditional East Frisia.
History of Frisia
Frisia changed dramatically throughout time, both by floods and by a change in identity.
Roman times Frisia was a small area in Roman times. It was present province of Friesland and North Holland. Half of the population of the present Netherlands lived in present Friesland, because of the furtile grounds there. The Frisians were exterminated by floods in the 3rd and 4th century. Another theory is that they moved inland and came back later.
Kingdom of Frisia In the 7th and 8th century, the Franks chronologies mention the kingdom of the Frisians. These were probably not the Frisians of Roman times. This kingdom existed out of most of the Netherlands (exept for Limburg and the German North Sea coast. The Franks conquered the western part in 689-719 and the eastern part at the end of the 8th century. This Frisia was mostly conquered by vikings in the 840s, who were thrown out between 885 and 920.
Loss of territory The western part became the county of Holland in 1101 after a few centuries of a different history, then the other parts. Frisia began to identify itself as a country with free folk in the Middle Ages. The Frisians broke lose from the bishopric of Utrecht. There were many floods in the 11th and 12th centuries, which led to an many casualties, and the forming of the Zuiderzee. The largest flood was in 1322.
Opstalboom League The free Frisians (actually petty noblemen) and the city of Groningen join together in the Opstalboom league to counter feudalism. Friesland, Groningen (province), East Frisia, Dithmarschen and other parts of the German and Danish North Sea coast join together. The Opstalboom league didn't only exist out of Frisians. The area Zevenwouden was Saxon and the city of Groningen as well. Some Frisians lived under the rule of the counts of Holland in West-Friesland. The Opstalboom League was not a succes. It broke down after a few years due to continuous internal strife.
15th century The 15th century saw the end of the free Frisians. The city of Groningen started to dominate Groningen (province). A petty nobleman in East Frisia managed to defeat the other petty noblemen and became count of East Frisia. The archbishop of Bremen-Hamburg and the king of Denmark conquered large areas of Frisia. Only Friesland and Dithmarschen remained for the Frisian Freedom. Friesland was conquered in the 1490s by duke Albert of Saxony-Meissen. Dithmarschen lost its independence in the 15th century.
Frisian territories
- West-Friesland remained a part of Holland and became a part of North Holland in C. 1800. It is still an official constitutional body for coast protection, the police and agriculture.
- Friesland got its independence back (with constitutionalized farmer representation) in 1581 and lost it for good in 1795. It is a Dutch province nowadays.
- East Frisia became a part of Prussia and used to be a district of the fedral state of Lower Saxony in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG).
- Groningen (Province) is a province of the Netherlands since the 16th century.
- Dithmarschen became a part of Danish Holstein and belongs now to FRG federal state of Schleswig-Holstein.
- The Frisian islands of the coast of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark are the leftovers of the dunes of flooded lands.