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Pier Gerlofs Donia
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Pier Gerlofs Donia (c.1480 – 1520) was a Frisian warrior, pirate and rebel. He is best known by his West Frisian nickname "Grutte Pier" ("Greate Pier" in the Old Frisian spelling), or by the Dutch translations "Grote Pier" and "Lange Pier", or, in Latin, "Pierius Magnus", which referred to his legendary size and strength.
His life is mostly shrouded in legend. Based upon a description now attributed to Pier’s contemporary Petrus Thaborita, the 19th-century historian Conrad Busken Huet wrote that Grutte Pier was
te Pier was born Pier Gerlofs Donia (Pier Gerlofs), around 1480 in Kimswerd near the city of Harlingen, Wonseradeel in Friesland.
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Quotations
Nae Myn Heer ta.
Translation: To my Lord I want to go., After an old enemy of Pier Gerlofs asked him where he'd want to go in afterlife, he anwered that he wanted to go to God.
Encyclopedia
Pier Gerlofs Donia (c.1480 – 1520) was a Frisian warrior, pirate and rebel. He is best known by his West Frisian nickname "Grutte Pier" ("Greate Pier" in the Old Frisian spelling), or by the Dutch translations "Grote Pier" and "Lange Pier", or, in Latin, "Pierius Magnus", which referred to his legendary size and strength.
His life is mostly shrouded in legend. Based upon a description now attributed to Pier’s contemporary Petrus Thaborita, the 19th-century historian Conrad Busken Huet wrote that Grutte Pier was
Early life and family
Grutte Pier was born Pier Gerlofs Donia (Pier Gerlofs), around 1480 in Kimswerd near the city of Harlingen, Wonseradeel in Friesland. Pier Gerlofs was one of at least four children born to Gerlof Piers and Fokel Sybrants Bonga. Pier's mother Fokel was the daughter of the Schieringer noblemen Sybrant Doytsesz. Bonga of Bongastate, Kimswerd.
Pier married Rintsje Syrtsema and they had two children, a son named Gerlof and a daughter named Wobbel, who were born around 1510. Pier died in 1520, and in 1525, Pier's mother appointed in her will Pier's brother, Sybren, as guardian of Pier's children, who were still minors. Pier and Pier's brother-in-law Ane Pijbes (husband of Tijdt Gerlofs), were partners in the farming estate of Meyllemastate in Kimswerd.
Pier was the direct descendant of the Frisian chieftain Haring Harinxma (1323–1404), a Schieringer and potestate of Westergo, and the third cousin of Jancko Douwama.
Wijerd Jelckama is often described by 18th and 19th century authors as the nephew of Grutte Pier. Contemporary Worp van Thabor identifies him simply as Wierd van Bolsward. Modern authors such as J.J. Kalma doubt the nephew connection and Brouwer in the Encyclopedia of Friesland states that Wierd was not Grutte Pier's nephew but instead his "lieutenant".
Rebellion
Approximately to the north-east of Donia's village of Kimswerd, in the city of Franeker, the Black Band, a Landsknecht regiment in the service of George, Duke of Saxony was quartered. The regiment was charged with suppressing the civil war between the Vetkopers, who opposed Burgundian and subsequently Habsburg rule, and the Schieringers. The Black Band were notorious as a violent military force; when their pay was insufficient or lacking, they would extract payments from local villagers and on 29 January 1515, the Black Band plundered Donia's village, then allegedly raped and killed his wife, Rintze Syrtsema, and burnt to the ground both the village church and Donia's estate. Seeking revenge, Pier started a guerrilla war campaign against the Habsburgs and allied himself with Charles of Egmond, Duke of Guelders (1492–1538), the foremost opponent of the Habsburgs.
Peasant rebels
Pier's armed band, known as the Arumer Zwarte Hoop (English: Arumer Black Heap, as in "group/mass of"), were pirates mainly active against the Hollanders and Burgundians at sea. He managed to capture many English and Holland ships, mainly on the Zuider Zee (today's ‘IJsselmeer’). In the biggest battle of his career, in 1515, he captured 28 Dutch ships, which earned him the nickname "Cross of the Dutchmen". Erasmus criticized Grutte Pier's exploits.
Pier targeted ships that travelled the Zuider Zee and was very active in 1517, when he used his "signal ships" to attack ships in the region of the West Frisian coast, to which he also transported Geldrian forces, setting them ashore at Medemblik. Pier bore a personal enmity to Medemblik and its inhabitants as, in earlier years, soldiers from Medemblik had cooperated with the Holland army commanded by Duke Charles, the future Emperor. In March 1498, Medemblik was where representatives of the Schieringers met the Saxon ruler duke Albrecht to request Saxon protection from the Vetkopers — a request that resulted in the Saxon occupation of Friesland. On 24 June 1517, Grutte Pier and his Arumer Zwarte Hoop, consisting of some 4,000 soldiers from Frisia and Guelders, sailed to West Frisia, passing Enkhuizen, landing near Wervershoof and advancing to Medemblik. They swiftly captured Medemblik, killing many inhabitants and taking many others prisoner. Some were released on payment of a high ransom. Some of the town's inhabitants fled and found safety at Medemblik Castle. The castle's governor, Joost van Buren, succeeded in keeping the aggressors outside the castle walls. Unable to take the castle, the Arumer Zwarte Hoop plundered the town and set it on fire. With most houses made of wood, the town, including the church, monastery and town hall, were completely razed. After this partial victory, Pier and his army stormed both Nieuwburg and Middleburg Castle near Alkmaar, plundered and set them on fire, leaving only ruins.
