So many supranational organizations, whether governmental or juridical, are struggling with their legitimacy and survival, it's almost becoming tedious. Take for example the European Union with a humiliating Brexit and their seemingly, or actual, endless debates on urgent monetary and migration policy reforms. Take for example the International Criminal Court (ICC), accused of being biased and parties leaving the treaty. Some even boycotting it from the very start, and among them not the least. But take the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) too, which celebrated its seventieth birthday last year (2019). Despite its honourable age, the never-ending quarrelling about who has to pay how much, spoiled the party.
As a former president of the United States vividly sketched a conversation once between him and a big NATO ally:
"Well Sir, if we don't pay and we are attacked by Russia, will you protect us?" I said: "You didn't pay. You're delinquent. Let's say that happened. No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay!" (Trump 2024)
The remedy everyone is calling for to revive and strengthen these supranational organizations is solidarity. Politicians, civil servants, the public, and the media shout the word from the rooftops, raising their volume as if talking to someone who doesn't speak their language, assuming additional volume makes them understand. Is this truly the answer to end the lingering and insecure step of these organizations? Will it help to start operating smoothly? How to be a smooth operator? How to achieve the same level of collectivism as The Borg of Star Trek, and Seven of Nine Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One (commonly known as Seven of Nine) used to be part of? Or is this level of unity not what we want?
In this blog post we take the reader back to the ancestor of NATO, namely the supranational treaty organization called Upstalsboom. The word upstalsboom is composed of upstal meaning 'high' and boom meaning 'tree'. Pronounce the oo as in Rome. So, the treaty of the high tree. Comparison with NATO has coincidently also been made by historian Steensen (2020), shortly after publication of this post.
Upstalsboom is a thing site, also called ding, ting or þing in other Germanic languages. During a thing assembly the freemen under the jurisdiction of the thing gathered to choose new laws, rule in legal disputes, execute penalties and discuss matters of mutual interest, including war and defense. The thing always gathered on a fixed day, namely on Tuesdays. In Dutch and German languages Tuesday is still called Dinsdag and Dienstag, the day of the ding/thing. Frisia was divided in many different administrative districts. From local level to district level to regional level, and to supra-regional level. Each level had its own thing with its own legal mandate. The Upstalsboom was the pan-Frisia thing, so the highest level of gathering. Read more about these gatherings and its origins in our blog post Well, the Thing is...
Albeit the Upstalsboom league wasn't founded at the North Atlantic coast, still it was at the nearby North Sea, at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Headquarters of the Upstalsboom was exactly 363 kilometers as the crow flies northeast from NATO headquarters in Brussels. Indeed, the town of Aurich in the region of Ostfriesland. A modest place in the north of Germany of forty-thousand inhabitants. A town primarily known for being the birthplace of the founder of the gay rights movement, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs.
Upstalsboom had seven members. NATO started with twelve. The founding articles of the Treaty of Upstalsboom have many similarities with those of NATO almost eight centuries later. Or should we say, those articles of NATO showed many similarities with those of Upstalsboom? Especially when it comes to the preferred behaviour of its members when confronted with external threats, the articles of NATO are almost copy paste from Upstalsboom. Read below, compare and be surprised.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Article 5: The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.
Article 9: The Parties hereby establish a Council, on which each of them shall be represented, to consider matters concerning the implementation of this Treaty. The Council shall be so organized as to be able to meet promptly at any time. The Council shall set up such subsidiary bodies as may be necessary; in particular it shall establish immediately a defense committee which shall recommend measures for the implementation of Articles 3 and 5.
Upstalsboom treaty
Thet forma: thet hia gaderkome enes a iera to Upstelesbame a tyesdey anda there pinxstera wika and ma ther eratte alle tha riucht, ther Fresa halda skolde. Jef aeng mon eng bethera wiste, theth ma thet lichtere lette and ma theth bethere helde.
The first: that they would gather once a year at Upstalsboom on the Tuesday in the week of Pentecost and that they would discuss there all the laws that the Frisians should uphold. If someone knows a better law, then they give up the lesser and uphold the better.
