Antecedents There have been occasional early expressions of Frisian nationalism. One scholar, speaking of Frisian resistance to the
Franks, wrote that "for over sixty years Frisian nationalism and
heathenism also went hand in hand, as heathenism proved an indispensable ideological component of the resistance to
Frankish imperialism." The 16th century in particular represented an early peak. In that century, it was popular among
West Frisians to attach
Frisius to one's surname, and the historian Suffridius Petrus (1527–1597) composed an anthology of Frisian writers entitled
De scriptoribus Frisiae (On Frisian Writers). In addition, Petrus was also an early advocate of the "Magna Frisia" (Greater Frisia) concept. Sax set out to collect knowledge and historical maps about North Frisia and published his research in 1638 as a parchment volume.
Dutch Frisia The origins of modern Frisian nationalism lay primarily in the 19th century, which was well after the region of Frisia entered a state of political, cultural, and economic decline after centuries of relative prosperity. Frisia had been
a confederation in the
Middle Ages with territory slightly greater than that which it encompasses today. However,
Dutch replaced
Frisian first as the administrative language in 1498, and later as the cultural
lingua franca after Frisia was incorporated in 1579 into the
Union of Utrecht. Dutch soon become the language not only of administration but also the Frisian Church, rendering Frisian virtually obsolete in the
public sphere. In addition, a Dutch-Frisian
mixed language known as
stadsfries ("town Frisian") arose, further complicating Frisian cultural expression. In general, a large number of societies formed in the 19th and early 20th centuries to promote Frisian cultural interests. and regional breeders began to stress the need for Friesian purebreds over reliance on foreign horse breeds. Nonetheless, this region was historically diverse and, by the 19th century, was shared between
Germans,
Danes, and
North Frisians primarily. In the context of 19th century nationalism, the region was the subject of the so-called
Schleswig-Holstein Question, and although it was mainly a dispute between Germany and
Denmark, North Frisians were also caught in the socio-political crossfire. One notable individual who supported some semblance of Frisian identity was Cornelius Petersen (1882–1935), a farmer who grew up speaking Low German but later learned both Frisian and Danish in addition to agitating for greater autonomy in Schleswig. In his pamphlet
Die friesische Bewegung (The Frisian Movement), he took up a Frisian identity and argued that a model should be sought in the "yeoman republicanism of Frisians,
Dithmarshers, and medieval
Saxons" rather than the centralising expansionism of
Franks,
Prussians, or Danes. And yet, 19th century
travel accounts by West Frisian nationalists to Saterland showed that the inhabitants there referred to themselves only as Saterlanders and not Frisians. Two studies by two different German researchers in the late 19th century produced studies of the Saterlanders and both argued that their Frisian origin could be indisputably determined by
linguistic study as well as by observing their customs and manners. Despite all of this, they did not describe any self-awareness on the part of the Saterlanders of being "Frisian" and one of the researchers even said that some of the Saterland inhabitants claimed descent from the
Chauci tribe. As a result, it can be said that Frisian national feeling was low among the Saterlanders in the 19th century. == Modern day ==