Frisian freedom
The Frisian freedom ( Frisian Fryske frijheid ) is the Friesen allegedly by Charlemagne conferred rights , no masters other than the Emperor to have about themselves. The Frisian legend tells of Liber Friso (= free Frisian) and his companions who returned victorious from Italy to the land by the sea in the 9th century . In Rome the Frisians had completely and unexpectedly defeated the Romans for their King Charles . The king was enthusiastic, rewarded and presented his brave Frisian warriors with the highest good: freedom.
Modern historical research ascribes the "Frisian Freedom" today to Charles the Fat , after which it was awarded in 885 as a result of the victory over the Normans . In the Middle Ages, the Frisians organized themselves as cooperatives in autonomous regional communities based on the requirements of dyke building and defense against foreign powers. During the High Middle Ages, the Frisians began to actively defend their “freedom” against foreign princes. Representatives of the regional communities met near Aurich on the Upstalsboom .
definition
Rulership and defense construction took a fundamentally different development in East Frisia than elsewhere in Central Europe. Thus, neither a comprehensive system of rule could be established, nor were the representational attributes of knighthood and nobility accepted before the 15th century . The concept of freedom therefore referred to both the loss of military successes and the absence of a feudal system.
history
origin
When the Scandinavian Vikings attacked Friesland, which was still under the rule of the Carolingians , for the first time around 800 , the Frisians were released from military service in foreign territories in order to be able to defend themselves against the pagan Vikings. With the victory in the Battle of Norditi in 884, the Vikings were indeed permanently expelled from East Frisia, but they remained a constant threat. For centuries, while the feudal lords ruled in Europe , no aristocratic structures could establish themselves in Friesland. This “freedom” was represented externally by Redjeven , “elected” or selected representatives of the autonomous regional communities from the stratum of the large farmers. Originally the Redjeven were exclusively judges, so-called Asega , who were appointed by the landlords.
Heyday
At its heyday around the year 1300, the realm of the "Free Frisian Lands" comprised 27 regional municipalities from the north-west of the Netherlands via East Frisia to the Land of Wursten north of Bremerhaven . The regional communities joined together to form the " Seven Sea Lands ". Their emissaries met at Whitsun on the Upstalsboom in Rahe near Aurich, a meeting place on a hill. Two representatives, elected by each state parish, appeared there as “Zeeland judges”. It can be assumed that these representatives came from leading families, since the right to vote and stand for election was tied to the property. This means that although the decisions were taken by two delegates each, the assembly at the Upstalsboom was made up of the totality of the accompaniment of the "judges". Thus the Upstals boom was not the meeting place for all “free Frisians”, but at least a place where influential members of the regional communities met.
“The tribe is free to the outside world, not subject to any other master. For freedom they go to their deaths and choose death rather than being burdened with the yoke of bondage. Therefore they have abolished military dignity and do not allow some of them to stand out with a military rank. However, they are subordinate to judges who they elect annually from among the members who regulate and regulate the state under them ... ”. This assessment by the English Franciscan Bartholomaeus Anglicus dates from around 1240.
Negotiations, especially of a political nature, take a certain amount of time. You also need an efficient, writing institution to draw up contracts. We could see these in the neighboring Ihlow Monastery , where the results of the negotiations could be put into contracts and the seal could also be kept. The monastery could also have offered an overnight stay if the negotiations took longer.
The “legendary” commission from Charles, who is said to have rewarded the Frisians with freedom after the capture of Rome and at the same time imposed duties on them, speaks of cooperative practice. The exemption from army succession outside Friesland is justified with the common defense against enemies and the water. As a collective task, it challenged everyone, men, women, children, the elderly and the sick. In the common struggle against the threatening sea, the class differences melted away again and again. Rich and poor, master and servant had to stand together - everyone had the same rights and duties in this fight. The best-known principle of dyke law was: "De nich wants to die, mutt wieken" ("Those who [their land] do not want to dike, have to give way").
Decline
In the course of the 14th century, the Redjeven constitution fell into disrepair , and other events such as the outbreak of the plague and major storm surge catastrophes further destabilized the situation. Some influential families took advantage of this situation and created a system of rule in which they, as “ chiefs ” (hovedlinge), seized power over more or less large areas. In doing so, however, they did not establish a feudal system, as was to be found in the rest of Europe , but rather a system of allegiance that resembled older forms of rule of Germanic cultures in the north, in that the inhabitants of the respective areas of power were sometimes obliged to the chief but otherwise retained their freedom and could also settle elsewhere.
