“Medieval Frisian freedom rested on the early breakdown of feudalism and the failure of princely rule to take root in the coastal lands, a vacuum filled by communal institutions; Oebele Vries treats it as an instance of medieval liberty and a model of rural communalism.”

Context. Vries draws on Peter Blickle's communalism thesis and argues that, in their prime, the Frisian lands were a more prototypical case of rural communalism than the founding Swiss cantons.