Plate 3 ROBERT KOOL Crusades 1 (2002) Frisian Fighters and the Crusade Johannes A. Mol Fryske Akademij, Leeuwarden Introduction Tn 1250, with Louis IX still residing in Acre after the disastrous end of his expedition in Egypt, Pope Innocent TV sent a special message to the Frisians He asked them to come as quickly as possible to the Holy Land to help the French monarch defending the Latin Kingdom. He reinforced his appeal with the remark that Frisians were known fo be successful in the lands overscas.! ‘This was not an isolated compliment. Long before and after 1250 the Frisians were much sought after as crusaders of great value. Now, the saying is that nothing breeds success like success. The Frisians m reputation by then at I ‘and military contribution to the Damietia expedi ements in the Nile Delta became more gener ort of their preacher, Master Oliver of Cologne, in. his Historia Damiatina3 Yet, the Frisians participated in earlier crusades.4 Had they not already acquired some fame in assisting the Portuguese at the conquest of Alvors in 1189, for example, Master Oliver would not have come directly to Frisia to preach the Cross to them. ‘With some exaggeration, one could say that there were virtually go crusades in which the Frisians did not take part. ‘They not only joined most of the classical expeditions overseas, but also played a role in many a politcal crusade. Many Frisians, for example, responded to the call of their bishops of ibus prosperari: Les Regisire d Tnnocent : no. 4927, 29 Nov. 1250, _ Sie, fo example, the appeal of Emperor Frederick Ml in 1226 (1 Feb.): Die Schriften des Kelner Domscholasters,spiteren Bischofs von Paderborn und Kardinal Bischof von ‘S. Sabina Olverus, ed. H. Hoogeweg, Bibliothek des li pp.S4-74, 391. The appeal refers to the Frisian successes at Daanietta, ‘of Pope Honorius III of 14 October the same year ibid, and Th Nan Cleve, “The Fifth Crusade,” in Crusades 2371-429, In 1268, according to Abbot Meako van Witte King ited the Frisians to join forces with hhim: Kroniek van het Kooster Bl rum, ed. H.P.H. Jansen and A. Janse ai 1991), pp. 422-23, by Hoogeweg, Schriien des Kélner Domscholasiers. See particulaly the epilogue in chap. $2 for tae honour that was accorded to the Frisian as ae “obedion; and energetic nation.” *'The allowing overview is based on Herbert Brasat, Die Teiahme der Friesen an Wed. E. Borger, 4 v den Kreuzzigen ultra mare vornehmlich im 12. Jahrhundert. Beitrige sue Gecohicha der deutschen Seefahrt im 12. Jahrhundert (Roviin, VOT0 JOHANNES A. MOL, FRISIAN FIGHTERS AND THE CRUSADE a mT Uteecht, Miinster and Bremen to take the Cross against the neighbouring but | | rebellious Drents and Stedinger people on various expeditions in the fourth decade of the thirteenth century. An they supported the Roman King Wi Aachen in 1248, Reading the sources it mentioned as a collective force. The one Frisian warrior whi by name is a certain Hayo of Violgama® who, 248, with the approbation of the pope, of Holland in his siege of the city of nee ikes the eye that Frisians are nearly always widely known ‘most of them being knights.© This raises the question of what background the Frisian crusaders had, how many were they, and from what regions and from what layers of society did they come. ‘The second observation thet we can make on Frisian crusaders — i unmistakably connected with the forogoing — is that they are almost | called knights, at least not in the military sense of the word, As we sh Frisians were not good at fighting on horseback. Since heavily horsemen played the leading part in most crusading expeditions,” after all, that they were good wit and supplies. Master Oliver did not fail to note such things. But the famous preacher also called the Frisians to the battle for Christ because they were ‘well-known as a gens bellicosa, “a warlike people who had not shown fear of any lord and who were determined to achieve victory or sactifice their lives for eternal glory.”® AS for the sources, two Frisian monasteries have left us contemporaneous 5 Reinhold Rohricht, “Die Belagerung von Demietta (1218-1 Ricchengeschichte des Mitelalers Historsches Tachenbuch SM Powell, Anatomy ofa Crusade, 1219-1221 (Pile Gn te condict of warn nd around ihe Holy Land geneal Raymond C. Smal, Cnsading Warfare (1097-1193) (Cambe Marsal Warfare in che Lain Base, 1152-1291 (Cambri, 19}. more attention ne been Crp the ol of eh "uted shock comb. “Gers ills, cova est, mulls prinipis miterislem glam tmens, nuilum exes team suam in expediionem seguir si sora Chistum, Samecent fonmidoose, que fra fonruptil po eterna gion iberalor dare" Maser Over vot those words sory nal Rober vat z Sesinieow Tener to the abbot of Prémontet, as a people. fide stabilis et in arms strenua: Kronick Bloemhof, p. 180o JOHANNES A. MOL chronicles with information on the crusading activities of the Frisians. They have been known for a long time but have not been well analysed in this respect. Both were written by Premonstratensian canons: the chronicle of the monastery of Floridus Hortus in Wittowieruim, probably better known as the chronicle of the