List of rulers of Frisia
This is a list of historically verifiable, legendary and fictitious rulers of Frisia, whether they were called chieftains, counts, dukes or kings.
In these chronicles, these rulers were styled dux, a Latin term for leader which is the origin of the title duke and its cognates in other languages.
The power of these counts was restricted, however, due to the decentralized nature of the maritime landscape, which prevented large-scale military operations.
The foreign - largely Saxon - magnates that held office were dependent on local nobles helping them to exploit privileges, administer justice and raise troops.
As the power of counts waned during the 12th century, these functionaries were replaced by elected grietmannen (prosecutors) in Friesland or redjeva (judges or advocati) in Groningen and East-Frisia.
The early medieval Frisians were in fact, like Hengist and Horsa, immigrants from Anglo-Saxon descent, absorbing the older name of the Frisii that inhabitated the area in Roman times.
The historian Goffe Jensma states in his introduction to a course at the University of Amsterdam: Several names of Frisian kings appear in 14th- and 15th-century chronicles from Holland and Hainaut.
The classicist Suffridus Petrus (1527-1597), professor in Cologne and official chronicler of the Estates of Friesland and his successor in Friesland Bernardus Furmerius (1545-1616) constructed a series of fictitious princes, dukes and kings, beginning with Prince Friso, son of Adel, who had allegedly migrated from India during the time of Alexander the Great.
The 13th-century Old Norse Þiðreks saga, translated from a lost Lower German original, contains the names of the Frisian kings Osid and his son Otnid, supposedly the father and brother of the famous Atli (Atila) the Hun.
A 19th century pseudo-chronicle, the Oera Linda Book (1872), embellished these stories further by describing an ancient and glorious history for the Frisians extending back thousands of years.
Originally, they were supposedly ruled over by a line of matriarchs known as folk-mothers, founded by the eponymous goddess Frya as an ancestress of all Frisians.
Counts appointed by the Frankish rulers were: Godfrid was ambushed and killed, count Gerolf is believed to have been one of the nobles involved in the attack as he is rewarded shortly after with most of Godfrid's domain: the coastline from Vlie to Meuse and upriver the Gaue Nifterlake, Lek & IJssel and several properties in Teisterbant.
The eastern part was centered around the mouth of the Weser, encompassing the Nordendi, Astergau, Wangerland, Östringen and Rüstringen, assumed to be the county that Harald Klak received.
