West Friesland became absorbed in Holland.

East Friesland remained a federation of rude but self-governed maritime provinces, until the brief and bloody dominion of the Saxon dukes led to the establishment of Charles the Fifth's authority.

Whatever the nominal sovereignty over them, this most republican tribe of Netherlanders, or of Europeans, had never accepted feudalism.

There was an annual congress of the whole confederacy.

Each of the seven little states, on the other hand, regulated its own internal affairs.