FRISIANS, a people who in the first century of our era were found by the Romans in occupation of the coast lands stretching from the mouth of the Scheldt to that of the Ems. The first his torical notices of the Frisians are found in the Annals of Tacitus. They (or a portion of them) were rendered tributary by Drusus, and became socii of the Roman people, but soon after A.D. 47 the emperor Claudius ordered the withdrawal of all Roman troops to the left bank of the Rhine. In 58 the Frisians tried un successfully to appropriate certain districts between the Rhine and the Yssel and in 7o they took part in the campaign of Claudius Civilis. Ptolemy states that they inhabited the coast above the Bructeri as far as the Ems. Tacitus speaks of them as adjacent to the Rhine. But there is some reason for believing that the part of Holland which lies to the west of the Zuider Zee was at first inhabited by a different people, the Canninefates, whose name is perhaps preserved in the name Kennemerland or Kinnehem formerly applied to the same district.
In connection with the movements of the migration period the Frisians are hardly ever mentioned, though some of them are said to have surrendered to the Roman prince Constantius about the year 293. Procopius speaks of the Frisians as one of the na tions which inhabited Britain in his day, but we have no evidence from other sources to bear out his statement. In Anglo-Saxon poetry mention is frequently made of a Frisian king named Finn, the son of Folcwalda, who came into conflict with a certain Hnaef, a vassal of the Danish king, Healfdene, about the middle of the 5th century. The incident is obscure, but it is worth noting that Hnaef's chief follower, Hengest, may quite possibly be identical with the founder of the Kentish dynasty. About the year 52o the Frisians are said to have joined the Frankish prince Theodberht in destroying a piratical expedition which had sailed up the Rhine under Chocilaicus (Hygelac), king of the Gotar. Towards the close of the century they begin to figure much more prominently in Frankish writings. It is probable that the Frisians were to some extent associated with the Angles and Saxons in the invasion of Britain. In any case, the Frisian language, by its close resem blance to English, proves an ancient and intimate connection between these peoples.
The northward extension of Frankish dominion brought on a collision with the Frisians. Under the protection of the Frankish king Dagobert (622-638), the Christian missionaries Amandus (St. Amand) and Eligius (St. Eloi) attempted the conversion of the southern Frisians, but farther north the building of a church by Dagobert at Trajectum (Utrecht) at once aroused the fierce hostility of the heathen tribesmen of the Zuider Zee. Utrecht was attacked and captured, and the church destroyed. Wilfrid bishop of York who visited Frisia in 678 was allowed to preach Chris tianity by Aldgils, then king. Radbod, his successor, who was hostile to Christianity, was beaten by Pippin of Heristal in the battle of Dorstadt (689), and was compelled to cede west Frisia from the Scheldt to the Zuider Zee to the conqueror. Although Frankish supremacy over Frisia was not completely established until the time of Charles the Great, it was under Frankish pro tection that Christianity was established in Frisia by the English man Willibrord, between 690 and 739. The see of Utrecht which he founded has remained the chief see of the northern Netherlands from his day to our own, though many Frisians were still heathen when the more famous English missionary Boniface was martyred at Dokkum in Frisia shortly after 75o.
Charles the Great granted the Frisians important privileges under a code known as the Lex Frisionum, based upon the ancient laws of the country. In this text three districts are clearly distin guished : west Frisia from the Zwin to the Vlie ; middle Frisia from the Vlie to the Lauwers ; east Frisia from the Lauwers to the Weser. At the treaty of Verdun (843) Frisia became part of Lotharingia; at the treaty of Mersen (870) it was divided between the kingdoms of the East Franks and the West Franks ; in 88o the whole country was united to the latter; in 911 it fell under the dominion of Charles the Simple, king of the West Franks, but the districts of East Frisia asserted their independence and for a long time governed themselves of ter a very simple democratic fashion. The history of West Frisia gradually loses itself in that of the countship of Holland and the see of Utrecht (see HOLLAND and UTRECHT).