Thi other kere alra Fresena: gef there eng lond urherad urde, ovder fon tha sutherna sereda ieftha fon tha northeska wiszegge, thet tha sex tha sogenda hulpe, thet hit alsa wel machte sa thera sex hoc.
The second statute of all Frisians: when any land would be devastated by the southern armed or the northern Viking, then the six will help the seventh, so that it may remain as strong as the other six.
Besides the articles above, the Upstalsboom treaty had its own sigils or seals too. On the Grand Seal was written:
Hic signis vota sua reddit Frisia tota cui cum prole pia sit clemens Virgo Maria.
With this sigil the whole of Frisia pledges to fulfill its vow so that clement Virgin Mary and her child may be merciful.
So, the main objective of both legal texts is to hold meetings to discuss matters that extend over more than one land of the treaty-community, and to help each other against threats from outside. An attack on one will be considered an attack on the others. And the others will help out the one being under attack. This Musketeer-logic is identical in both NATO and Upstalsboom charters. In addition, the thing assembly at Upstalsboom was also a legislative and judicial body.
There was a difference. The Treaty of the Upstalsboom specifically sanctioned the killing of a person on his way to an assembly of Upstalsboom, namely with a weregeld 'man price' of 80 marks sterling. Read our post You killed a man? That'll be 1 weregeld, please to learn more about the function of weregelds. Normally, that would have been 10 marks sterling. Killing a judge on his way to the Upstalsboom was even sanctioned with a weregeld of 200 marks sterling. Or, to put it differently, killing an Upstalboom judge was really, really not acceptable. We aren't aware NATO has similar statutes.
Like NATO, the Treaty of the Upstalsboom was a true supranational community. Of tota Frisia, as the community was named too at that time.
When compared to the rest of the European continent, an opposite development took place in the eleventh century at the south-eastern shores of the North Sea between the River Vlie in the west and the River Weser in the east. Frisia broke free from external, Frankish domination. Feudal structures, actually just taking root, crumbled completely again in the various Frisian lands. From the Frisian perspective, this wasn't a radical course of events, because the influence of the Frankish empire always had stayed fairly limited in this difficult-to-access and thus hard-to-control area. Already in the ninth century, under the rule of King Louis the Pious, the Frisians regarded themselves as free folk who were not to answer to any count or lord other than the king. These were the so-called freedom privileges they received around the year 800 from Charlemagne, about which more is explained below.
First, the feudal structures crumbled in the area of Frisia between the River Lauwers in the Netherlands and the River Weser in Germany. This is the region Ommelanden of present-day province Groningen together with the region of Ostfriesland. A century and a half later, feudal structures west of the River Lauwers disappeared too, i.e. the present-day province of Friesland, together with the region of Westfriesland in the province of Noord Holland. This while in the rest of the continent feudal structures grew stronger and stronger, into the fine, efficient and centralist states of today. Ahum.
Vive la République! - The phenomenon of crumbling feudal structures and the development of free farmer republics wasn't solely a distinctive Frisian occurrence. It also took place in what is now Landkreis Dithmarschen in Germany, between the estuary of the River Elbe in the south and the estuary of the River Eider in the north. Situated between the regions of Ostfriesland and Nordfriesland, the region of Dithmarschen -although not Frisian but Saxon- is listed in the Tract of the Seven Sealands (see further down below in this blog post). Apart from Frisia and the region of Dithmarschen, a third physically impenetrable area evolved into a coalition of free republics too, namely that of Switzerland. Swiss origin myths and sagas even recount that the Swiss descend from the Frisians (and the Swedes). Read our blog post Make way for the dead! to learn more about the alleged 'kinship' between Switzerland and Frisia.
The specific relevant content for this request, if necessary, delimited with characters: This lord-less era of Frisia started around the year 1100, and existed for roughly four centuries, depending on which part of scattered Frisia you look at. It became known as the Frisian Freedom. It's also reflected in the Old-Frisian legal text of the High and Late Middle Ages, in the sense that the social classes of 'nobles' and 'serfs' completely disappeared from the law texts, and the 'freeman' - or dy frya Fresa 'the free Frisian' in medieval Frisian law - is the only social class left.
