Upstalsboom

During the Frisian freedom period, the Upstalsboom (Old Frisian: Opstallisbame), also known as the Opstalsbam, was an assembly for emissaries of the Seven Sealands of medieval Frisia, located just outside the East Frisian town of Aurich (Saterland Frisian: Aurk) in modern-day Germany. The origins of the Upstalsboom, including its name, are unclear, but as far back as the 8th century the meeting place was used as a burial ground for the members of important Frisian families.

Attested in writing as early as the first half of the 13th century, the assembly convened every year on the Tuesday after Pentecost to discuss issues pertinent to all Frisian lands. Although marked by weak central authority and regular infighting, Frisian territories showed great success repelling foreign invaders. In 1323, the Statutes of Upstalsboom were ratified, providing a legal framework for interaction between the Seven Sealands, such as prohibiting certain actions, prescribing punishments for crimes, establishing exchange rates for currencies, providing legal rights between citizens of different sealands, and establishing a defense pact. The punishments described in the 1323 ratification are considered to have been extreme for the time and place, but when the treaty was reaffirmed in 1361, additional punishments were scaled back. Different versions of the statutes exist today, but it is one of the few legal texts with both Old Frisian and Latin translations still in existence.

The Upstalsboom was an assembly located near the East Frisian town of Aurich in modern-day Germany. The assembly was a pan-Frisian alliance which met every year to discuss political and legal issues pertinent to the participating parties, known as the Upstalsboom League [Wikidata], especially those relating to foreign matters. Each sealand sent one representative, called a redjeven, from the community to serve as advisors at the Upstalsboom. Each redjeven went to the Upstalsboom on the Tuesday following Pentecost and served for one year. The name "Upstalsboom" ultimately means 'the tree of Upstal', but the meaning of Upstal is obscure; it may have referred to a place which was elevated and dry. Archeological evidence has shown that members of important families were buried at the site in the early Middle Ages as early as the 8th century. During its earliest period as an assembly, laws were established to affirm the payment of fines (Old Frisian: frede) paid to local counts. While it is unclear exactly when the league arose, it is believed that the original assembly was of East Frisian origin, particularly those communities between the Lauwers and Weser rivers, with the Central Frisians joining sometime thereafter. Although there were several different meeting places in throughout the Seven Sealands, the Upstalsboom is the only known assembly where members of different sealands met. The assemblies at the Upstalsboom have been compared to the medieval Icelandic Þingvellir, though it is unclear how much the Upstalsboom assemblies relied on an oral recitation of the legal code.

The oldest known Old Frisian legal text – the Seventeen Statutes (Da Saunteen Kesta), estimated as early as the first half of the 11th century – appears to have been issued by the Upstalsboom League, but the league itself is not attested in documents until around 1220. Beginning in 1220, it was embroiled in a conflict between two villages in the Ommelanden, which dragged Fivelingo, Hunsingo, Groningen, and several others into the conflict. When the villages in the Ommelanden made peace in 1250, they began waging war on Groningen. Although there was some cooperation in light of the Upstalsboom, violence between sealands and villages persisted. One of the major issues with the Upstalboom League was that it failed to secure enough military power to enforce its own agreements. In particular, the growing power of Groningen – which was not originally a part of the Upstalsboom League – gave it the ability to enforce its will on its environs where the Upstalsboom was powerless to take action against it.

Following the Siege of Groningen in 1338 by the Count of Gelre, Groningen was weakened enough that it was forced to join the league, though both remained relatively weak. Still, other than two major failures in 1270 against the Count of Stotel and in 1289 against Holland, the Frisian freedom period was marked by extremely successful repulsion of foreign powers attempting to invade Frisia; Frisian solidarity, though lacking significant central authority, was able to ward off its enemies with success. In 1338, the Upstalsboom League entered a military alliance with France against England and the Count of Gelre. In 1361, Groningen attempted and, at first failed, to play a more significant role in the league as it began to restructure its economic position in response to outside trade waning. It was able to maneuver successfully by offering its organized police force to rural areas which lacked them, giving it executive authority in several areas of Frisia, and ultimately the monetary policy of the 1323 agreements was reaffirmed in 1361.

Despite its failures, the Upstalsboom remains highly regarded in Frisian culture as a symbol of freedom: the German historian Ubbo Emmius referred to the Upstalsboom as the "altar of freedom" in his works and some tourists even travel to the site to take dirt home in small bottles. In 1883, a stone pyramid was erected at the site to memorialize the Frisian freedom period.

The Statutes of Upstalsboom were first ratified on 18 September 1323 in Central Frisia in an attempt to revive the Upstalsboom League – which had begun to lose its legal force – as claims pressed by the Count of Holland increasingly threatened the region.

Three versions of the Statutes have survived to the modern day, two in Old Frisian and one in Latin. One of the Old Frisian versions consists of twenty-four paragraphs translated while the other is thirty-six paragraphs. The Latin version, also comprising twenty-four paragraphs, is believed to be the original. The statutes are one of only a few existing law texts existing in both Latin and Old Frisian.