The influence of the Frisians during the interval between the invasion of Britain and the loss of their independence must have been greater than is generally recognized. They were a seafaring people and engaged largely in trade, especially perhaps the slave trade, their chief emporium being Wyk to Duurstede. During the period in question there is considerable archaeological evidence for intercourse between the west coast of Norway and the regions south of the North sea, and it is worth noting that this seems to have come to an end early in the 9th century. Probably it is no mere accident that the first appearance, or rather reappearance, of Scandinavian pirates in the west took place shortly after the overthrow of the Frisians.
Besides the Frisians discussed previously, a people called North Frisians inhabited the west coast of Schleswig. In his torical times these North Frisians were subjects of the Danish kingdom and not connected in any way with the Frisians of the empire. It seems not unlikely that the original settlers were Fri sians who had been driven northwards by the Franks in the 8th century. The inhabitants of the neighbouring islands, Sylt, Am rum and Far, who speak a kindred dialect, have apparently never regarded themselves as Frisians, and it is the view of many scholars that they are the direct descendants of the ancient Saxons.
In 1248 William of Holland, having become emperor, restored to the Frisians in his countship their ancient liberties in reward for the assistance they had rendered him in the siege of Aachen ; but in 1254 they revolted, and William lost his life in the contest which ensued. After many struggles west Friesland became corn pletely subdued, and was henceforth virtually absorbed in the county of Holland. But the Frieslanders east of the Zuider Zee obstinately resisted repeated attempts to bring them into subjec tion. In the course of the 14th century the country was in a state of anarchy, which favoured the attempts of the counts of Holland to push their conquests eastward, but the main body of the Fri sians was still independent when the countship of Holland passed into the hands of Philip the Good of Burgundy. Philip laid claim to the whole country, but the people appealed to the protection of the empire, and Frederick III., in Aug. 1457, recognized their direct dependence on the empire. The marriage of Maximilian of Austria with the heiress of Burgundy produced a change in the fortunes of that part of Frisia which lies between the Vlie and the Lauwers. In 1498 Maximilian reversed the policy of his father Frederick III. and gave it to Albert of Saxony, who thoroughly crushed out all resistance. In 1523 it passed with all the rest of the provinces of the Netherlands to the emperor Charles, the grandson of Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy.
The part of Frisia which lies to the east of the Lauwers had a divided history. The portion which lies between the Lauwers and the Ems after some struggles for independence had, like the rest of the country, to submit itself to Charles. It became ultimately the province of the town and district of Groningen (q.v.). The easternmost part between the Ems and the Weser, which had since 1454 been a county was ruled by the descendants of Edzard Cirksena, and was attached to the empire. The last of the Cirk senas, Count Charles Edward, died in 1744 and in default of heirs male the king of Prussia took possession of the county.
The province of Friesland was one of the seven provinces which by the treaty known as the Union of Utrecht bound themselves together to resist the tyranny of Spain. From 1579 to 1795 Fries land remained one of the constituent parts of the republic of the United Provinces, but it always jealously insisted on its sovereign rights, especially against the encroachments of the predominant province of Holland. It maintained throughout the whole of the republican period a certain distinctiveness of nationality, which was marked by the preservation of a different dialect and of a separate stadtholder. Count William Lewis of Nassau-Siegen, nephew and son-in-law of William the Silent, was chosen stadt holder, and throughout the 17th and 18th centuries the stadt holdership was held by one of his descendants. Frederick Henry of Orange was stadtholder of six provinces, but not of Friesland, and even during the stadtholderless periods which followed the deaths of William II. and William III. of Orange the Frisians re mained stanch to the family of Nassau-Siegen. Finally, by the revolution of 1748 William of Nassau-Siegen, stadtholder of Friesland (who by default of heirs male of the elder line, had become William IV., prince of Orange), was made hereditary stadtholder of all the provinces. His grandson in 1815 took the title of William I., king of the Netherlands. The male line of the "Frisian" Nassaus came to an end with the death of King Wil liam III. in 189o.
(Oscinella frit), a fly extremely destructive to barley crops in northern Europe and North America. It is a small, greenish-black insect, the larvae of which live in the grains of the barley, which they destroy. (See ENTOMOLOGY, ECONOMIC; D IPTERA. )