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Friesland
Columbia Encyclopedia entry: Friesland
Frieslandfrēz'lənd, Du. frēs'länt or Frisiafrĭzh'ə, province (1994 pop. 607,000), c.1,325 sq mi (3,430 sq km), N Netherlands. Leeuwarden is the capital. The province includes several of the West Frisian Islands along the North Sea coast and borders on the IJsselmeer in the west. A principal dairying and cattle-raising region, Friesland has fertile land near the coast and sandy heath and fenland in the interior. It is drained by numerous canals and small rivers and has many picturesque lakes. The Frisians, a Germanic people who lived in formerly isolated marshlands, were conquered by the Franks in the 8th cent. Their language, which differs considerably from Dutch, is still spoken by a sizable part of the population. In the early Middle Ages, Friesland extended from the Scheldt River in the south to the Weser in the east. Later it was partly conquered by the counts of Holland. When Holland passed (1433) to the house of Burgundy, the authority of the Burgundian dukes was not recognized by the independence-minded Frisians. In 1498, Emperor Maximilian I bestowed all Friesland on Duke Albert of Saxony. Albert was unable to establish his authority, and in 1515 his son, for a payment, restored Friesland to Maximilian. Maximilian's grandson, Emperor Charles V, reduced the province by force in 1523. Friesland joined (1579) in the Union of Utrecht against Spanish domination, but it continued to appoint its own stadtholders until 1748, when Prince William IV of Orange became the sole and hereditary stadtholder of all the United Provinces of the Netherlands. A nature preserve for seals has been established on the island of Terschelling.
Wikipedia search results for: Friesland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands. Up until the end of 1996, the province bore Friesland as its official name. In 1997 this Dutch name lost its official status to the Frisian Fryslân. Nevertheless "Friesland" is still commonly used by Dutch speaking people, being the Dutch translation of the official name. Friesland has 643,000 inhabitants and its capital is Leeuwarden, with 91,817 inhabitants, in the center of the province. Friesland distinguishes itself from the other eleven provinces through having its own language, West Frisian, which is also spoken in a minor part of the province of Groningen, to the east....more »
Columbia Encyclopedia search results: Friesland
Results 1 - 10  of 21
  • East Friesland

    East Friesland, Ger. Ostfriesland, region and former duchy, c.1,100 sq mi (2,850 sq km), Lower Saxony, NW Germany, on the North Sea. It includes the East Frisian Islands and is separated in th...

  • Frisian Islands

    Frisian Islands, chain of low-lying islands, off the coasts of the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark, in the North Sea. The West Frisian Islands, belonging to the Netherlands, are off the shor...

  • Holstein-Friesian cattle

    Holstein-Friesian cattle, breed of dairy cattle originated in N Holland and Friesland. Commonly called Holsteins in the United States, these large cattle with sharply defined black and white s...

  • Terschelling

    Terschelling, island, c.40 sq mi (100 sq km), Friesland prov., N Netherlands, in the North Sea, one of the West Frisian Islands. West-Terschelling is the main town. Farming and fishing are pur...

  • Alma-Tadema, Sir Lawrence

    Alma-Tadema, Sir Lawrence, 1836–1912, English painter, b. Friesland. He studied in Belgium, where he lived until 1869. In that year he went to England; there he became a citizen and enjoyed a ...

  • Boniface, Saint, English missionary monk and martyr

    Boniface, Saint, c.675–754?, English missionary monk and martyr, called the Apostle of Germany, b. Devonshire, England. His English name was Winfrid. He was educated in the monastery of Nursli...

  • IJsselmeer

    IJsselmeer, shallow freshwater lake, NW Netherlands, bordering on the provinces of North Holland, Utrecht, Gelderland, Overijssel, and Friesland. It was formed from the old Zuider Zee by the c...

  • Leeuwarden

    Leeuwarden, Frisian Ljouwert, city (1994 est. pop. 87,500), capital of Friesland prov., N Netherlands. It is the center of an agricultural and dairying region and has a noted cattle market. Ma...

  • Familists

    Familists, religious community founded in Friesland in the 16th cent. by Hendrik Niclaes. Niclaes, a merchant of Münster and originally a Roman Catholic, claimed to have been chosen prophet an...

  • Frisian language

    Frisian language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). It has a number of dialects and is spoken by mo...

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