At the time of writing this blog post (2018), many supranational organizations, whether governmental or judicial, are struggling with their legitimacy and survival; it's almost becoming tedious. Take, for example, the European Union with a humiliating Brexit and its seemingly endless debates on urgent monetary and migration policy reforms. Consider the International Criminal Court (ICC), accused of being biased, with parties leaving the treaty, some even boycotting it from the very start, among them not the least. But take the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) too, which will celebrate its seventieth birthday in 2019. Despite its honourable age, the never-ending quarrels about who has to pay how much spoiled the party.

As a former president of the United States vividly sketched a conversation once between him and a big NATO ally:

The remedy everyone is calling for to revive and strengthen these supranational organizations is solidarity. Politicians, civil servants, the public, and the media shout the word from the rooftops, raising their volume as if talking to someone who doesn't speak their language, assuming additional volume makes them understand. Is this truly the answer to end the lingering and insecure step of these organizations, these collectives? Will it help to start operating smoothly? How to be a smooth operator? How to achieve the same level of collectivism as The Borg of Star Trek, and of which Seven of Nine Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix Zero One – commonly known as Seven of Nine – used to be part of? Or is this level of unity, of symbiose, not what we want?

In this blog post, we take the reader back to the ancestor of NATO, namely the supranational treaty organization called Upstalsboom. The word upstalsboom is composed of upstal meaning 'high' and boom meaning 'tree'. Pronounce the vowel oo as in Rome. So, the treaty of the high tree. Another possibility is that the word upstal is related to the modern Dutch word opstal from opstalverzekering, which is a type of house insurance. The word opstal means 'building/structure'. A comparison of the Treaty of the Upstalsboom with NATO has 'coincidentally' also been made by the German historian Steensen (2020), not long after the publication of this blog post.

Upstalsboom is a thing site, also called ding, ting, or þing in other Germanic languages. During a thing assembly, the freemen under the jurisdiction of the thing gathered to choose new laws, rule in legal disputes, execute sentences and penalties, and discuss matters of mutual interest, including war and defence. The thing always gathered on a fixed day, namely on Tuesdays. In the Dutch and German languages, Tuesday is still called dinsdag and Dienstag respectively. In other words: the day of the ding/thing. Medieval Frisia was divided into many different administrative districts, from local level to district level to regional level, and even to supra-regional level. Each level had its own thing with its own legal mandate. The Upstalsboom was the pan-Frisia thing, the highest level of gathering and decision-making of the Frisians. Read more about these gatherings and their origins in our blog post Well, the Thing is...

Albeit the Upstalsboom league was not founded on the North Atlantic coast like NATO, it was still by the nearby North Sea at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The headquarters of Upstalsboom was exactly 363 kilometers as the crow flies northeast from NATO headquarters in Brussels in Belgium. Indeed, the town of Aurich in the region of Ostfriesland. A modest place in the northwest of Germany with forty thousand inhabitants, primarily known for being the birthplace of journalist and founder of the world gay rights movement, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895). Indeed, a Frisian.

The Treaty of Upstalsboom had seven members. NATO started with twelve. The founding articles of the treaty have many similarities with those of NATO, almost eight centuries later. Or should we say, those articles of NATO showed many similarities with those of the Treaty of Upstalsboom? Especially when it comes to the preferred behaviour of its members when confronted with external threats, the articles of NATO are almost copy-paste from the Treaty of Upstalsboom. Read below, compare, and be surprised:

North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Article 5: The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

Article 9: The Parties hereby establish a Council, on which each of them shall be represented, to consider matters concerning the implementation of this Treaty. The Council shall be so organized as to be able to meet promptly at any time. The Council shall set up such subsidiary bodies as may be necessary; in particular it shall establish immediately a defense committee which shall recommend measures for the implementation of Articles 3 and 5.

Treaty of the Upstalsboom

Thet forma: thet hia gaderkome enes a iera to Upstelesbame a tyesdey anda there pinxstera wika and ma ther eratte alle tha riucht, ther Fresa halda skolde. Jef aeng mon eng bethera wiste, theth ma thet lichtere lette and ma theth bethere helde.

The first: that they would gather once a year at Upstalsboom on the Tuesday in the week of Pentecost and that they would discuss there all the laws that the Frisians should uphold. If someone knows a better law, then they give up the lesser and uphold the better.

Thi other kere alra Fresena: gef there eng lond urherad urde, ovder fon tha sutherna sereda ieftha fon tha northeska wiszegge, thet tha sex tha sogenda hulpe, thet hit alsa wel machte sa thera sex hoc.

The second statute of all Frisians: when any land would be devastated by the southern armed or the northern Viking, then the six will help the seventh, so that it may remain as strong as the other six.

Besides the articles above, the Upstalsboom treaty had its own sigils or seals too. In the Grand Seal was written:

With this sigil the whole of Frisia pledges to fulfill its vow so that clement Virgin Mary and her child may be merciful.

