Friesland
[key], province , c.1,325 sq mi (3,430 sq km), N Netherlands. Leeuwarden is the capital. The province
includes several of the West Frisian Islands along the North Sea coast and
borders on the IJsselmeer in the southwest. A principal dairying and
cattle-raising region, Friesland has fertile land near the coast and sandy
heath and fenland in the interior. It is drained by numerous canals and
small rivers and has many picturesque lakes. The Frisians, a Germanic people
who lived in formerly isolated marshlands, were conquered by the Franks in
the 8th cent. Their language, which differs considerably from Dutch, is
still spoken by a sizable part of the population. In the early Middle Ages,
Friesland extended from the Scheldt River in the south to the Weser in the
east. Later it was partly conquered by the counts of Holland. When Holland passed (1433)
to the house of Burgundy, the authority of the Burgundian dukes was not
recognized by the independence-minded Frisians. In 1498, Emperor Maximilian
I bestowed all Friesland on Duke Albert of Saxony. Albert was unable to
establish his authority, and in 1515 his son, for a payment, restored
Friesland to Maximilian. Maximilian's grandson, Emperor Charles V, reduced
the province by force in 1523. Friesland joined (1579) in the Union of
Utrecht against Spanish domination, but it continued to appoint its own
stadtholders until 1748, when Prince William IV of Orange became the sole
and hereditary stadtholder of all the United Provinces of the Netherlands. A
nature preserve for seals has been established on the island of
Terschelling.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Benelux Political Geography