Different myths and sagas exist on how this freedom was granted to the Frisians. These myths and sagas were not bedtime stories. They were necessary to legitimize the lord-less situation and to avoid being subjected to any power-mad person, whether originating from outside Frisia or from within. A common version of the so-called freedom myths tells, in short, that the freedom was given to the Frisians by Charlemagne himself, granted out of gratitude for their heroic deeds during battle and the liberation of the city of Rome. Based on this privilege, the Frisians were not to recognize any other lord than the Holy Roman Emperor himself. Frisia was, in proper English, classified as Reichsunmittelbar.
As an expression of this given freedom, also mixed with the forced transformation from heathendom to Christendom, Frisian men were allowed to wear a golden necklace around their 'free neck', and shave off their hair high, only saving a little tuft on the top of their skull. Read our blog posts With a Noose through the Norsemen's Door and Magnus' Choice. The origins of the Frisian Freedom to appreciate the medieval freedom sagas in depth.
Some Frisians, especially in the present-day province of Friesland, still like to wallow in this former freedom. They love to use the expression kening op eigen hiem wêze ‘being king on your estate’. Farmsteads that were called a zate. Hence, stressing the individuality of this freedom that has a somewhat Texan feeling. The beginning of the third statute of the so-called Magnuskerren, i.e. the freedom privileges, reads: Dio tredde kest is dat aller mannick oen da sinen bisitte onbirawet (...) ('the third statute is that each man has the right to live on his own property undisturbed'). Be all that as it may, socially it meant there existed no real or true nobility. Neither cities, knighthood, nor governmental institutions and structures developed in Frisia. It was just a loose federation of sovereign peasant republics, or a society of Bauerenkaufleute (Schmid 1988). Quite egalitarian, one might argue. These small republics were named Landesgemeinden (in German) or landsgemeenten (in Dutch) and locally united into so-called Sealands. In total, there were seven Sealands.
Regarding this so-called egalitarian society, it's good to put things into perspective. Although there were no counts and no real nobility either, it still was an elite of wealthy local rulers annex farmers who, in practice, had control over the Landesgemeinden. Scholars speak of a non-feudal aristocracy sui generis 'a class alone', without a greater lord to serve (De Langen & Mol 2022). Later on, during the endgame of the Frisian Freedom from the middle of the fourteenth century, the so-called hovedling (also known as haadling, Häuptling, hoofdeling, or hofflingh) entered the scene and gained increasingly more power. Some scholars call these headmen boerenaristocraten or Grossbauern 'farmer aristocrats'. Calling them warlords is perfectly fine for us too. Marking class difference, hovedlings represented more weregild 'man price' if you managed to kill one than an average freeman. Check our post You killed a man? That’ll be 1 weregeld, please.
Hovedlings were mostly individuals who possessed several farms and a fortified, stone house called a stins (in the province of Friesland), borg or börg (in the province of Groningen), or Burg (in the region of Ostfriesland). The borgen, Burgen and stinzen of hovedlings existed specifically on the clay-soil areas of Frisia, i.e. the former terp area, and along strategically important riverways and roads leading more inland.
The number of former stinzen in the province of Friesland alone has been calculated around 500 (De Langen & Mol 2022). In the province of Groningen around 200 borgen once existed. In the province of Friesland, the highest density of stinzen could be found in the areas north of the town of Harlingen and around the city of Leeuwarden. How many borgen in the region of Ostfriesland have existed, we haven't got the details. Only two of the many medieval stone towers have survived the ages, namely the one at the village of Bunderhee in the region of Ostfriesland, and the one at the village of Veenwouden in the province of Friesland.
Furthermore, a hovedling had a small standing armed militia.
The elite in Frisian society, as it is said, strictly speaking, had no nobility because they had no feudal lord to serve. They made sure that their members received influential positions as judges and administrators. Being accepted into this elite was possible but happened very rarely and was very difficult. Rich yeomen or freeholders, i.e. those who possessed land and had accumulated wealth, could enter the class of hovedlings, but only after determination over generations and through beneficial marriages.