So, the main objective of both legal texts is to hold meetings to discuss matters that extend over more than one land of the treaty-community, and to help each other against threats from outside. An attack on one will be considered an attack on the others. And, most importantly (and shaky), the others will help out the one being under attack. This Musketeer-logic is identical in both NATO and Upstalsboom charters. In addition, the thing assembly at Upstalsboom near Aurich was also a legislative and judicial body.

There was a difference, though. The Treaty of the Upstalsboom specifically sanctioned the killing of a person on his way to an assembly of Upstalsboom, namely with a weregeld 'man price/fine' of 80 marks sterling. Read our post You killed a man? That'll be 1 weregeld, please to learn more about the function of weregelds. Normally, the compensation would have been 10 marks sterling. Killing a judge on his way to the Upstalsboom was even sanctioned with a weregeld of 200 marks sterling. Or, to put it differently, killing an Upstalboom judge was really, really not acceptable. We are not aware NATO has similar statutes.

Like NATO, the Treaty of the Upstalsboom was a true supranational community. Of tota Frisia, as the community was named too, at that time.

Besides NATO, some argue that the Schlussakte ('final act') of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, which was the foundation of the German Confederation, and Germany for that matter, has a sense of freedom and liberty comparable to that of the Treaty of the Upstalsboom (Dirks 2023). For one thing, it speaks of a union of independent principalities, cities, and states, but that they act as one collective power and political unity when under external threat.

Political situation in the Middle Ages

When compared to the rest of the European continent, an opposite development took place in the eleventh century along the south-eastern shores of the North Sea between the River Vlie in the west and the River Weser in the east. Frisia broke free from external, Frankish domination. Feudal structures, which were just taking root, crumbled completely again in the various Frisian lands. From the Frisian perspective, this was not a radical course of events, because the influence of the Frankish Empire had always stayed fairly limited in this difficult-to-access and thus hard-to-control area. Already in the ninth century, under the rule of King Louis the Pious (778-840), the Frisians regarded themselves as free folk who were not to answer to any count or lord other than the king. These were the so-called freedom privileges they received around the year 800 from Charlemagne, about which more is explained below.

Feudal structures in the area of Frisia between the River Lauwers in the Netherlands and the River Weser in Germany crumbled first. This is the region of Ommelanden of the present-day province of Groningen, together with the region of Ostfriesland. A century and a half later, feudal structures west of the River Lauwers disappeared as well. This is the area that is today the present-day province of Friesland, together with the region of Westfriesland in the province of Noord Holland. Meanwhile, in the rest of the continent, feudal structures grew stronger and stronger, evolving into the fine centralist states of today built upon spotless neo-liberal efficiency.

Vive les Républiques! – The phenomenon of crumbling feudal structures and the development of free farmer republics was not solely a distinctive Frisian occurrence. It also took place in what is now Landkreis 'district' Dithmarschen in the northwest of Germany, between the estuary of the River Elbe in the south and the estuary of the River Eider in the north. Situated between the regions of Ostfriesland and Nordfriesland, the region of Dithmarschen – although not Frisian but Saxon – is listed in the Tract of the Seven Sealands of tota Frisia, too (see further down below in this blog post).

Apart from the Frisian lands and the region of Dithmarschen, a third – also impenetrable landscape because of mountains instead of water and peat – evolved into a coalition of free republics too, namely that of the cantons of Switzerland. Swiss origin myths and sagas even recount that the Swiss descend from the Frisians (and the Swedes). Read our blog post Make way for the homesick dead! to learn more about the alleged 'kinship' between Switzerland and Frisia.

The lord-less era of Frisia started around the year 1100 and existed for roughly four centuries, depending on which part of scattered Frisia you look at. It became known as the period of the Frisian Freedom. It is also reflected in the Old-Frisian legal texts of the High and Late Middle Ages, in the sense that the social classes of nobles and serfs completely disappeared from the law codes, and the 'freeman' – or dy frya Fresa ('the free Frisian') in medieval Frisian law – is the only social class left.

Different myths and sagas exist on how this freedom was granted to the Frisians. These myths and sagas were no bedtime stories, by the way. They were necessary to legitimize the lordless situation and to avoid being subjected to any power-mad person, whether originating from outside Frisia or from within, as was the case in the region of Ostfriesland. The Frisian Freedom doctrine, as it were, also provided a concept of community for the Frisian people, which is essential for any sovereign nation to survive in a potentially hostile environment (Sie Dhian Ho 2024). A common version of the so-called freedom myths tells – in short – that the freedom was given to the Frisians by Charlemagne himself, granted out of gratitude for their heroic deeds during battle and the liberation of the city of Rome around the year 800. Based on this privilege, the Frisians were not to recognize any other lord than the Holy Roman Emperor himself. Frisia was, to put it in proper English, Reichsunmittelbar.

