A Province Shaped by Rulers and by the Sea
Friesland, in the north of the Netherlands, has a recorded history of some two thousand years. Roman writers knew the Frisii in the first century BC; in the early Middle Ages Frisian kings fought the Franks; and until 1498 the Frisians between the Vlie and the Lauwers lived for centuries without a feudal lord, a state later called the 'Frisian Freedom'. The land changed as much as its rulers: inland seas such as the Middelzee, the Zuiderzee and the Lauwerszee opened, grew and were later diked or closed off.
This map covers that history in 57 keyframes, from the Roman general Drusus in 12 BC to Friesland's municipalities in 2019. For each era it shows both the borders and the coastline of the time.
Rome and the Frisii
In 12 BC Drusus's fleet sailed from the Rhine through the Flevo lakes and the Vlie into the North Sea. The Frisii became allies of Rome and paid tribute in ox hides. In AD 28 they rose, hanged Rome's tax collectors and defeated a Roman army at the Baduhenna Wood. In AD 47 Corbulo brought them back under Roman control, but Emperor Claudius ordered him back behind the Rhine. Around 300 the Frisii vanish from the sources and many terps, the dwelling mounds of the coast, were abandoned.
The Frisian Kingdom and the Franks
By about 650 the Frisians had a king, Aldgisl, and under King Radbod around 680 'Frisia Magna' stretched along the coast. Pepin of Herstal defeated Radbod at Dorestad in 689 and took the land south and west of the Vlie. Radbod retook Utrecht and Dorestad in 716 but died in 719. In 734 Charles Martel defeated King Poppo on the Boarn, and the Frisian kingdom ended. The missionary Boniface was killed near Dokkum in 754. After 785 Charlemagne ruled Frisia to the Weser, and the Frisian law, the Lex Frisionum, names three Frisian lands: Sincfal to Vlie, Vlie to Lauwers, and Lauwers to Weser.
Vikings, Floods and the Frisian Freedom
Around 850 the Danish Viking Rorik seized Dorestad and Utrecht and was accepted by Emperor Lothar as ruler of most of Frisia. Scandinavian rule ended in 885, when Godfrid, lord of Frisia since 882, was killed. To the southwest, the counts of West Frisia won at Vlaardingen in 1018 and grew into the counts of Holland, who spent centuries trying to conquer the Frisians.
Storm floods between 1163 and 1173, including the All Saints' Flood of 1170, began to form the Zuiderzee, and the St. Lucia's Flood of 14 December 1287 widened it. West of it, the West Frisians killed King William II of Holland at Hoogwoud in 1256, but Count Floris V conquered West Friesland by 1289. East of it, the Frisians beat Holland at the Battle of Warns on 26 September 1345, where Count William IV fell. Inside Friesland, the Schieringers and Vetkopers fought the Great Frisian War of 1413–1422. In 1464 East Frisia became a county under Ulrich Cirksena.
Saxony, Guelders and Grutte Pier, 1498–1524
In March 1498 the Schieringers asked Duke Albert of Saxony for help. On 23 October 1498 Leeuwarden surrendered after a nine-week siege, and the Frisian Freedom was over. In 1505 the Saxons diked the salt marshes at the mouth of the old Middelzee, creating the Bildt. In 1514 Groningen accepted Duke Charles of Guelders as its lord, and Guelders troops soon held all of Friesland except Leeuwarden, Franeker, Harlingen and the land around them.
In January 1515 Saxon soldiers burned Kimswerd and the farm of Pier Gerlofs Donia, known as Grutte Pier, killing his family; he formed the Black Band and fought on Guelders' side. On 19 May 1515 George of Saxony sold Friesland to the future Charles V for 100,000 guilders. The Black Band and Guelders besieged Leeuwarden in 1516 and sacked Medemblik in 1517. Grutte Pier died in Sneek in 1520; his successor Wijerd Jelckama was beheaded in Leeuwarden in July 1523, and Sloten, the last Guelders stronghold, fell that November. From 1524 all of Friesland recognised Charles V as lord.
From Habsburg Lordship to Modern Province
Friesland joined the Union of Utrecht in 1580, and Groningen joined the Republic as 'Stad en Lande' in 1594. The Frisian Nassau stadtholders bought Ameland in 1704. After the Batavian Revolution of 1795, Friesland was split in 1798 between the departments of the Ems and the Old IJssel, restored in 1802, annexed to the French Empire in 1811, and made a province of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in 1815.
The modern map was shaped by water engineering as much as by politics. The Afsluitdijk closed the Zuiderzee on 28 May 1932, the German occupiers moved Terschelling and Vlieland from North Holland to Friesland in 1942, and a dam closed the Lauwerszee in 1969. Between 2011 and 2019 the old grietenijen were merged into larger municipalities.
How to Read the Map
The blue-grey wash shows sea and lakes of the time where there is land today: the Middelzee, the growing Zuiderzee and the Lauwerszee. Borders before 1500 are approximate, based on tribal areas, Frisia Magna and the three Frisian lands. Westergo, Oostergo, Zevenwouden, the Stellingwerven, Ameland, the Ommelanden and East Frisia each have their own layer. The Guelders–Habsburg front of 1515–1523 is reconstructed by grietenij and town from the chronicles, and later borders follow Friesland's 30 grietenijen and 11 cities.
How the Map Was Made
The coastline of each era comes from the paleogeographic maps of Vos and others (RCE and Deltares, CC BY 4.0). Land areas were built from historical municipal boundaries (NLGIS), German boundaries (BKG VG250) and the HALC atlas of parishes around 1500. The Guelders wars follow the chronicle of Worp van Thabor; further detail comes from De Langen and Mol in De Vrije Fries 100 (2020) and from Wikipedia.
Chronological Timeline
- 12 BC — Drusus reaches the Frisii
- AD 28 — The Frisii revolt against Rome
- c. 680 — Frisia Magna under King Radbod
- 689 — Pepin defeats Radbod at Dorestad
- 734 — Battle of the Boarn: the Frisian kingdom ends
- 754 — Boniface killed near Dokkum
- c. 850 — Rorik the Dane rules most of Frisia
- 1170 — All Saints' Flood
- 1287 — St. Lucia's Flood
- 1345 — Battle of Warns
- 1498 — Leeuwarden falls: the Frisian Freedom ends
- 1515 — Saxony sells Friesland to Habsburg
- 1520 — Grutte Pier dies in Sneek
- 1524 — Lordship of Frisia under Charles V
- 1580 — Friesland joins the Union of Utrecht
- 1798 — Friesland split into two departments
- 1815 — Province of the Kingdom of the Netherlands
- 1932 — Afsluitdijk closes the Zuiderzee
- 1942 — Terschelling and Vlieland join Friesland
- 1969 — Lauwerszee closed
- 2019 — Municipal mergers complete
Step through all 57 keyframes on the interactive map and watch the coastline change from era to era. You can embed the map on your own website or export it as an animated GIF.
Explore the full interactive map →