Anyhow, hovedlings considered themselves nobility. A class in society whose members possessed most of the wealth, held the most important official positions, and who made sure they kept their privileges through marriage, family alliances, and through what we would call today the old boys network. In fact, when foreign powers overpowered Frisia, this elite wasn't reluctant to accept feudal lords and to pay taxes to them, if only they economically would profit from it. However, one traditional and crucial aspect to them was that land as such could be owned, exchanged nor sold. Something at odds with the feudal system. This hovedlings also possessed most of the productive and fertile land in the clay region of Frisia, which were often the better-drained, old saltmarsh ridges (De Langen & Mol 2022).
According to some scholars, hovedlings as a social class is a continuation of the early-medieval class of nobiles mentioned in the Lex Frisionum. In a direct line even. The lawbook Lex Frisionum, that mentions the class of nobiles, is written in the late eighth century. A fully egalitarian society in the High Middle Ages, as sometimes is being painted, wasn't the case at all (Schuur 1987). Between ca. 1150 and 1290, different titles for powerful men were still being used. Besides nobiles, also potentes, optimates, meliores, maior villulae, and divites were all titles of individuals illustrating a not so very egalitarian society, and who often called themselves dominus as well (De Langen & Mol 2022).
Back to the Treaty of the Upstalsboom. How much more mythical can it be? Once a year, on Tuesday after Pentecost, chosen and sworn delegates from the Seven Sealands of Frisia gathered in the open air under a big tree standing on top of a hill. A thing site called Upstalsboom. Together, the frya Fresa 'free Frisians' chose new laws, ruled in legal disputes, and above all, decided on how to respond jointly to external threats. Very romantic retro-Germanic tribe life, is it not?
No, it was not.
After all this romanticism, myths, sagas, legends, ideology and everything in between and beyond, it's about time we start looking at the timelessness of ruthless politics. If we want to answer the question of this blog post, whether solidarity is at the core of a collective, we must learn what the reasons were why the collective of Upstalsboom was founded and, moreover, why it ended. Be prepared for some shocking Realpolitik below.
The Upstalsboom collective was formed at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the main reason was that of self-protection. As said, feudal structures had crumbled in Frisia while their neighbors had built powerful governmental institutions, bureaucracies, and armies, created a knighthood, with emerging powerful cities to support all this modernism. If not the bishops of Utrecht and Munster, or the abbots of the abbeys of Fulda, Werden, and Echternach, it certainly were counts or other warlords claiming legitimate control over Frisia.
At the start of the twelfth century, the comes Fresonum 'counts of Frisia' renamed themselves 'counts of Holland'. They had their powerbase in the region of Kinheim, or Kennemerland as it is named today, including control over the mouths of the River Meuse and the River Rhine. In the twelfth century, the comes Fresonum or counts of Holland started an open civil war against the first of the Seven Sealands, namely the region of Westfriesland in the present-day province of Noord Holland. Read our post Guerrilla in the Polder. The Battle of Vroonen in 1297.
Let's just say, a lot of manly ego and testosterone was floating around through Europe those high-medieval days already. Therefore, serious external threats all around, and a Musketeer-doctrine, league or collective was the answer of these small farmer republics without an army or knighthood to cope with their hostile and much better organized surroundings. Indeed, the Hunger Games had commenced.
An additional challenge the communally governed peasant republics had was that they had to rely fully on people's militias for their self-defense. Whereas outside of Frisia, secular and ecclesiastical rulers had the possession of increasingly professional mercenary armies, for example, like the famous Swiss mercenaries. Not in Frisia. The 'citizens' themselves needed to be prepared to go to war still, which was the case as long as one can remember, and risk their lives to protect their land and the Frisian Freedom. It turned out, in fact, they were pretty motivated and stood their wet ground for centuries.
Defend yourself - In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries being properly armed as a man was even regulated and supervised by the community. It meant every individual who could afford it had the obligation to possess weapons and armor. The richer the more weaponry you were obliged to have. The standard kit was a small sword and a pike or spear. The rich needed to have an armor, a helmet, and a steel ring collar too. The culture of every man being able to defend his property and that of his kin or his community probably dates back to the earliest social organization of Germanic tribes. Kind of a Second Amendment. Again, the Texan feeling comes up.