According to the sagas, as an expression of this given freedom, also mixed with the forced transformation from heathendom to Christendom, Frisians were allowed to wear a golden necklace around their 'free neck' from that day forth. In addition, the men also shaved off their hair high, only saving a little tuft on the top of their skull as another sign of being free. Read our blog posts With a Noose through the Norsemen's Door and Magnus' Choice: The Origins of the Frisian Freedom to appreciate the medieval freedom sagas more in depth.

Some Frisians, especially in the present-day province of Friesland, still like to wallow in this former freedom. They love to use the expression kening op eigen hiem wêze (‘being king in your own yard’). Hence, stressing the individuality of this freedom that has a somewhat Texan feeling. The beginning of the third statute of the so-called Magnuskerren, i.e. the freedom privileges, reads: Dio tredde kest is dat aller mannick oen da sinen bisitte onbirawet ('the third statute is that each man has the right to live on his own property undisturbed'). Socially, the freedom doctrine meant there existed no real or true nobility in Frisia. Neither cities, knighthood, nor governmental institutions and structures developed in Frisia. It was a loose federation of sovereign peasant republics, sometimes called a society of Bauerenkaufleute in the German language, a community of farmer-merchants (Schmid 1988). Quite egalitarian, one might argue.

These small republics were named Landsgemeinden in the German language or landsgemeenten in the Dutch language, and regionally united into so-called Zeelanden, Sealands. In total, there were seven Sealands.

Regarding this supposedly egalitarian society, it is good to put things into perspective. Although there were no counts and no real nobility either, it still was an elite of wealthy local rulers and farmers who, in practice, held control over a Landesgemeinde (Schuur 1987). Historians speak of a non-feudal aristocracy sui generis ('a class alone'), without a greater lord to serve. Between ca. 1150 and 1290, different titles for powerful men were still being used. Besides nobiles, also potentes, optimates, meliores, maior villulae, and divites were all titles of individuals illustrating a not so very egalitarian society, and who often called themselves dominus as well (De Langen & Mol 2022).

Later on, during the endgame of the Frisian Freedom period, from the middle of the fourteenth century until the end of the sixteenth century, the so-called hovedling (also known as haadling, Häuptling, hoofdeling, or hofflingh in the different dialects) entered the scene. These local big men gained increasingly more power. Some historians call these headmen boerenaristocraten ('farmer aristocrats') or Grossbauern ('big farmers').

Hovedlings were mostly individuals who possessed several farms and a fortified, stone house called a stins (in the province of Friesland), borg or börg (in the province of Groningen), or Burg (in the region of Ostfriesland). The borgen, Burgen, and stinzen of hovedlings existed specifically in the clay-soil areas of Frisia, i.e. the former terp area, and along strategically important riverways and roads leading more inland. Hovedlings possessed most of the productive and fertile land in the clay region of Frisia, which were often the better-drained, old saltmarsh ridges (De Langen & Mol 2022). Furthermore, a hovedling had a small standing armed militia. Therefore, calling them power-greedy warlords is perfectly fine with us, too. Marking the class difference, a hovedling represented more weregild ('man price/compensation') than an average freeman if you managed to kill one during a feud. Check our post You killed a man? That’ll be 1 weregeld, please to understand the concept of compensation within the feud society of medieval Frisia.

The number of former stinzen ('stone houses') in the province of Friesland alone has been calculated to be around 500 (De Langen & Mol 2022). In the province of Groningen, around 200 borgen once existed. In the province of Friesland, the highest density of stinzen can be found in the areas north of the town of Harlingen and around the town of Leeuwarden. How many borgen in the region of Ostfriesland have existed, we do not have the details. Only two of the many medieval stone towers in Frisia have survived the ages, namely the one in the village of Bunderhee in the region of Ostfriesland and the one in the village of Veenwouden in the province of Friesland. Additionally, there is the Iwema steenhuis ('stone house') in the village of Niebert in the province of Groningen, with much of the former stins still visible.

As said, strictly speaking, Frisian society had no nobility because they had no feudal lord to serve; yet still, there was an elite. This elite made sure that their members received influential positions as (rotating) judges and administrators. Being accepted into this elite was possible but happened rarely and was very difficult. Rich yeomen or freeholders, i.e., those who possessed land and had accumulated wealth, could enter the class of hovedlings only after determination over generations and through beneficial marriages.

Anyhow, hovedlings considered themselves nobility, a class in society whose members possessed most of the wealth, held most of the important official positions, and made sure they kept their privileges through marriage, family alliances, and what we would call today the old boys' network. In fact, when foreign powers overpowered Frisia, this elite was not reluctant to accept feudal lords and pay taxes to them, if only they would profit from it economically. However, one traditional and crucial aspect for them was that land as such could be owned, something completely at odds with the feudal system of the Middle Ages. As soon as counts violated this principle of no-land-owning it led to military conflicts.

