ABSTRACT
As a result of the massive participation of Frisians in the crusades, the military orders were able to acquire a considerable amount of property in the Frisian lands. A study of the background and origin of the Frisian members of the Teutonic Order showed that their recruitment was a regional affair, at least up to the 1470s, when serious management troubles in the Frisian houses offered the provincial commander in Utrecht an opportunity to force a reformatio upon them. This led to a strengthening of the non-Frisian element in the population of the Frisian convents that joined them. As to the non-reformed houses of the Hospitallers in Frisia, west of the Lauwers, one might suppose that the number of allochtonous brethren in them remained fairly low. The Frisian lands did preserve their wealthy collection of Germanic personal names much longer than the neighbouring regions in the South.
