FRISI (FRISONI). — A population of Germanic stock which, from the time it first appears in history, was stationed along the shores of the North Sea between the mouths of the Scheldt and the Weser and the Cimbrian Peninsula. Tacitus, who mentions them (Germania, 34), distinguishes the Frisii maiores and the Frisii minores, while the Roman historians speak of Rome’s repeated efforts to subdue them. In the face of invasion attempts, they succeeded in maintaining themselves in their own territory, which was considerably larger than the present-day Dutch province, and it seems that, together with the Angles and Saxons, they took part in the conquest of Britain. Even today they speak a dialect of their own, although it has lost ground to the neighbouring and related Low German dialects. Their resistance against their Frankish neighbours was fierce and culminated at the beginning of the 8th century in the uprising led by the national hero Radbodo. This hostility delayed the penetration of Christianity among them, begun by St. Eligio of Noyon, under the Frankish king Dagobert, and by Wilfrido of York; their apostle was Willibrordo (d. 736), who, having settled in Utrecht (the ancient Roman Traiectum), in Frankish territory, and having been consecrated bishop in Rome, travelled throughout the country for more than 46 years and, with the help of Anglo-Saxon and Frankish monks from Echternach, succeeded in giving the country a Christian character.
Once the conquest had been completed, Charlemagne, respecting local traditions, had them collected into a single body, and thus the lex Frisionum came into being. In the divisions of the Carolingian Kingdom in 813, Frisia was annexed to Lotharingia, and in 880 to Austrasia; thereafter, while West Frisia formed the County of Holland, Middle Frisia and East Frisia, nominally subject to the Empire, remained in fact autonomous, broken up into peasant communities, divided among themselves by conflicts of interest, but united in mutual defence against invaders, a defence facilitated by the canals and numerous lakes. The 14th and 15th centuries passed without any power dominating the region. In 1523 Charles V seized part of it, although Groningen continued for some time to remain independent; the Frisian Islands and East Frisia, on the other hand, remained autonomous. On the death of the last count, Carlo Edzard Cirlesna, in 1744, the States General of the United Provinces did not accept the offer of union, and the country passed under Prussian rule. As a result of the religious wars which, in the second half of the 16th century, had thrown all the Netherlands into revolt, it had adhered as early as 1579 to the Protestant Union of Utrecht. Pio Paschiai