______________________________
_        Brokmerbrief        _
______________________________

         Introduction         
______________________________

__NOTOC__
The  or Law of Brokmerland is the early 13th-century law code of
the 'brocmanni', the inhabitants of Brokmerland, west of Aurich in
East Frisia. The area had been placed under cultivation and settled
by the end of the 12th century. It survives in two manuscripts. The
work is sometimes referred to as the , using the modern spelling of
"Brookmerland".

The  is the most complete source on Frisian law. It describes the
polity and judicial system of a country whose law was based on the
will of the assembled people (the 'Frisian freedom'): political and
judicial power was in the hands of functionaries selected annually
from the ranks of the farmers, who were known as  (consuls,
counsellors); their power in turn was regulated by the .

The period of independent rural self-rule came to an end by about
the mid-14th century. However, unlike for example Emsigerland,
Brokmerland remained a discrete unit, since the  forbids the
erection of fortified stone residences and castles and this had
prevented the establishment of such starting points for localised
rule. Thus feudalism, otherwise widespread throughout Europe at
this time, remained unknown in East Frisia.

However, Emsig Law eventually prevailed in the area, probably as a
result of the emergence of the tom Brok dynasty, but certainly by
the time of Cirksena hegemony. In the early 16th century, Edzard I
then based his East Frisian Law () on the Emsig Law.

The  is unique among the documents of Old Frisian law in consisting
of a code of law in the strict sense, rather than a compilation. It
is preserved in two manuscripts, one of which is in the State
Archives of Lower Saxony in Oldenburg and the other in the Lower
Saxony State Library in Hanover.

The middle section of the text strongly resembles the Emsig law on
fines, indicating a common source.

The text is a valuable source of localised and dateable information
on Old Frisian.


           Sources            
______________________________

* Wybren Jan Buma (Ed.): 'Die Brokmer Rechtshandschriften'.
Oudfriese Taal- en Rechtsbronnen 5. The Hague: Nijhoff, 1949. .
* Wilhelm Ebel and Wybren Jan Buma. 'Das Brokmer Recht'.
Altfriesische Rechtsquellen 2. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 1965.


        External links        
______________________________

*
[https://drw-www.adw.uni-heidelberg.de/drw-cgi/zeige?index=tasiglen&term=brokmerr&ueb=Gliederungs%FCbersicht
Brokmerbrief with German translation]
*
[http://kulturerbe.niedersachsen.de/viewer/image/isil_DE-1811-HA_STAOL_Best_24_1_Ab_Nr_3/1/LOG_0000/;jsessionid=F313C57B8BD2B91983E04AB6E3D6650F
Facsimile of the State Archives manuscript] at Kulturerbe
Niedersachsen


 License 
_________
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brokmerbrief

.