According to some historians, hovedlings as a social class is a continuation of the early-medieval class of nobiles mentioned in the Lex Frisionum. In a direct line even (De Langen & Mol 2022). The lawbook Lex Frisionum, that mentions the class of nobiles, is written in the late eighth century.

Back to the Treaty of Upstalsboom. How much more mythical can it be? Once a year, always on the Tuesday after Pentecost, chosen and sworn delegates of freemen from the Seven Sealands of tota Frisia gathered in the open air under a big tree standing on top of a hill at a thing site called Upstalsboom. Together, the frya Frisa ('free Frisians') chose new laws, ruled in legal disputes, and above all, decided how to respond jointly to external military threats. Very romantic retro-Germanic tribe life, is it not?

No, it was not.

The banquet of Frisia

After all this romanticism, myths, sagas, legends, ideology, and everything in between and beyond, it is about time we start looking at the timelessness of ruthless politics. If we want to answer the question of this blog post – whether solidarity is at the core of a collective – we must learn what the reasons were for why the collective of the Treaty of the Upstalsboom was founded and, moreover, why it ended. Be prepared for some shocking Realpolitik below.

The Upstalsboom collective was formed at the beginning of the thirteenth century, and the main reason was that of self-protection. As explained earlier, feudal structures had crumbled in medieval Frisia while their neighbours had built powerful governmental institutions, bureaucracies, and armies, created a knighthood, with emerging powerful cities to support and finance all this modernism. If not the bishops of Utrecht and Münster, or the abbots of the abbeys of Fulda, Werden, and Echternach, it certainly was counts or other warlords claiming legitimate control over Frisia and its fertile soils.

At the start of the twelfth century, the comes Fresonum ('counts of Frisia') renamed themselves counts of Holland. They had their power base in the region of Kinheim, or Kennemerland as the region is named today, including control over the mouths of the River Meuse and the River Rhine. In the twelfth century, the comes Fresonum or counts of Holland started an open (civil) war against the first of the Seven Sealands of Frisia, namely the region of Westfriesland in the present-day province of Noord-Holland. Read our post Guerrilla in the Polder. The Battle of Vroonen in 1297 for more background about these wars with genuine war crimes. From then on, the Seven Sealands of Frisia, and the other Frisian and Saxon free farmer's republics along the Wadden Sea coast, were under constant military attack for the next two hundred and fifty years.

Let's just say, a lot of manly ego and testosterone was floating around Europe during those high-medieval days. In Europe, kings gathered more and more territories, creating ever bigger states. Therefore, there were serious external threats all around, with solely a Musketeer doctrine, without a standing or mercenary army or knighthood, as answer of the small farmer republics of Frisia and Dithmarschen to cope with their hostile and much better organized surroundings. Indeed, the Hunger Games had commenced.

Machine Gun, Jimi Hendrix (1970)

An additional challenge the communally governed peasant republics had was that they had to rely fully on people's militias for their self-defence, so-called agrarii milites. Whereas outside of Frisia, secular and ecclesiastical rulers had the possession of increasingly professional mercenary armies, for example, like the famous Swiss mercenaries. Not in Frisia. Citizens themselves needed to be prepared to go to war, which was the case as long as one can remember during the Middle Ages and even before, and risk their lives to protect their land and the Frisian Freedom that bound them. It turned out, in fact, the Frisians and Ditmarsians were pretty motivated to do so and stood their wet ground for many centuries. By the way, the fact that military strength had to be organized through people's militias also explains why Frisia has never known a policy of military expansion. It was always in the defence.

Defend yourself - In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries being properly armed as a man was even regulated and supervised by the community. It meant every individual who could afford it had the obligation to possess weapons and armour. The richer the more weaponry you were obliged to have. The standard kit was a small sword and a pike or spear. The rich needed to have an armour, a helmet, and a steel ring collar too. The culture of every man being able to defend his property and that of his kin or his community probably dates back to the earliest social organization of Germanic tribes. Kind of a Second Amendment. Again, the Texan feeling comes up.

The Older Skelta Law of the Freeska Landriucht 'Frisian Land Law' (1485) reads as follows:

This is the law: when a free Frisian possesses land worth thirty pounds as his property, he shall have a horse and weapon for the defence of the land. If he is unable to procure this, he shall pay a fine of two pounds to the frana ['count']. He who possesses land worth twenty pounds as his property shall have a forged weapon or pay the fine of two pounds. He who possesses land worth twelve pounds as his property shall have spear and shield for the defence of the land or pay the fine of two pounds. If someone possesses less than this he shall have bow and arrow for the defence of the land or pay the fine of two pounds.

However, despite the flat grasslands it was not a level playing field at the end, because the free Frisian people's militias could not keep pace with the aforementioned 'international' developments of mercenary armies, government institutions, cities, weapon innovations, etc.

