page_title: Brokmerland
section_title: Chieftain rule
hierarchical_section_title: Brokmerland / History / Chieftain rule
caption_attribution_description: English: Otto tom Brok is, after the Battle on the Wild Fields, brought captive in front of Focko Ukena in 1427 (History painting) Deutsch: Ocko tom Brok wird nach der Schlacht auf den Wilden Äckern gefangen vor Focko Ukena geführt.
context_page_description: The Brokmerland is a landscape and an historic territory, located in western East Frisia, which covers the area in and around the present-day communities of Brookmerland and Südbrookmerland. The Brokmerland borders in the east on the Harlingerland and in the north on the Norderland. The historic Brokmerland is usually written with only one "o". Occasionally one also finds the spelling "Broekmerland", while today's communities have chosen to spell the name with a double "o".
context_section_description: This consulate constitution lasted until the middle of the 14th century. It then disintegrated and was gradually replaced, as the powerful families took over the chieftainship. In the Bokmerland this was the family of Kenesma, which in the second half of the 14th century was awarded the chieftainship in the Brokmerland. Later, they renamed themselves into the tom Broks and built the castle of Brooke next to the existing episcopal castle in Oldeborg. Later, the tom Broks built a second castle in Aurich.
  The capital, Marienhafe, developed at this time to an important trading centre. After severe floods in 1374 and 1377 it even became the seaport. Thus the possibility arose of goods from the Brookmerland being transported by water to the Münsterland. The Wadden mudflats of Leybucht and Kuipersand in front of Marienhafe take their name from the old three-aisle Marienhafe mother church. Its roof was covered on its north side with copper (Kuiper = Frisian-Dutch for copper) and on the south side with slate (Ley = old German for slate), so that, from the sea, the changing view of the church with its copper and slate sides acted as a seamark to guide the experienced sailor along the permanently navigable tidal inlet and other stretches of waterway, even at low tide.  Without this local knowledge, the place and its tide-dependent harbour were virtually unapproachable from the sea.
  In the late 14th Century pirates under Klaus Störtebeker were sheltered in Marienhafe. As a result he returned the favour in the battle for East Frisia by the chieftains of Brookmerland. Widzel tom Brok had opened the then relatively new port to the Likedeelers or "Victual Brothers" under Klaus Störtebeker. They used the place as a safe haven for stashing their booty and for selling it. This was finally stopped by several punitive expeditions by Hamburg, which took action against the pirates and those chieftains sympathizing with them. Marienhafe was saved  from destruction because of its safe harbour. Faldern and Larrelt near Emden and other East Frisian buildings were destroyed however.
  The tom Broks initially tried with some success to establish a territory across Frisia on both sides of the River Ems. Ocko II finally inherited such a large domain, that he could be titled the Chieftain of East Frisia. In the period that followed there were disputes between Focko Ukena and Ocko tom Brok, however, that spilled over into open conflict. After Ukena's initial victory over Ocko II at Detern in 1426 Focko allied himself with the Bischop of Münster and numerous East Frisian chieftains against Ocko who was now confined to the Brokmerland and finally defeated him on 28 October at the Wild Fields. He was taken to Leer and was imprisoned there for four years. In 1435 he died, powerless, as the last of his line in Norden.
  The reign of Focko Ukena in the Brokmerland that followed turned out to be only a short-term interlude. Having just escaped from the yoke of tom Brok, many of the people felt betrayed by the new rulers, because, like the tom Broks, they appeared not to honour Frisian freedom. As a result there was a revolt around 1430 in the Brookmerland (today's spelling), which after an unsuccessful attack by Focko on the town of Bremen by the Lower Weser, spread into a general uprising by the East Frisia people.
  On 14 November 1430 after the conquest of Oldersum and Aurich, the East Frisian territorial alliances (Landesverbände)  and lesser chieftains, led by Chieftain Edzard Cirksena from Greetsiel, formed the Freedom League of the Seven East Frisian States. In 1440, the Cirksena, then judges and "guardians", became the chieftains of the Brookmerland and Auricherland and had finally begun there, after Ukena's brief reign, the line of the tom Broks. They had, however, to take into consideration municipal freedom (Gemeindefreiheit) and provincial law. The country's municipalities had reconstituted themselves. For example, there was once again a Brookmerland, an Auricherland and even a separate (Bangsted, Ochtelbur, Riepe and Simonswolde).
  in 1464, when the Cirk
caption: After his capture at the Battle on the Wild Fields (Schlacht auf den Wilden Äckern) Ocko tom Brok is brought before Focko Ukena. Romanticised history painting by Tjarko Meyer Cramer, 1803
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