Editing Frisia (section)

=== Early Middle Ages ===
{{See also|Frisian kingdom|Frisian-Frankish Wars}}
[[File:Frisia 600-734-la.svg|thumb|The Frisian Realm during its great expansion]]
[[File:Frisian kingdom.gif|thumb|The Frisian Kingdom, 6th–8th century AD]]

Frisian presence during the Early Middle Ages has been documented from North-Western Flanders up to the Weser River Estuary. According to archaeological evidence, these Frisians were not the Frisians of Roman times, but the descendants of Anglo-Saxon immigrants from the [[German Bight]], arriving during the [[Migration Period|Great Migration]]. By the 8th century, ethnic Frisians also started to colonize the coastal areas North of the Eider River under Danish rule. The nascent Frisian languages were spoken all along the southern North Sea coast.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Frisian-language|title=Frisian language|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2017-11-13|language=en}}</ref> Today, the whole region is sometimes referred to as '''Greater Frisia''' ({{Langx|la|Frisia Magna}}).

Distant authors seem to have made little distinction between Frisians and Saxons. The Byzantine [[Procopius]] described three peoples living in Great Britain: Angles, Frisians and Britons,<ref>{{cite book
|author=Procopius
|title=The Wars
|year=1914
|url=https://archive.org/details/b24750281_0002
}} 8.20.11-46</ref> and the Danish author of ''[[Knútsdrápa]]'' celebrating the 11th-century [[Canute the Great]] used "Frisians" as a synonym of "English".{{efn|{{cite book|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|editor-last=Ashdown|editor-first=Margaret|title=English and Norse documents : relating to the reign of Ethelred the Unready|year=1930|oclc=458533078|page=138|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5yA9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA138}} Noted by Homans.<ref name="Homans1957" />{{rp|page=189}}}} The historian and sociologist George Homans has made a case for Frisian cultural domination in [[East Anglia]] since the 5th century, pointing to distinct land-holdings arrangements in [[carucate]]s (these forming [[vill]]s assembled in [[Court leet|leet]]s), [[partible inheritance]] patterns of common lands held in by kin, resistance to [[manorialism]] and other social institutions.<ref name="Homans1957">{{cite journal|publisher=Wiley|journal=The Economic History Review|issn=0013-0117|series=New series|volume=10|issue=2|year=1957|last=Homans|first=George C.|author-link=George C. Homans|title=The Frisians in East Anglia|pages=189–206|doi=10.2307/2590857 |jstor=2590857}}</ref> Some East Anglian sources called the mainland inhabitants [[Varni tribe|Warnii]], rather than Frisians.

During the 7th and 8th centuries, [[Franks|Frankish]] chronologies mention the northern [[Low Countries]] as the kingdom of the Frisians. According to Medieval legends, this kingdom comprised the coastal {{lang|gmw|seelande}} provinces of the [[Netherlands]], from the Scheldt River to the Weser River and further East. Archaeological research does not confirm this idea, as the petty kingdoms appear to have been rather small and short-lived.

The earliest Frisian records name four social classes, the {{lang|gmw|[[etheling]]s}} ({{lang|la|[[Nobility|nobiles]]}} in Latin documents) and {{lang|gmw|frilings}}, who together made up the "Free Frisians" who might bring suit at court, and the ''laten'' or ''liten'' with the [[slave]]s, who were absorbed into the ''laten'' during the [[Early Middle Ages]], as slavery was not so much formally abolished, as evaporated.{{efn|Homans describes Frisian social institutions, based on the summary by {{cite book|location=Breslau|publisher=Marcus|series=Untersuchungen zur deutschen Staats- und Rechtsgeschichte|volume=144|last=Siebs|first=Benno E.|title=Grundlagen und Aufbau der altfriesischen Verfassung|language=de|year=1933|oclc=604057407}} Siebs' synthesis was extrapolated from survivals detected in later medieval documents.<ref name="Homans1957" />}} The ''laten'' were tenants of lands they did not own and might be tied to it in the manner of [[serf]]s, but in later times might buy their freedom.<ref name="Homans1957" />{{rp|page=202}}

The basic land-holding unit for assessment of taxes and military contributions was – according to Homans – the ''ploegg'' (cf. "plow") or ''teen'' (cf. [[tithing]], cf. "[[Hundred (country subdivision)|hundred]]"), which, however, also passed under other local names. The ''teen'' was pledged to supply ten men for the ''heer'', or army. ''Ploegg'' or ''teen'' formed a unit of which the members were collectively responsible for the performance of any of the men. The ''ploegg'' or East Frisian ''rott'' was a compact holding that originated with a single lineage or kinship, whose men in early times went to war under their chief, and devolved in medieval times into a union of neighbors rather than kith and kin. Several, often three, ''ploeggs'' were grouped into a ''burar'', whose members controlled and adjudicated the uses of pasturage (but not tillage) which the ''ploeggs'' held in common, and came to be in charge of roads, ditches and dikes. Twelve ''ploeggs'' made up a "long" hundred,{{efn|This is part of the evidence for a [[Duodecimal|duodenary system]], counting by multiples of twelve.<ref name="Homans1957" /> {{rp|at=204 and ''passim''}}}} responsible for supplying a hundred armed men, four of which made a ''go'' (cf. ''[[Gau (country subdivision)|Gau]]''). Homans' ideas, which were largely based on studies now considered to be outdated, have not been followed up by Continental scholars.

The 7th-century '''Frisian Realm''' (650–734) under the kings [[Aldegisel]] and [[Redbad, King of the Frisians|Redbad]], had its centre of power in the city of [[Utrecht (city)|Utrecht]]. Its ancient customary law was drawn up as the ''[[Lex Frisionum]]'' in the late eighth century. Its end came in 734 at the [[Battle of the Boarn]], when the Frisians were defeated by the [[Franks]], who then conquered the western part up to the [[Lauwers]]. Frankish troops conquered the area east of the Lauwers in 785, after [[Charlemagne]] defeated the Saxon leader [[Widukind]]. The Carolingians laid Frisia under the rule of ''grewan'', a title that has been loosely related to [[count]] in its early sense of "governor" rather than "[[Feudalism|feudal overlord]]".<ref name="Homans1957" />{{rp|page=205}}

During the 7th to 10th centuries, Frisian merchants and skippers played an important part in the international luxury trade, establishing commercial districts in distant cities as Sigtuna, Hedeby, Ribe, York, London, Duisburg, Cologne, Mainz, and Worms.

The establishment of the Frisian trade network played a significant role in maintaining regional peace during the [[late Middle Ages]]. While interpersonal [[violence]] was on the rise almost everywhere else in Europe, [[Northern Europe]] and especially Frisia managed to maintain low levels of violence due in part to its well-developed society and established [[rule of law]], which were results of extensive trade.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Baten |first1=Joerg |last2=Steckel |first2=Richard H. |date=2019 |title=The History of Violence in Europe: Evidence from Cranial and Postcranial Bone Traumata |journal=The Backbone of Europe: Health, Diet, Work and Violence over Two Millennia |pages=300–324}}</ref>

The Frisian coastal areas were partly occupied by [[Danes (Germanic tribe)|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 traded with the native Frisians. One of their leaders was [[Rorik of Dorestad]].