When in 1498 the Roman-German king and later Emperor Maximilian I lent Duke Albrecht von Sachsen in exchange for a loan of 300,000 guilders with the entire Friesland region (including Dithmarschen ), it became clear that the counter-model to the form of rule customary in the inland south of the North Sea should be put to an end. With the actual conquest of Frisian territories by territorial princes or their conversion into feudal states, a period of political fragmentation and dependency began for the Friesland.
Ostfriesland was from Emperor Friedrich III. as early as 1464 it was raised to a county under the Cirksenas . From 1498 onwards, Duke Albrecht of Saxony tried to subjugate the provinces of Friesland and Groningen west of the Ems . After the siege of the city of Groningen in 1500, Albrecht fell ill and was transported to Emden, where he died. His son Georg von Sachsen soon took over the rule, but these provinces offered constant resistance, whereupon he returned them to Charles of Castile (later Emperor Charles V , grandson of Emperor Maximilian I) in 1515 (see also Saxon feud ). Groningen tried to save its freedom in the field of forces between Charles V and Duke Karl von Geldern , but had to finally recognize the emperor's rule in 1536. In the western Wesermarsch the resistance of the Butjadinger and Stadlander Frisians in the battle of the Hartwarder Landwehr was broken by Count Johann V of Oldenburg and the Guelph dukes Heinrich the Elder of Brunswick , Heinrich the Middle of Lüneburg and Erich von Calenberg . In 1525 , the Archbishop of Bremen took control of the land of Wursten . Specific Frisian customs persisted for centuries in the local and regional legal systems of the areas inhabited by Frisians.
reviews
Gerd Steinwascher, former head of the Oldenburg State Archives, doubts that the end of Frisian freedom in the Frisian areas conquered by the Counts of Oldenburg would have permanently damaged the Frisians living there. Frisian freedom is a “myth” insofar as “a few rich farming families did not have to put up with a noble master over themselves - and could therefore behave like little nobles. [...] Most of them were no worse off among the Oldenburgers. "
literature
- Karl-Ernst Behre , Hajo van Lengen (Ed.): Ostfriesland. History and shape of a cultural landscape. East Frisian Landscape, Aurich 1995, ISBN 3-925365-85-0 .
- Volker Gabriel: Legal and judicial systems in the land of Wursten from the end of the Middle Ages to the 17th century. Hamburg 2004, ( online (PDF; 1.3 MB) ; Hamburg, University, dissertation, 2004).
- Hajo van Lengen (ed.): The Frisian freedom of the Middle Ages - life and legend. East Frisian Landscape, Aurich 2003, ISBN 3-932206-30-4 .
- Monika van Lengen: Eala frya Fresena. Frisian freedom in the Middle Ages. East Frisian Landscape, Aurich 2003, ISBN 3-932206-33-9 .
- Carsten Roll: From 'asega' to 'redjeven'. On the constitutional history of Friesland in the Middle Ages. In: Concilium Medii Aevi . Vol. 13, 2010, pp. 187–221, ( online (PDF; 395.42 kB) ).
- Heinrich Schmidt : Political history of East Frisia (= East Frisia in the protection of the dike. 5). Rautenberg et al., Leer 1975.
- Heinrich Schmidt: East Friesland and Oldenburg. Collected contributions to North German regional history. East Frisian Landscape, Aurich 2008, ISBN 978-3-940601-04-9 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sonja König, Vincent T. van Vilsteren, Evert Kramer: From chiefs and castles. = Over hoofdelingen en kasteien. In: Jan F. Kegler (Red.): Land of Discoveries. The archeology of the Frisian coastal area. = Land of ontdekkingen. Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich 2013, ISBN 978-3-940601-16-2 , pp. 283-295.
- ^ Heinrich Schmidt: Political history of East Frisia. 1975, p. 22 ff.
- ↑ Freilichtspektakel Stadland eV: The Friesian Monument ( Memento from March 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Hajo van Lengen: Settlement area of the Frisians in northwestern Lower Saxony with today's administrative boundaries . Report 2011, p. 16
- ↑ Henning Bielefeld: Lecture - The Frisian freedom is just a myth. Gerd Steinwascher puts the battle near Hartwarden into context . Nordwestzeitung , January 16, 2014