In spite of the formation of a treaty collective, things derailed completely for Frisia. In 1297, the so-called beastly people of the region of Westfriesland, the First Sealand, were finally defeated by Count John of Holland after 170 years of war. True war crimes were practiced by the Holland army, like mutilating women and children and deportation of citizens. Read our blog post Guerrilla in the Polder. The Battle of Vroonen in 1297. Relevant for the topic of this blog post, the First of the Seven Sealands was lost without receiving any assistance from the other Six Sealands. Notwithstanding delegates of the Seven Sealands solemnly kept gathering under the high tree near the town of Aurich on Tuesdays after Pentecost during these wars. Jolly assemblies that must have been. Maybe a bit like Security Council meetings of today (date of writing 2018).

Furthermore, the second and the third Sealand didn't participate actively in the Treaty of the Upstalsboom. These were the Sealands Westergo and Oostergo, together consisting more or less the present-day province of Friesland. In the year 1233, Count Floris IV even had made an agreement in the town of Franeker with Sealand Westergo to accept him as their lord. His intentions were regarded with clear mistrust by the Frisian clergy. In the Vitae Sibrandi is written:

What happened: from that moment [in 1233], as long as he lived, the count never again entered parts of Frisia, and his sword, thirsting for blood, and being more envious at the freedom of the Frisians, which they enjoyed since Roman Emperor Charlemagne, stayed -although seemingly drawn- in the scabbard, and on God's command ceased striking Israel (transl. after Lambooij & Mol 2001).

Indeed, in practice the whole Treaty of the Upstalsboom only concerned the Sealands east of the River Lauwers (Jansen & Janse 1991). Or, as in the above quoted words of a former American president, Frisia west of the River Lauwers, i.e. the province of Friesland, was delinquent – it did not pay. Nevertheless, the Frisians of this province embrace the period of the Frisian Freedom, including the Upstalsboom gatherings, as if they were the great champions of this league. History tells a different, less heroic story.

The passiveness of the Second and the Third Sealand, Westergo and Oostergo respectively, only changed after the counts of Holland turned their Sauron-like eye to them. At first, the grietmannen (‘high judges’) of the sub-territories Franeker, Wildinge and Wagenbrugge of Sealand Westergo had made a zoen (‘peace’) with Count William III of Holland in the year 1310 (Schuur 2014). This peace – mind you – included that Sealand Westergo would fall under the jurisdiction of Holland, provided the count would respect the freedom privileges of Charlemagne (Schroor 2015). Not long after, however, William III started to benefit his vassals in Holland with fiefs of properties within Westergo. It became clear for the grietmannen cum suis they had not read the fine print of the zoen.

It is noted that the town of Franeker has a long tradition of being a place of political importance. Its original name Fronakre gives away that it is associated with domains of the king. The element froon means 'king', and the element akre means 'domain', compare the word akker and acre in the Dutch and English languages respectively. An explanation similar to the former village of Vronen in the region of Westfriesland in the province of Noord Holland, what is the modern village of Sint Pancras, and which original name was Vronlo (Nicolay 2023). In addition, Franeker is also considered to have been the site of the thing of the pagus 'territory' Westergo (Nijdam 2021).

'Surprisingly', when it became clear the count of Holland was an opponent with whom you could not make a deal, the territories Westergo and Oostergo suddenly tried to revive the alliance of the Treaty of the Upstalsboom they had neglected all this time. A treaty organization that was already dozing by that time. This was in the year 1323, when both Sealands called upon the collective to help them out against the aggressor of Holland. But the other four remaining Sealands refused to be dragged into that conflict. And it wasn't that Westergo and Oostergo had earned a lot of credits in the previous years by actively helping out others, to put it mildly. The province of Friesland was on its own from now on.

The last recorded meeting of the Treaty of the Upstalsboom took place in the year 1327. In the year 1361, the Saxon town of Groningen, in alliance with the Fourth Sealand, more or less the present-day region of Ommelanden of the province of Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands, made a final effort to revive the treat alliance. It was in vain, again. So much for concordia felix ('the fortunate harmony'). The duck, and the article 5 principle, was dead.

The rest is history.

Fat-clay Frisia was eaten alive. As mentioned, in the year 1297, Count John of Holland had enjoyed the region of Westfriesland as an entrée already. Although it was a bit too little for his taste. Häuptling Ulrich Cirksena got the main course in the year 1464, when the Holy Roman Emperor gave him all of Frisia east of the River Ems in fief. Ulrich I became the first count of the Sixth and the Seventh Sealands, namely County Ostfriesland and what is now the region of Ostfriesland in the northwest of Germany. A heavy and filling dessert was reserved for Albert III, the Duke of Saxony. In the year 1498, this man with a big appetite subdued the Second, Third, and Fourth Sealand, corresponding to the present-day province of Friesland and the region of Ommelanden of the province of Groningen. In the year 1525, albeit strictly speaking not a Sealand, the region of Land Wursten and its Wurstfriesen lost their freedom too. With that, the last of the free Frisian territories had fallen. Communal government and defence with people's militias was history. Contrary to the movies, these Hunger Games ended without having a single survivor.

