Focko Ukena

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Ocko tom Brok is captured in front of Focko Ukena after the battle in the wild fields. Romanticizing history painting by Tjarko Meyer Cramer, 1803

Focko Ukena (* around 1370 probably in Neermoor ; † October 6, 1436 in Dijkhuizen ( Ommelande , today's province of Groningen )) was an East Frisian chief of the Moormer and Lengenerland . He comes from the powerful East Frisian chief family of the Ukena .

Life

origin

Ubbo Emmius writes about the ancestry of Focko Ukena in his history of East Frisia :

"Focco Uconis filius, Edermorae in Mormeria, familia nobili, sed haudquaquam locuplete natus spiritus vir"

so about:

"Focko, a son of Uko from Edermoor in the Moormerland, from a noble but not wealthy family, was a man of powerful spirit"

Focko Ukena was probably the youngest son of Uko, the chief of Neermoor and the Amka of Lengen from the Ripperda family . Nothing is known about his childhood and youth; Ukena, born around 1370, did not emerge historically until the first quarter of the 15th century. His name appears under different spellings in documents (Ukama, Ukana, Ukema, Ukumma, Ukens, Uking, Unkena).

coat of arms

Ukena coat of arms (excerpt from the Ostfriesland coat of arms)

The coat of arms shows the lion of the chief family Ukena . The meaning of the lion with the overturned golden crown around his neck is unknown today. That coat of arms can be found as the fourth field in the coat of arms of East Frisia , because Focko's granddaughter Theda Ukena was Ulrich Cirksena's wife and Countess of East Frisia.

There is a crown of ears on the coat of arms. The four-leaf clover is intended to refer to the four old landscapes of the district, the ears of wheat to the agricultural structure. The coat of arms of the Ukena was awarded to the district of Leer as a district coat of arms on August 12, 1952 by the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior and approved with the first main statute of the district on October 22, 1958.

Focko Ukenas struggle against the rule of tom Brok

In the second half of the 14th and first quarter of the 15th century, the East Frisian chieftains of the Kenesna tom Brok  - contrary to the principle of Frisian freedom  - established their own sovereignty in East Frisia. Focko was initially allied with them. When tom Brok's urge to expand increased, Focko Ukena placed himself at the head of the chiefs, who were dissatisfied with their dependency, and thus became a leading figure in their struggle to restore Frisian freedom. On September 27, 1426, Focko Ukena and his supporters defeated an army of knights at the Battle of Detern in support of his great rival Ocko tom Broks .

Only one year later he defeated his rival on October 28, 1427 in the battle of the Wilder Äckern between Marienhafe-Upgant and Oldeborg-Engerhafe. With that he brought about the final overthrow of tom Brok. Since Focko Ukena ultimately pursued nothing other than the restoration of the chief rule under his leadership with his victory, an opposition directed against him soon formed, the so-called Freedom League of the Seven East Friesland , under the Cirksena family . After various military defeats of the Ukenaschen party and the fall of his Fockenburg in Leer in 1431, Focko Ukena fled to Münster via Papenburg . Until his death in 1436 he lived in the castle of his second wife Hiddeke van Garreweer in Dijkhuizen in the Ommelanden .

Focko Ukena as a literary figure

The person of Focko Ukena served as a template for the following literary works:

  • The Frisian chief Focko Ukena , seal by GW Zimmerli, Emden 1909
  • Fokke Ukena , history game by the East Frisian writer Marie Ulfers , Hamburg 1955

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ortschronisten der Ostfriesischen Landschaft : Neermoor (PDF file; 41 kB), viewed on August 29, 2013.
  2. ↑ [1] . Website of the district of Leer. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Ukena, Focko
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ukena, Fokko; Ukena, Fokke
BRIEF DESCRIPTION East Frisian chief
DATE OF BIRTH around 1370
PLACE OF BIRTH unsure: Neermoor
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 1436
Place of death Dijkhuizen ( Ommelande , today's province of Groningen )