Friso-Hollandic Wars - Backgrounds To The Relationship Between Holland and Friesland

Backgrounds To The Relationship Between Holland and Friesland

Across the Zuiderzee, which is today Lake IJsselmeer, lay the Frisian territories of Westergo and Oostergo (the borders of which approximately coincide with the present-day Dutch province of Friesland.

However, the situation in these territories was quite unlike the one in West-Friesland. For one thing, the counts of Holland were not the only ones who coveted these rich lands. The bishops of Utrecht, who were also in the possession of what are today the Dutch provinces of Overijssel and Drenthe, to the southeast of Friesland, also had his eye on them. And to the east the rich city of Groningen, nominally under the control of the bishop of Utrecht, but in reality virtually independent and very influential, was trying to develop its own sphere of influence in the Frisian lands.

One would think that the only authority recognised by the Frisians, namely the German emperor, would have long since rectified the strangely unfeudal situation which had developed here, but one would be quite wrong. The emperor liked things the way they were, which kept the counts of Holland from becoming too influential and gave himself a foothold in this corner of his empire.

So when emperor Frederick Barbarossa travelled to the Netherlands in 1165, to settle the dispute between the counts of Holland and the bishops of Utrecht over the Frisian territories, he came up with a solution which was virtually guaranteed to keep things as they were. He ruled that the power in the disputed lands should be wielded by both the counts and the bishops in condominium. Count and bishop should together chose a vice-count to rule in their stead; and when they could not agree on a candidate, the emperor could name the vice-count himself. Because this system of government could only function when the bishop of Utrecht was a partisan of the count of Holland (usually when a younger brother of the count was named as bishop of Utrecht) it let things remain largely as they were. When there was a weak bishop the influence of the count in the Frisian territories was greater, but usually still limited to the coastal region opposite Holland and the important trade city of Staveren. When there was a strong bishop the influence of Holland and Utrecht cancelled each other out.