The Older Skelta Law of the Freeska Landriucht 'Frisian Land Law' (1485) reads as follows:
Dit is riucht: aldeer di fria Fresa XXX pond wird eerwis haet oen synre wer dat hi hoers ende wepen halda schil to der landwer. Jef him dis breckt, so schil hi tojenst dine frana mit twan pondem beta. Hwa so haet XX pond wird eerwis oen synre wer, di schel habba truchslayn wepen jefta mit twan pondem beta. Hwa so haet XII ponda wird eerwis, di schil habba speer ende schield toe der landwer jefta mit twan pondem beta. Di deer haet lessa, di schel habba koeker ende bogha to der landwer, jefta mit twan pondem beta.
This is the law: when a free Frisian possesses land worth thirty pounds as his property, he shall have a horse and weapon for the defence of the land. If he is unable to procure this, he shall pay a fine of two pounds to the frana ['count']. He who possesses land worth twenty pounds as his property shall have a forged weapon or pay the fine of two pounds. He who possesses land worth twelve pounds as his property shall have spear and shield for the defence of the land or pay the fine of two pounds. If someone possesses less than this he shall have bow and arrow for the defence of the land or pay the fine of two pounds.
However. Despite the flat grasslands it wasn't a level playing field at the end, because the free Frisian people's militias couldn't keep pace with the aforementioned 'international' developments of mercenary armies, government institutions, cities, etc.
In spite of the formation of a treaty collective of the Upstalsboom, things derailed completely for Frisia. In 1297, the so-called beastly people of region Westfriesland were finally defeated by count Jan of Holland; read our post In debt to the beastly Westfrisians. The first of the Seven Sealands was lost without region Westfriesland receiving any assistance from the other six Sealands. Notwithstanding delegates of the Seven Sealands solemnly kept gathering under the high tree at Aurich on Tuesdays during this war. Jolly assemblies that must have been. Maybe a bit like Security Council meetings of today (date of writing 2018).
Furthermore, the second and the third Sealand didn't participate actively in the Treaty of the Upstalsboom. These were the Sealands Westergo and Oostergo, together consisting more or less present-day province Friesland. Indeed, in practice the whole Treaty of the Upstalsboom only concerned the Sealands east of the River Lauwers (Jansen & Janse 1991).
The passiveness of the second and the third Sealand, Westergo and Oostergo, only changed after the counts of Holland turned their Sauron-like eye to them. At first, the grietmannen ‘high judges’ of the sub-districts Franeker, Wildinge and Wagenbrugge of Sealand Westergo had made a zoen ‘peace’ with count William III of Holland in the year 1310 (Schuur 2014). This peace, mind you, included that Westergo would fall under the jurisdiction of Holland, provided the count would respect the freedom privileges of Charlemagne (Schroor 2015). Not long after, however, William III started to benefit his vassals in Holland with fiefs of properties within Westergo. It became clear for the grietmannen cum suis they hadn't read the fine print of the zoen.
'Surprisingly', Westergo and Oostergo suddenly tried to revive the alliance of the Treaty of the Upstalsboom they had neglected all this time, which by that time was already dozing. This was in the year 1323, when both Sealands called upon the collective to help them out against the aggressor of Holland. But the other four remaining Sealands refused to be dragged into that conflict. And it wasn't that Westergo and Oostergo had earned a lot of credits in the previous years by actively helping out others. Province Friesland was on its own from now on.
In the year 1361, the Saxon city of Groningen, in alliance with the fourth Sealand (i.e. more or less the present-day region of Ommelanden), made a final effort to revive the Treaty of the Upstalsboom. It was in vain again. So much for concordia felix. The duck was dead.
The rest is history.
Fat-clay Frisia was eaten alive. As said, in the year 1297 count John of Holland had enjoyed the region of Westfriesland as an entrée already. Although, it was a bit too little for his taste. Häuptling Ulrich Cirksena got the main course in the year 1464, when the Holy Roman Emperor gave him all of Frisia east of the River Ems in fief. Ulrich I became the first count of the sixth and the seventh Sealands. Indeed County Ostfriesland and what's now the region of Ostfriesland. A heavy and filling dessert was reserved for Albert III, the duke of Saxony. In 1498, this man with a big appetite subdued the second, third and fourth Sealand, corresponding with the present-day province of Friesland and the region of Ommelanden in the province of Groningen. In the year 1525, albeit not a sealand, Land Wursten and the Wurstfriesen lost their freedom too. With that, the last of the free Frisians had fallen. Communal government and defence with people's militias was history. Contrary to the movies, these Hunger Games ended without having one single survivor.
