Lordship of Frisia

The Lordship of Frisia (/ˈfriːʒə/) or Friesland (/ˈfriːzlənd/; West Frisian: Hearlikheid Fryslân; Dutch: Heerlijkheid Friesland) was a feudal dominion in the Low Countries established in 1524 by the Habsburg Emperor, Charles V. It lasted until the 1580s when, following the Dutch Revolt against the Habsburgs, it became a province of the newly founded Dutch Republic.

Unlike most of the rest of western Europe during the middle ages, feudalism never developed in Frisia and the region avoided becoming subject to a local overlord. This changed in 1498 when Albert III of Saxony was given the hereditary right by the Emperor Maximilian I to exercise imperial authority in the region. Because of costly wars to assert and maintain their possession of Frisia, Albert's family, after his death, sold their rights to Maximilian's grandson, Charles V who had also inherited the adjacent Burgundian Netherlands. Charles invaded Frisia and in 1524 annexed an area approximately equivalent to the modern Dutch province of Friesland. He then declared this territory to be the Lordship of Frisia or Friesland with himself as lord. This, with his Burgundian inheritance and other subsequent acquisitions, meant that his domains extended over the greater part of the Low Countries.

Charles abdicated in 1555 and his lands in the Netherlands, including Friesland, passed to his son Philip II of Spain. However, resentment against Spanish rule provoked a lengthy revolt against Philip from the late 1560s which ultimately led to the northern part of the Habsburg Netherlands breaking away and, by the 1580s, forming the Dutch Republic. Although Friesland was initially an unenthusiastic participant in the rebellion it ultimately joined the other northern provinces in formally deposing Philip in 1581 and joining the new republic.