East Frisia: Difference between revisions

[[File:Boat on Ems in Leer.jpg|left|thumb| West bank of the Ems River in Leer.]]The Frisians controlled the mouth of the [[Ems (river)|Ems]] river and threatened the ships coming down the river. For this reason the [[County of Oldenburg]] made several attempts to subjugate East Frisia during the 12th century. Thanks to the swampy terrain, the Frisian peasants defeated the Oldenburgian armies every time. In 1156 even [[Henry the Lion]] failed to conquer the region. The conflicts lasted for the next few centuries. In the 14th century Oldenburg gave up on plans to conquer Ostfriesland, restricting their attacks to irregular invasions, killing livestock then leaving.

 

 

The range of power and influence differed between the chieftains. Some clans achieved a predominant state. One of these was the [[Tom Broks]] from the [[Brokmerland]] (nowadays: [[Brookmerland]]) who ruled a large part of Eastern Friesland over several generations until a former follower, [[Focko Ukena]] from [[Leer, Lower Saxony|Leer]], defeated the last Tom Brok. But a party of opposing chieftains under the leadership of the [[Cirksena]]s from [[Greetsiel]] defeated and expelled Fokko, who later died near Groningen.

[[East Frisian Low Saxon]] (or Eastern Friesland Low Saxon, as some people prefer to say for a better distinction from East Frisian, which is Frisian but not Low Saxon) is a variant of [[Low German]] with many of its own features due to the Frisian substrate and some other influences originating in the varied history of East Frisia. It is similar to the [[Gronings]] dialect spoken in the adjacent Netherlands province of Groningen.

 

 

===Tea===