No one left of the fellowship of the Seven Sealands to send to Upstalsboom headquarters in Aurich. So far, for the whole optimistic Musketeer-thing. And the irony was that in the year 1417 “universorum Incolarum et inhabitantium tam Orientalis quam Occidentalis frisie” (meaning: all people and inhabitants of East Frisia and West Frisia) received from the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund the freedom privilege for real. But this holy verdict didn't put an end to the binge-eating on Frisia that was going on. Apparently, the gift of Emperor Sigismund was a piece of paper with signatures and seal, but without commitment and thus without any meaning. To put it differently:
myth was real before it turned into reality
As a bonus you'll find down below the Old-Frisian tract of 1416 with an English translation. It's a state of the union - maybe the very first state of a union in Western history - of the Frisian Sealands and their seven nations army. And, its state wasn't a rosy one. Very interesting to read, we think. With hindsight you know: resistance was futile.
The all too familiar and sad conclusion must be once again, that individual interests are the biggest threat for the response and survival of the collective. The Borg of Star Trek, interestingly meaning 'fortified house/castle' in the province of Groningen and in the Danish language, knew this and operated as one. The Borg had given up every shred of individual freedom and individuality. Feudalism in optima forma, you could say.
When looking at the Treaty of the Upstalsboom, it wasn't the lack of solidarity why the collective fell apart. Instead, it was lack of tangible, urgently felt self-interest. This, combined with a republican-style identity of individualized freedom propagated by the Frisians, didn't help either. "As long as you can defend yourself, why risk your own life or pay good money for it?" was too often their motto. The Texan feeling keeps coming up in this blog post. It's well-known, of course, that freedom and collectively are difficult to reconcile. The tragic fact is, when the different parts of the Treaty of the Upstalsboom realized they needed the collective, it was already too late. In other words, short-term interests blind long-term interests. If you like, you can replace 'interests' by 'politics' in this sentence.
When tota Frisia fell apart so did the identity of its people
Keeping an eye on the ball of the long-term self-interest is maybe what should be defined as 'solidarity'. A bit less grand and vivacious, but more workable. Who knows how the history of Frisia would have looked if they would have had a little bit more Borg-attitude. And we hope NATO and other supranational organizations, for that matter, will disseminate the tragic history of Upstalsboom among its allies as a must-read.
Below as promised the dramatic State of the Union of tota Frisia of 1461, written in the Old-Frisian language with an English translation below it (see the map above with the Seven Sealands numbered). Pay special attention to the atrocities that were attributed to warlord Keno tom Brok in the northwest of Germany:
Tract of the Seven Sealands
Hyr bigint een cleen tractaet fan da saun zelanden des gansen landis fan Freesland mey syn tobiheer ende eylanden.
Here begins a modest tract of the seven sealands of the entire land of Friesland with its belongings and islands.
Dat aerste zeland dat is Westfriesland bi dio ode sida des zees, alse Hoern, Enchusen, Medenblic, etc., hwelc di grewa fan Holland him haet onderdenich maked haet alderaerst.
The first sealand is Westfriesland on the other side of the sea, also Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Medemblik, etc, which the count of Holland made submissive to him first.
Dat oder is streckende fan Starem to Liouwerd, alse Westergo ende Doyngaweerfstal, Weimbritse, mit al hyara toebiheer.
The second [sealand] stretching from Stavoren to Leeuwarden, also Westergo and Doniawerstal, Wymbritseradeel, with all their belongings.
Dat tredde is heten Aestergo mei al Smellingaland, Boerndeel, foerd meer Handmare, Haskerwald, dae neersta Walden ende Rauwerde, Aetzespel ende Colmerland. Dizze twa zeelanden, als dat oder ende dat tredde, sint eta fry ende oers neen hera bicannet bihalua diin keyser des Roemschen rikes. Mer ontellika schada ende manich oenfiuchtinga ende grata bloedstirtingha habbet disse landen lith om dine frydoem to bischyrmen, hwelck hem is ioun fan dine grata koninck Kaerl, ende deerto manich sueer striden habbet slain inst dine grewa fan Holland om hiara land to bischyrmen.
