Frisia
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Frisia (West Frisian: Fryslân; North Frisian: Fraschlönj, Freesklöön, Freeskluin, Fresklun, and Friislön’; Saterfrisian (East Frisian): Fräislound; East Frisian Low Saxon: Freesland; Gronings: Fraislaand; German and Dutch: Friesland; Danish: Frisland) is a coastal region along the southeastern corner of the North Sea, i.e. 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 a little part of southwestern Denmark (to the river Widau).
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[edit] Divisions
Frisia 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 Denmark
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 German Bight coast.
West Frisia is roughly identical with the Dutch province of Friesland, the northern part of North Holland province (the historical region of West Friesland, the westernmost portion of the traditional region of West Frisia) and also modern Groningen province, though the Western Frisian language is only spoken in Friesland proper. In West Frisia, dialects with strong Frisian substrates are spoken (Low German and Low Franconian dialect variants, respectively). In the northern province of Groningen people speak Gronings, a Saxon dialect, which also has a strong Frisian substrate.
East Frisia 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, the Saterland, the Land Wursten an former Rüstringen (Butjadingen). East Frisia is also the name of an historical county in that area. The German name "Ostfriesland" distinguisches the former county from "Ost-Friesland", whicht means the whole eastern Frisian area.
The portions of North Frisia within the German state of Schleswig-Holstein are part of the district of Nordfriesland and stretch along the coast, and including also the coastal islands from the Eider River to the border of Denmark in the north. The North Sea island of Heligoland, while not part of Nordfriesland district, is also part of traditional North Frisia.
A half million Frisians of Friesland province in the Netherlands speak West Frisian. Several thousand more Frisian language speakers, speaking a collection North Frisian dialects often unintelligible with each other and certainly unintelligible with forms spoken beyond North Frisia, are to be found in Nordfriesland and Heligoland in Germany, while a small number of speakers of the Saterland Frisian language live in four villages of Lower Saxony in the Saterland region of Cloppenburg county, just beyond the boundaries of traditional East Frisia. Many Frisians speak Low Saxon dialects, especially in East Frisia, but in West- an North Frisia, too.
[edit] History
Frisia changed dramatically throughout time, both by floods and by a change in identity.
[edit] Roman times
The Frisians had settled in Frisia from about 500 BC. According to Pliny the Younger, in Roman times, the Frisians (or, as it may be, their close neighbours, the Chauci) lived on terps, man-made islands. According to other sources, the Frisians lived along a broader expanse of the coast of the North Sea (or "Frisian Sea").
Frisia at this time comprised the present provinces of Friesland and North Holland. A large part of the population of the present Netherlands lived in present Friesland, because of the fertile grounds there.
[edit] Kingdom of Frisia
East Anglian sources called the inhabitants of 'Frisia' Warnii instead of Frisians. In the 7th and 8th centuries (CE), the Frankish chronologies mention this area as the kingdom of the Frisians. However, these were probably not the Frisians of Roman times. This kingdom comprised the then coastal provinces of the Netherlands and the German North Sea coast. During this time, the Frisian language was spoken along the entire southern North Sea coast and, today, this region is sometimes referred to as Greater Frisia or Frisia Magna. The Franks conquered the western part in 689-719 and the eastern part at the end of the 8th century. This Frisia was partly conquered by vikings in the 840s, who were expelled between 885 and 920. It has also been suggested that the vikings did not conquer Frisia, but settled in certain parts (such as the island Wieringen) where they built simple forts and cooperated and traded with the native Frisians. One of their leaders was Godfried, Duke of Friesland.
[edit] Loss of territory
Frisians made polders in West Friesland, which moved further and further away from Friesland due to floods. The western part of Frisia became the county of Holland in 1101 after a few centuries of a different history than the other parts. Frisia began to identify itself as a country with free folk in the Middle Ages. The bishopric of Utrecht did not belong to this Frisia anymore. There were many floods in the 11th and 12th centuries, which led to the deaths of many, and the forming of the Zuiderzee. The largest flood was in 1322.
[edit] Opstalboom League
The free Frisians (actually petty noblemen) and the city of Groningen founded the Opstalboom League to counter feudalism. It consisted of modern Friesland, Groningen (province), East Frisia and the German and parts of the Danish North Sea coast. But the Opstalboom league didn't only consist 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 success. It collapsed after a few years due to continuous internal strife.
[edit] 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 remained for the Frisian Freedom. Friesland was conquered in the 1490s by duke Albert of Saxony-Meissen.
[edit] Frisian territories
- West Friesland remained a part of Holland and became a part of North Holland around 1800. The current region of West Friesland is smaller than historical West Friesland and there is also an official constitutional region (samenwerkingsregio) of West Friesland for coast protection, the police, and agriculture.
- Friesland got its independence back (with constitutionalized farmer representation) in 1581 and gave it up for good in 1795. It is a Dutch province nowadays.
- East Frisia became a part of the Kingdom of Prussia and was formerly a district of the federal state of Lower Saxony in the Federal Republic of Germany.
- Groningen is a province of the Netherlands since the 16th century.
- North Frisia was a part of the Danish duchy of Schleswig (also: South Jutland) and belongs now to the German state of Schleswig-Holstein.
- The Frisian islands of the coast of the Netherlands and Germany are the leftovers of the dunes of flooded lands.
[edit] Flag
Although the Frisian regions have their own separated flags, Frisia did not have a flag of its own until September 2006. The flag for united Frisia was made by the group of Auwerk, which supports a united Frisia as an official country.
As you can see, the flag has been inspired by the Scandinavic cross, like in the Norse and Icelandic flag. The four pompeblêden refer to the seven pompeblêden on the West-Frisian flag, but the amount of four means the four separated frisian regions.
[edit] See also
Seventeen Provinces (1477) - Burgundian Circle (1512) |
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states |