abbots Emo and Menko, and the Gesta abbatum Orti Sancte Marie, that is, the deeds of the abbots of Mariéngaarde (Mary's Garden), near Leeuwarden, the oldest Premonstratensian house in Frisia. Since the abbey of Wittewieruim lay in Fivelgo, north of Groningen, in what the Germans call Mitel Friesland, and) Marigngaarde more to the west in the present-day Dutch province of Friesland, these sources complement each other geographically. As for the period involved, they cover @ good part of the thirteenth century. T analysed these chronicles, in combination with several other scattered reports and various iconographical sources, to establish the fighting style the Frisians used in their own lands, The analysis was donc oa the assumption that their manner of fighting in Portugel, Palestine, Egypt and Tuni different than in Friesland itself. Therefore, in this paper, an effort to explain Frisian “s in gencral. Ths is « roundabout epproach, but one that dose have possibly prospects, Before I come to that, however, something has to be said kind of a nation Frisia was in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. about Frisia in the High Middle Ages Since Roman times the Frisians had been known as seafarers and farmers, li ‘on the low “Wadden” shores of the North Sea, In the High Middle Ages their lands ran from the northern part of Holland up to the east as far as the mouth 10 Settlement there was originally confined to the long but narrow Jay soils along the sea, strips that were intersected by many peat bogs. Politically speaking, fragmentation is the key word. In Frisia there never developed a centre of power that took in the separate sub-regions. The Cristienization and conquest by the Franks had the long-term effect of bringing the whole area into the hands of different lords outside Frisia, a situation that js reflected in the division of the various Frisian lands over four dioceses: Usrecht, Minster, Osnabriick and Bremen. However, because of the distances involved, the possessors of comital rights in Frisia (the archbishop of Bremen, the bishops of Utrecht and Minster and the count of Holland) were 5 Gesia abbanun Ort Sancte A, Wybrands (Leeuwarden, 18; ‘medieval Frisian historiography can be left out of consideration. For this see Geert HM. CCleasens, “The Image of the Frisians in the Crusade Stories,” in Aspects of Old Frisian Philology, e@. RH, Brommer jr, G. van der Meer sod O. Vries, Estrikken 69 ‘(Amsterdam snd Groningen, 1990), pp- 69-84, 10H, Slicher van ie Economic aad Social Conditions in the Frisian Districts from 900 to 1500," 4. 4.G, Bijdragen 13 (1968), 97-133, ile, Gedenkschriften van de abdij Mariéngaarde, ed. Kroniek Bloembof. The non-contemporancous late FRISIAN FIORTERS AND THE CRUSADE » impeded from developing their Frisian jurisdictions into real dominions in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. No feudalization occurred, which opened up the way for the native nobi each region to organize a kind of semi-communal government, The result was the development of a series of independent miniature republics, called terrae, which were not subject to overlords People from these different lands recognized one another as Frisian, speaking ‘the same language end inder the same sort of laws. They fostered a sense of togethemess, cherishing the memory of Charlemagne giving them their freedom. They also had some knowledge of common boundary marks. Division was more the rule amongst them, however, than unity. About 1200 a tota Frisia confederation in embryo was organized: the Confederation of the Upstalsboom, but it never really came to life, as most terrae had cont ambitions, Only in 1323 and 1338 was it temporarily revived when some lands were threatened with conquest by for ‘One important binding factor was monast century, at nearly the same time, four orders Benedictines, the Regular Canons of St Auge: Pramonstmtensians After 1200 they were tobe fllowed by the Hosp and the Teutonic Order. Each of them succeeded in founding a series of dependent houses. By 1250 more than eighty abbeys, priories and ‘commanderies had come into being throughout the Frisian coastal area, connecting the ferrae along their own institutional lines. Patronized by the nobility, they were inhabited by native Frisians. difficult to imagine role in propagating the crusades, even after the mendicants appeared on the stage. Numbers How many Frisian crusaders were there and what regions did they come from? Let us first have a quick look at the number except, however, for the First Crusade, The or less by coincidence in Tarsus in the last month of 10971? belonged to @ Flemish fleet that had already been on the seas for many years. Nothing indicates that this fleet was specifically brought together for the purpose of more than that some Frisians miso in conquering Lisbon. The memory of this glorious activity was cherished by the Frisians who put into port at Lisbon in 1217 on the joumey Historische Breignisse und Abkandlungen und Vortrige zur (au 100), p= 2A detailed account of theit actions is in Brassat, Teiinahme der Friesen, pp. 18-55.