Summary
We may be very grateful for the numerous valuable contributions to old-Frisian legal history left by the late professor N.E. Algra. I therefore regret that his singular interpretations of their Frisian historical context, are not always equally convincing.
In this article particular consideration is given to his idea on the political position of the bishops of Utrecht in medieval Frisia. As appears from several of his publications, Algra was the opinion that during the Middle Ages the bishops of Utrecht were entitled to a kind of political power in their bishopric since it was founded (in the 8th century). His main argument is, that the bishop was supposed to collect the royal tribute (huslotha) in his bishopric which task normally would be executed by counts and their officers in the various counties within its borders. Therefore the bishop would have held a political position superior to these counts. In this article it is shown that this opinion is not supported by the sources as far as Mid-Frisia is concerned. Only for two relatively short periods, one in the 11th and the other in the 12th century, the bishop of Utrecht was formally in charge of the common political power of a count in that area.
The first of his sources is a legend according to which the Frisians were given royal and papal privileges regarding, among other, the royal tribute and the church taxes, although this source does not mention the way these contributions had to be collected. The other source is a particular version of the so-called alternative Tenth general-Frisian Statute (one of 'the Seventeen Statutes', the 11th-century Frisian Declaration of Rights). However, this version, compared with other versions, appears to be erroneous on the very point of his argument.
As consequently this theory is untenable, its inferences for the Frisian history are without foundation. Their fallacy indeed is demonstrable in several examples. Algras idea that the huslotha did simply not exist in Frisia outside the Utrecht bishopric - id est east of the Lauwers river - is one of these. Another regards the frana, the political functionary in the oldest Frisian laws, charged with power to execute the law, which Algra considers to be an Utrecht episcopal functionary by exclusion. Still a few other examples are demonstrated. In all these cases Algras interpretation of the facts is refutable. The conclusion is that Algras view on the political position of the bishop of Utrecht in medieval Frisia must be rejected.