History of the Frisians

In the Roman account of Drusus' the ancient Frisia era recorded in history was around 12 BC. Frisians occasionally appeared in the accounts of Roman wars against the Germanic tribes of the region. During the Roman Empire the Frisians were deported into Roman territories, they were granted land but the condition was to provide recruits for the Roman military.

 During the 3rd century until the 5th century Frisia suffered a marine transgression, which made most of the land uninhabitable. The population that the Romans allowed to stay decreased significantly and the coastal lands remained unpopulated for two more centuries. When land conditions got better new settlers moved in, most of the settlers were Angles and Saxons, later on they were called Frisians.

In the early 8th century Frisians and the Frankish Empire were in a series of wars which later the Frisians were overtaken in 734, the war was a great way for Anglo-Irish missionaries to force Frisians to join Christianity, which they succeeded. Saint Boniface was a Christian who was escorted by 52 fellow missionaries and a possibly a large number of guards, he tried three times to convert the Frisians to Christianity but the Frisians killed them all.

Language: The Frisian language is relatively close to Old English and the dialects of modern Frisia is related to contemporary English. The language was divided into three languages that can't be understood. Frisians of the West spoke in Dutch province of Friesland. East of Frisia the Saterland Frisians spoke in German municipality. The Frisians in the North spoke in German region. Out of the three languages Saterland and North Frisian language is endangered were as West Frisian language is not. There are 365,000 natives that speak the language.