Not Frisian and not part of the Treaty of Upstalsboom, but otherwise very comparable with the Frisian Seven Sealands, is the region of Dithmarschen – we have already mentioned this region occasionally in the foregoing. This Saxon farmers' republic at the Wadden Sea marshes lost its freedom in the year 1559, against an mercenary army of the king of Denmark and Norway, and the dukes of Schleswig-Holstein.

No one left of the fellowship of the Seven Sealands to send to Upstalsboom headquarters in Aurich. So far for the whole optimistic Musketeer-logic. So far for the Article 5 NATO principle. And the irony was that in the year 1417 “universorum Incolarum et inhabitantium tam Orientalis quam Occidentalis Frisia,” meaning: all people and inhabitants of East Frisia and West Frisia, had received the freedom privileges from Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund for real. But this holy verdict did not prevent the binge-eating on Frisia. Apparently, the gift of Emperor Sigismund was a piece of paper with pompous signatures and seals, but without commitment and thus without any meaning. To put it differently:

As a bonus, the reader can find below the Old Frisian tract of 1416 with an English translation. It is a State of the Union – maybe the very first in Western history – of the Frisian Sealands and their seven-nation army. And its state was not a rosy one. Compelling to read, we think. With hindsight, you know when reading it: Resistance is futile.

The all-too-familiar and sad conclusion must be, once again, that individual interests are the biggest threat to the response and survival of the collective. The Borg of Star Trek (interestingly, borg means 'fortified house/castle' in the province of Groningen and in Denmark) knew this and operated as one. The Borg had given up every shred of individual freedom and individuality. Feudalism in optima forma, one might say.

Conclusion

When looking at the Treaty of the Upstalsboom, it was not the lack of solidarity that caused the collective to fall apart. Instead, it was a lack of tangible, urgently felt self-interest. This, combined with a republican-style identity of individualized freedom propagated by the Frisians, did not help either. "As long as you can defend yourself, why risk your own life or pay good money for it?" was too often their motto. The Texan feeling keeps coming up during this blog post. Moreover, those farmers' republics were relatively wealthy, earning money through dairy, husbandry, and trade. Dreaming the wide-eyed dream of liberal democracy, which we are reminded of again today (Sie Dhian Ho 2018).

It is well-known, of course, that individuality and freedom on the one hand, and collectiveness and less freedom on the other, are difficult to reconcile. The tragic fact is, when the different parts of the Treaty of the Upstalsboom realized they needed the collective, it was already too late. From individual freedom to non at all. In other words, short-term, interests blinded long-term interests. If you like, you can replace 'interests' by 'politics' in this sentence, and consider it relevant for today as well.

Keeping an eye on the ball of the long-term self-interest, is maybe what should be defined as 'solidarity'. A bit less grand and vivacious, but more workable. Who knows how the history of Frisia would have looked if they would have had a little bit more Borg-attitude. Or, as the motto is in the State of Vermont in the USA: 'Freedom and Unity'.

Lastly, we advice NATO and other supranational organizations to disseminate the tragic history of the Treaty of the Upstalsboom, its tragic predecessor, among its allies as a must-read.

Below, as promised, the dramatic State of the Union of tota Frisia of 1461, written in the Old-Frisian language with an English translation below it (see the map above with the Seven Sealands numbered). Pay special attention to the atrocities that were attributed to warlord Keno tom Brok in the northwest of Germany:

Tract of the Seven Sealands

Hyr bigint een cleen tractaet fan da saun zelanden des gansen landis fan Freesland mey syn tobiheer ende eylanden.

Here begins a modest tract of the seven sealands of the entire land of Friesland with its belongings and islands.

Dat aerste zeland dat is Westfriesland bi dio ode sida des zees, alse Hoern, Enchusen, Medenblic, etc., hwelc di grewa fan Holland him haet onderdenich maked haet alderaerst.

The first sealand is Westfriesland on the other side of the sea, also Hoorn, Enkhuizen, Medemblik, etc, which the count of Holland made submissive to him first.

Dat oder is streckende fan Starem to Liouwerd, alse Westergo ende Doyngaweerfstal, Weimbritse, mit al hyara toebiheer.

The second [sealand] stretching from Stavoren to Leeuwarden, also Westergo and Doniawerstal, Wymbritseradeel, with all their belongings.

