The Frisian Popular Militias between 1480 and 1560

Front matter

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Fig. 1. Frisian peasant warrior with pole-vaulting pike, mid-sixteenth century. Woodcut from Cornelis

Kempius, De origine, situ, qualitate et quantitate Frisiae, et rebus a Frisiis olim praeclare gestis (1588).

Introduction

Questions

Duty to defend one’s country

The existing image of the popular militias Sources and set-up

Friesland between Vlie and Lauwers: land, population, and government until 1525

A coastal landscape with natural boundaries

Churches, villages, towns, and monasteries

Noblemen, freeholders, tenants, and townsmen

Frisian freedom: communal government, between about 1200 and 1480

The defence of freedom until about 1480

The loss of freedom, 1480-1498, and the struggle for the Saxon

The mobilisation of able-bodied men in Friesland 1525-1552 Musterings and engagement 1525-1528

Fighting the Anabaptists at Oldeklooster, April 1535

New threats and musterings in 1542, 1543, 1546, and 1552

The set-up of the 1552 mustering in Friesland

Differences in handling per city and per grietenij

Obligation and exemption: widows, the poor, and conscientious objectors

Representation per household