In 1517, the Arumer Zwarte Hoop captured the town of Asperen, slaughtering virtually all its inhabitants. They then used the heavily fortified city as a base until driven out by Holland's Stadhouder. In response to the attacks on Medemblik and Alkmaar and the failure of the Captain General of Amstelland, Waterland and Gooiland to defend his territories, the Stadhouder of Holland agreed to fit out a war fleet in July 1517. The fleet came under the supreme command of Anthonius van den Houte, Lord of Vleteren, appropriately titled "Admiral of the Zuider Zee". In the name of Charles V, van den Houte announced he would free the region of Frisian and Gelder piracy. Although van den Houte was initially successful, with some of the Frisian vessels being burnt near Bunschoten, Grutte Pier responded by seizing 11 of Holland's ships in a battle off the coast near Hoorn in 1518.
Shortly after this victory, Pier defeated 300 Hollanders in Hindelopen. According to a legend, Pier forced his captives to repeat a shibboleth to distinguish Frisians from Holland and Lower German infiltrators:
Butter, bread, and green cheese: if you can’t say that, you’re not a real Frisian.
Grutte Pier was also credited with coining the old Frisian slogan "Leaver dea as slaef" ("Better dead than slave").
Despite his successes, Pier could not turn the Burgundian/Habsburg tide and he retired, disillusioned, in 1519. His nephew, Wierd Jelckama took over the command of Pier’s forces. Pier died peacefully in his bed at Grootzand 12 in the Frisian town of Sneek on 18 October 1520. Pier is buried in Sneek in the 15th-century Groote Kerk (also called the Martinikerk). His tomb is located at the north side of the church.
Superhuman strength and size
In 1791, Jacobus Kok wrote that above the porticus of the New City Hall of Leeuwarden, two remarkably large swords were found which were said to have belonged to Grutte Pier and his nephew Wijard Jelckama. Donia was noted for the ability to wield this great sword so efficiently that he could behead multiple people with it in a single blow.
Today, a great sword that is said to have belonged to Pier is on display at the Fries museum in Leeuwarden. It measures in length and weighs about . To have wielded such a weapon, he must have been a man of unusual stature and superior physical strength. People who had met him often put his height at least 7ft tall. Pier was alleged to be so strong that he could bend coins using just his thumb, index and middle finger. A huge helmet said to be Grutte Pier's is kept in the town hall of Sneek.
In popular culture
The legendary status of Grote Pier as a hero or a villain has endured over the centuries with his exploits retold in book, poetry, song and more recently television.
Gysbert Japicx
The seventeenth century Friese poet Gysbert Japicx (1603–1666) wrote in his composition ‘Tjesck Moars See Aengste’ [Grandmothers’s Sea Anguish] the following verse in reverence to Grote Pier (eng. trans., Tall Peter):
Grandmothers’s Sea Anguish
- Thee I’ll follow, noble Peter,
- Thou wert nobler far and greater,
- Than the noblest, home-kept lord,
- Battling like an ancient roman,
- For his country with her foeman,
- Whom he chased with fire and sword.
Fivefal
Stories about Pier grew into legends that often share themes with stories of other strong men in Germanic heroic literature. For example, one story says Pier ploughed his land by pulling the plough himself instead of using horses. Another story states that Pier could lift a horse above his head. Fivefal is the name in Frisian of a Frisian legend. It tells the story of Pier killing five Hollandic mercenaries sent to kill him:
Grutte Pier was a very strong fellow. One time he was busy ploughing. He had hitched his horse in front of the plough. It was an old-fashioned plough with a wooden beam. Then a stranger approached and he asked "Do you know where Grutte Pier lives?" Then Grutte Pier undid the plough from the horse. And he took the plow in his right hand and lifted from the ground and then pointed with the plough to the house. And he said: "Look, he lives there." With his other fist he hit himself on the chest and said: "And here he stands."
It is said that Pier killed the mercenaries at Donia Estate, Kimswerd. The place where he killed them is known as Fivefal, (Lit. Five fall) for all five of them fell to the ground.
Television
In the 1970s, in the Dutch Floris series, Donia was a major character played by actor Hans Boskamp. Although he was a villain and the enemy of the leading character, many children learned about Donia, albeit in a historically incorrect way, and it brought Grutte Pier back into popular culture. He was also a major character in the German language remake of the series, although he was less popular than in the Netherlands.
Sport
The Greate Pier rugby club in Leeuwarden, which plays on a regional level, is named after Donia. Many other clubs and several ships are named after him. There is also a skutsje sailing cup named after him which is held annually in Friesland.
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