Dat tredde is heten Aestergo mei al Smellingaland, Boerndeel, foerd meer Handmare, Haskerwald, dae neersta Walden ende Rauwerde, Aetzespel ende Colmerland. Dizze twa zeelanden, als dat oder ende dat tredde, sint eta fry ende oers neen hera bicannet bihalua diin keyser des Roemschen rikes. Mer ontellika schada ende manich oenfiuchtinga ende grata bloedstirtingha habbet disse landen lith om dine frydoem to bischyrmen, hwelck hem is ioun fan dine grata koninck Kaerl, ende deerto manich sueer striden habbet slain inst dine grewa fan Holland om hiara land to bischyrmen.

The third [sealand] is called Oostergo with all of Smallingerland, Boorndeel, further Haudmare, Haskerland, the Lage Wouden and Rauwerderhem, Achtkarspelen and Kollumerland. These two sealands, namely the second and the third, are still free and recognize no other lord than the emperor of the Roman Empire. But untold damage and many assaults and great bloodshed have these lands suffered to protect the freedom, which was given to them by Charlemagne, and for this they have fought many battles with the count of Holland to protect their land.

Dat IIII is Stellingwerf, Scoterwerf, Kunersyl, Geethorn, Fullenhoef, Steenwyck ende al Drentland. Dit zeland haet bituongen di biscop fan Vtrecht, als Drent, Steenwyc, Fullenhoef, Geethorn ende Kunersyl, mer Stellinchwerf, Schoterland, disse twa sint eta fry, ende grata anfiuchtinga mit grata orlogen, deer hia habbet hand toienst dat sticht fan Vtrecht.

The fourth [sealand] is Stellingwerf, Schoterwerf, Kuinderzijl, Giethoorn, Vollenhove, Steenwijk and all of Drenthe. This sealand has been conquered by the bishop of Utrecht, namely Drenthe, Steenwijk, Vollenhove, Giethoorn and Kuinderzijl, but Stellingwerf, Schoterland, these two are still free, and they have many attacks with great wars, which they have had against the stift of Utrecht.

Dat fyfte zeland is Langwald, Freedwald, Humers, Mydach, Husinga, Fiwellingha, Groninghen, Aeldambecht, Reyderland, Uesterwald mey al da walden, deer aldeerbi lidset tuisscha da Eemse ende Westfalen. Dat maeste deel fan disse zeland is esta fry ende sommich sint onderdenich ioncker Kene ende grewa Vlrick ende sommich sint da Groninghera onderdenich.

The fifth sealand is Langwold, Vreedewold, Humsterland, Midday, Hunsingo, Fivelgo, Groningen, Oldambt, Reiderland, Westerwolde with all the wolden [type of districts], which lie between the Ems and Westphalia. Most of this sealand is still free and some are subjected to jonker [a honorific] Keno [Keno tom Brok] and count Ulrich and some are subjected to Groningen.

Dat sexte zeland is Eemda mit al Eemderland, Brokmerland, Aurikerland, Aesterghaland, Heerlingerland ende Dole Noerderland mei syn toebiheer, ende dit edele land, deer ryckst was ende fruchtbaer, huelc ioncker Kene fan Broeckmerland, een broders in boesheed, ende mei quaedheed dit land bituong ende makese eerm wrmits zeeraweren ende hi spared gastelyck ner wraldsch ende was boes in alle tinghum ende wt da tzerken naem hi al dat ield ende clenodien, deer hi dat stryd mei feerd.

The sixth sealand is Emden with all of Emsingo, Brookmerland, Auricherland, Astringen, Harlingerland and Norderland with their belongings, and this noble land, was the richest and fertile, which jonker [a honorific] Keno of Brookmerland [Keno tom Brok], a successor of his father and brother, and with evilness conquered this country and made it poor through pirates and he spared neither the clergy nor the worldly and was evil in all things and from the churches he took all the money and jewels, that he used for wars.

Dat VII zeland is Rustringaland, Winingaland ende Buthiaingheraland, huelc land bisith Sibolt Ede soen, ioncker Kene suager. Item Owerlengerland, Moermerland ende Lingen, dat sint delen disser zelanden, huelc ioncker Kene aec bituongh, ende Focke Ukema disse tria landen fan Keno bileende, ende neen landishera ne mochte disse zelanden bituinga, bihala disse Focke vorscrioun. Item Segelterland is aec een deel van disse VII zelanden en iout tribuet ende schat den biscop fan Munster. Ende Scheedland, Haedelreland, Wymderlan wr dio Wesere sint aeck delin fan disse VII zelanden. Disse haet bituongen di biscop fan Bremen, mer Dithmers is eeta oenbihinderd.