The third [sealand] is called Oostergo with all of Smallingerland, Boorndeel, further Haudmare, Haskerland, the Lage Wouden and Rauwerderhem, Achtkarspelen and Kollumerland. These two sealands, namely the second and the third, are still free and recognize no other lord than the emperor of the Roman Empire. But untold damage and many assaults and great bloodshed have these lands suffered to protect the freedom, which was given to them by Charlemagne, and for this they have fought many battles with the count of Holland to protect their land.
Dat IIII is Stellingwerf, Scoterwerf, Kunersyl, Geethorn, Fullenhoef, Steenwyck ende al Drentland. Dit zeland haet bituongen di biscop fan Vtrecht, als Drent, Steenwyc, Fullenhoef, Geethorn ende Kunersyl, mer Stellinchwerf, Schoterland, disse twa sint eta fry, ende grata anfiuchtinga mit grata orlogen, deer hia habbet hand toienst dat sticht fan Vtrecht.
The fourth [sealand] is Stellingwerf, Schoterwerf, Kuinderzijl, Giethoorn, Vollenhove, Steenwijk and all of Drenthe. This sealand has been conquered by the bishop of Utrecht, namely Drenthe, Steenwijk, Vollenhove, Giethoorn and Kuinderzijl, but Stellingwerf, Schoterland, these two are still free, and they have many attacks with great wars, which they have had against the stift of Utrecht.
Dat fyfte zeland is Langwald, Freedwald, Humers, Mydach, Husinga, Fiwellingha, Groninghen, Aeldambecht, Reyderland, Uesterwald mey al da walden, deer aldeerbi lidset tuisscha da Eemse ende Westfalen. Dat maeste deel fan disse zeland is esta fry ende sommich sint onderdenich ioncker Kene ende grewa Vlrick ende sommich sint da Groninghera onderdenich.
The fifth sealand is Langwold, Vreedewold, Humsterland, Midday, Hunsingo, Fivelgo, Groningen, Oldambt, Reiderland, Westerwolde with all the wolden [type of districts], which lie between the Ems and Westphalia. Most of this sealand is still free and some are subjected to jonker [a honorific] Keno [Keno tom Brok] and count Ulrich and some are subjected to Groningen.
Dat sexte zeland is Eemda mit al Eemderland, Brokmerland, Aurikerland, Aesterghaland, Heerlingerland ende Dole Noerderland mei syn toebiheer, ende dit edele land, deer ryckst was ende fruchtbaer, huelc ioncker Kene fan Broeckmerland, een broders in boesheed, ende mei quaedheed dit land bituong ende makese eerm wrmits zeeraweren ende hi spared gastelyck ner wraldsch ende was boes in alle tinghum ende wt da tzerken naem hi al dat ield ende clenodien, deer hi dat stryd mei feerd.
The sixth sealand is Emden with all of Emsingo, Brookmerland, Auricherland, Astringen, Harlingerland and Norderland with their belongings, and this noble land, was the richest and fertile, which jonker [a honorific] Keno of Brookmerland [Keno tom Brok], a successor of his father and brother, and with evilness conquered this country and made it poor through pirates and he spared neither the clergy nor the worldly and was evil in all things and from the churches he took all the money and jewels, that he used for wars.
Dat VII zeland is Rustringaland, Winingaland ende Buthiaingheraland, huelc land bisith Sibolt Ede soen, ioncker Kene suager. Item Owerlengerland, Moermerland ende Lingen, dat sint delen disser zelanden, huelc ioncker Kene aec bituongh, ende Focke Ukema disse tria landen fan Keno bileende, ende neen landishera ne mochte disse zelanden bituinga, bihala disse Focke vorscrioun. Item Segelterland is aec een deel van disse VII zelanden en iout tribuet ende schat den biscop fan Munster. Ende Scheedland, Haedelreland, Wymderlan wr dio Wesere sint aeck delin fan disse VII zelanden. Disse haet bituongen di biscop fan Bremen, mer Dithmers is eeta oenbihinderd.
