Lordship of Frisia The Lordship of Frisia or Lordship of Friesland ( ) was a feudal dominion in the Netherlands . It was formed in 1524 when Emperor Charles V finally conquered Frisia . History . The former Frisian kingdom ( " Magna Frisia " ) had been incorporated into Francia after the Frisian – Frankish wars , that ended with the victory of the Frankish troops led by " majordomo " Charles Martel at the Battle of the Boarn in 734 . The remaining territory east of the Lauwers River was conquered by Charlemagne in the course of the Saxon Wars until 785 . During the decline of the Carolingian Empire in the 9th century , the Frisian coast with the important trading place of Dorestad was strongly affected by Viking raids . In turn the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious and his successor Lothair I , ruler of Middle Francia since 843 , tried to pacify the Viking leaders such as Harald Klak or Rorik of Dorestad by vesting them with lage estates in the Frisian lands . By the 870 Treaty of Meerssen , the Frisian lands passed to the Kingdom of East Francia under Louis the German , while the robberies continued . In 873 the Viking leader Rodulf Haraldsson was killed by the inhabitants of Eastergoa and from 879 Harald Klak ' s son Godfrid plundered the coast down to Flanders until he finally came to terms with Emperor Charles the Fat upon the 882 Siege of Asselt and was appointed a " Duke of Frisia " . Frisian freedom . However , the raids still did not stop and moreover Godfrid entangled into a rebellion with his brother - in - law , the Lotharingia n duke Hugh of Alsace . He was killed in 885 by the emperor ' s liensman Henry of Franconia , aided by the local count Gerolf , who in turn was vested with large estates on the southern Frisian coast , that later emerged as the County of Holland . The Viking rule in Frisia was terminated , nevertheless in view of the continuous threat , the local peasants were granted the Frisian freedom ( Frisian : " Fryske frijheid " ) , which excluded them from the feudal customs in the Frankish Empire , with no suzerain above them than the Emperor himself . The Frisian representatives met in the " Upstalsboom " thing near present - day Aurich in East Frisia under the motto " Eala Frya Fresena " ( " Stand up , free Frisians " ) to pass resolutions and to dispense justice . In 925 the Frisian lands together with Lotharingia were finally incorporated into East Francia by King Henry the Fowler and became a part of the Holy Roman Empire from 962 onwards . The Viking raids continued until the early 11th century . By 1068 , the Brunonen margrave Egbert I of Meissen had acquired several Frisian counties , his son an successor Margrave Egbert II , however , was involved in the Great Saxon Revolt against Emperor Henry IV and killed in 1090 . The Emperor granted his estates to the loyal Bishop Conrad of Utrecht . The bishop was killed by a Frisian merchant in 1099 , and the Brunonen heir , the Saxon count Henry of Northeim installed himself as a " margrave " of Frisia , before he himself was ambushed and killed two years later . The Utrecht Bishops asserted themselves in the city of Groningen , apart from that the Frisians had maintained their privileges against all attempts to subdue them . About 1300 the " Seven Frisian Seelands " stretched along the coast from Westergo on the Zuiderzee to the border with Land Hadeln on the right shore of the Weser mouth , then a possession of the Ascanian dukes of Saxe - Lauenburg . In 1282 Count Floris V of Holland invaded West Frisia , several attempts by his successors to gain control over the Frisian lands were rejected in the Friso - Hollandic Wars , culminating in the 1345 Battle of Warns , whereby Count William IV of Holland was killed . His county together with Hainaut was inherited by the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach , and the Bavaria - Straubing duke Albert I again made several incursions into Frisia , nevertheless , the Hollandic threat faded as the Wittelsbach counts were more and more stuck in the internal Hook and Cod wars from 1350 onwards . However , at the same time Frisia itself was war - torn by the long - lasting conflict between Vetkopers and Schieringers . Moreover , especially in East Frisia the actual power shifted gradually from the original cooperative towards several chieftain dynasties . In 1464 the Habsburg emperor Frederick III elevated the mighty chief Ulrich and his descendants of the Cirksena dynasty to heritable Counts of East Frisia , an Imperial State they held until 1744 . Feudal lordship . Finally in 1498 , Frederick ' s son King Maximilian I ended the freedom in the remaining Frisian lands , when he appointed the Wettin duke Albert III of Saxony his stadtholder in Frisia for a loan of 300 , 000 guilder s . Duke Albert had been a loyal follower of the Habsburgs in their struggle around the Burgundian heritage and had freed the King from custody at Brügge ten years before . However , the Saxon duke had to face strong resistance by the inhabitants , who in 1505 even laid siege to his son Henry at Franeker , while he himself attended the Saxon " Landtag " assembly in Leipzig . Frisia was a possession of Albert ' s son Duke George of Saxony , but he also failed to subdue Frisia during the Guelderian Wars . Frisia was largely controlled by local rebels , supported by troops of Duke Charles II of Guelders , who had been at war with Burgundy and Saxony for several years . In 1515 , George sold his title to Frisia to Charles ( then Duke of Burgundy ) , and heir of the House of Habsburg ) . However , by the purchase Charles gained control of only a few cities : Leeuwarden , Harlingen , and Franeker . In 1519 , Charles succeeded to his full inheritance . In 1522 , he sent a Habsburg army under Georg Schenck van Toutenburg to subdue the rebellious parts of the Netherlands . In 1523 , Van Toutenburg drove the Guelders forces out of Frisia . Van Toutenburg also defeated the Frisians rebels under Wijerd Jelckama , who was publicly beheaded in Leeuwarden . Frisia was now firmly in the hands of Charles and incorporated in to the Seventeen Provinces of the Habsburg Netherlands . Van Toutenburg became Stadtholder and ruled the province for him . When Charles abdicated in 1556 , Frisia was inherited by Philip II of Spain with the rest of the Netherlands . In 1566 , Frisia joined the rebellion against Spanish rule . In 1577 , George van Lalaing ( Count Rennenburg ) was appointed Stadtholder of Frisia and other provinces . A moderate , trusted by both sides , he tried to reconcile the rebels with the Crown . But in 1580 , Rennenburg declared for Spain . The States ( parliament ) of Frisia raised troops and took his strongholds of Leeuwarden , Harlingen and Stavoren . Rennenburg was deposed and Frisia became the fifth Lordship to join the rebels ' Union of Utrecht . From 1580 onwards , all stadtholders were members of the House of Orange - Nassau . With the Peace of Münster in 1648 , Frisia became a full member of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands . When the Batavian Republic was created in 1795 , the Lordship of Frisia was abolished as a relic of the Ancien Régime . Stadtholders of Friesland . For Spain : For Nassau :