The seventh sealand is Riustringen, Wangerland and Butjadingen, which land possesses Sibolt Edezoon, brother-in-law of jonker [a honorific] Keno [Keno tom Brok]. Furthermore, Overledingerland, Moormerland and Lengen, these are parts of this sealand, which jonker Keno also conquered, and Focko Ukena lent these three countries from Keno, and no landlord succeeded to conquer these sea lands, except for this Focko aforementioned. Furthermore, Saterland is also part of this seventh sealand and gives tribute and treasure to the bishop of Munster. And Stadland, the land Hadeln, Wigmodië over the Weser are also parts of this seventh sealand. This is conquered by the bishop of Bremen, but Dithmarschen is unhindered.

The Wurstfriesen of Land Wursten on the eastern banks of the river mouth of the Weser would loose its freedom in the year 1525, with the Stader Frieden ('peace of Stade'). Read our blog post Joan of Arc, an inspiration for Land Wursten. The region of Dithmarschen lost its freedom in the year 1559.

Note 1 – Upstalsboom as the godfather of NATO (and of he Schlussakte 'final act' of the Congress of Vienna in 1815) is not the first time Frisians leading the way in warfare. Read our blog post ♪ They want you as a new recruit ♪ to find out how and when the English and Dutch navies were founded.

Note 2 – Parallel to the external threats the Landesgemeinden of Frisia had to cope with many returning and veteran foreign fighters who had been participating in the Crusades. Something that had further destabilized Frisian society. Read our blog post Terrorist Fighters from the Wadden Sea.

Note 3 – Find here an informative brochure (in English) of The Upstalsboom, published by Ostfriesische Landschaft.

Note 4 – Since the Texan feeling so often popped up in this blog post, check this documentary of Frisian farmers migrated to Texas a few decennia ago. See if these Frisian farmers are still as proud about their homeland.

Suggested music

White Stripes, Seven Nations Army (2003)

Jimi Hendrix, Machine Gun (1970)

Sex Pistols, Anarchy in the UK (1976)

Further reading

Dirks, C.H., Geschichte Ostfrieslands. Von der Freiheit der Friesen bis zu witzigstem Otto (2023)

Henstra, D.J., The evolution of the money standard in medieval Frisia. A treatise on the history of systems of money of account in the former Frisia (c.600-c.1500) (1999)

Jansen, H.P.H. & Jansen, A. (transl.), De kroniek van klooster Bloemhof te Wittewierum (1991)

Jensma, G., Vrijheid als innerlijke deugd. De paradox van de 'Friese vrijheid' in de negentiende eeuw (2019)

Knottnerus, O., Culture and society in the Frisian and German North Sea Coastal Marshes (1500-1800) (2004)

Lambooij, H.Th.M. & Mol, J.A. (transl.), Vitae Abbatum orti Sancte Marie. Vijf abtenlevens van het klooster Mariëngaarde in Friesland (2001)

Langen, de G. & Mol, J.A., The distribution and subdivision of farmland on the medieval and prehistoric salt marshes of the northern Netherlands. A retrogressive model of the (pre)Frisian farm, based on historical sources from the Early Modern Period (2022)

Langen, de G. & Mol, J.A., Friese edelen, hun kapitaal en boerderijen in de vijftiende en zestiende eeuw. De casus Rienck Hemmema te Hitzum (2022)

Mol, J.A., De Friese volkslegers tussen 1480 en 1560 (2013)

Munske, H.H. (ed.), Handbuch des Friesischen. Handbook of Frisian studies (2001)

Nicolay, J., Historische koningen en archeologisch goud: politieke netwerken en de reconstructie van koninkrijken langs de Noordzee (6e-7e eeuw) (2023)

Nijdam, H., Law and Political Organization of the Early Medieval Frisians (c. AD 600-800) (2021)

Nijdam, H., Lichaam, eer en recht in middeleeuws Friesland. Een studie naar de Oudfriese boeteregisters (2008)

Nijdam, H., Hallebeek, J. & Jong, de H., Frisian Land Law. A Critical Edition and Translation of the Freeska Landriucht (2023)

Schroor, M., Harlingen. Geschiedenis van een Friese havenstad (2015)

Schuur, J.R.G., De Friese hoofdeling opnieuw bekeken (1987)

Schuur, J.R.G., De plaatsing van het Schoutenrecht in hun historische context (2014)

Sie Dhian Ho, M., Europa tussen markt en gemeenschap. De terugkeer van identiteitspolitiek (2018)

Spiekhout, D. (ed.), Vrijheid Vetes Vagevuur. De middeleeuwen in het noorden (2022)

Steensen, T., Die Friesen. Menschen am Meer (2020)

Teetied & Rosinenbrot (podcast), Du friesische Freiheit, sei gegrüßt! (2024)

Tuuk, van der L., Radbod. Koning in twee werelden (2018)

Vries, O., Asega, is het dingtijd? De hoogtepunten van de Oudfriese tekstoverlevering (2007)

Vries, O., De taal van recht en vrijheid. Studies over middeleeuws Friesland (2012)

Ziel, van der L., NATO. De onstaansgeschiedenis. Oprichting en doelen (2021)