The seventh sealand is Riustringen, Wangerland and Butjadingen, which land possesses Sibolt Edezoon, brother-in-law of jonker [a honorific] Keno [Keno tom Brok]. Furthermore, Overledingerland, Moormerland and Lengen, these are parts of this sealand, which jonker Keno also conquered, and Focko Ukena lent these three countries from Keno, and no landlord succeeded to conquer these sea lands, except for this Focko aforementioned. Furthermore, Saterland is also part of this seventh sealand and gives tribute and treasure to the bishop of Munster. And Stadland, the land Hadeln, Wigmodië over the Weser are also parts of this seventh sealand. This is conquered by the bishop of Bremen, but Dithmarschen is unhindered.
The Wurstfriesen of Land Wursten on the eastern banks of the river mouth of the Weser would loose its freedom in 1525 with the Stader Frieden 'peace of Stade'. Read our post Joan of Arc an inspiration for Land Wursten.
Note 1 - Upstalsboom as the godfather of NATO is not the first time Frisians leading the way in warfare. Read our post They want you as a new recruit to find out how and when the English and Dutch navies were founded.
Note 2 - Parallel to the external threats the Landesgemeinden of Frisia had to cope with many returning and veteran foreign fighters who had been participating in the Crusades. That had further destabilized Frisian society. Read our post Terrorist Fighters from the Wadden Sea.
Note 3 - Please find here an informative brochure (in English) of The Upstalsboom, published by Ostfriesische Landschaft.
Note 4 - Since the Texan feeling so often popped up in this post, check this documentary of Frisian farmers migrated to Texas a few decennia ago.
Suggested music
White Stripes, Seven Nations Army, Elephant (2003)
Sex Pistols, Anarchy in the UK (1976)
Further reading
Henstra, D.J., The evolution of the money standard in medieval Frisia. A treatise on the history of systems of money of account in the former Frisia (c.600-c.1500) (1999)
Jansen, H.P.H. & Jansen, A. (transl.), De kroniek van klooster Bloemhof te Wittewierum (1991)
Jensma, G., Vrijheid als innerlijke deugd. De paradox van de 'Friese vrijheid' in de negentiende eeuw (2019)
Knottnerus, O., Culture and society in the Frisian and German North Sea Coastal Marshes (1500-1800) (2004)
Langen, de G. & Mol, J.A., The distribution and subdivision of farmland on the medieval and prehistoric salt marshes of the northern Netherlands. A retrogressive model of the (pre)Frisian farm, based on historical sources from the Early Modern Period (2022)
Langen, de G. & Mol, J.A., Friese edelen, hun kapitaal en boerderijen in de vijftiende en zestiende eeuw. De casus Rienck Hemmema te Hitzum (2022)
Mol, J.A., De Friese volkslegers tussen 1480 en 1560 (2013)
Munske, H.H. (ed.), Handbuch des Friesischen. Handbook of Frisian studies (2001)
Nijdam, H., Lichaam, eer en recht in middeleeuws Friesland. Een studie naar de Oudfriese boeteregisters (2008)
Nijdam, H., Hallebeek, J. & Jong, de H., Frisian Land Law. A Critical Edition and Translation of the Freeska Landriucht (2023)
Schroor, M., Harlingen. Geschiedenis van een Friese havenstad (2015)
Schuur, J.R.G., De Friese hoofdeling opnieuw bekeken (1987)
Schuur, J.R.G., De plaatsing van het Schoutenrecht in hun historische context (2014)
Spiekhout, D. (ed.), Vrijheid Vetes Vagevuur. De middeleeuwen in het noorden (2022)
Steensen, T., Die Friesen. Menschen am Meer (2020)
Tuuk, van der L., Radbod. Koning in twee werelden (2018)
Vries, O., Asega, is het dingtijd? De hoogtepunten van de Oudfriese tekstoverlevering (2007)
Vries, O., De taal van recht en vrijheid. Studies over middeleeuws Friesland (2012)
Ziel, van der L., NATO. De onstaansgeschiedenis. Oprichting en doelen (2021)