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Statue of Pier Gerlofs Donia, the Frisian folk hero and freedom fighter. Frisia is a small region in the north of the modern day country known as the Netherlands.In the Iron Age, the ancestors of the modern Frisians first migrated south out of modern day Scandinavia to the south west where they began to settle along the coast.
Today, there exists a tripartite division of North, East and West Frisians; this was caused by Frisia's continual loss of territory in the Middle Ages. The West Frisians, in general, do not see themselves as part of a larger group of Frisians, and, according to a 1970 poll, identify themselves more with the Dutch than with the East or North ...
The Frisian coastal areas were partly occupied by Danish Vikings in the 840s, until these were expelled between 885 and 920. Recently, it has been suggested that the Vikings did not conquer Frisia, but settled peacefully in certain districts (such as the islands of Walcheren and Wieringen ), where they built simple forts and cooperated and ...
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.
Viking raids of the Low Countries continued for over a century. Remains of Viking attacks dating from 880 to 890 have been found in Zutphen and Deventer. In 920, King Henry of Germany liberated Utrecht. According to a number of chronicles, the last attacks took place in the first decade of the 11th century and were directed at Tiel and/or ...
The Viking rule in Frisia was terminated, nevertheless in view of the continuous threat, the local peasants were granted the Frisian freedom (West Frisian: Fryske frijheid), which excluded them from the feudal customs in the Frankish Empire, with no suzerain above them than the Emperor himself.
Archeological discoveries during the early 20th century refuted the long held belief that the Frisii were the ancestors of the medieval and modern Frisians by comparing pottery styles, brooches and burial practices before and after the population decline of the 5th century in the regions of Groningen, Friesland, Holland and Zeeland.
It was written more than 500 years after the last unambiguous reference to the ancient Frisii (the Panegyrici Latini in c. 297), and at a time when medieval Frisia and the Frisians were playing a dominant role in North Sea trade. The idea that the Frisians might have settled in Scotland and Ireland has triggered several imaginative histories.