Uthlande

Uthlande, Utlande (Low German or Old Danish: The outer lands, in Danish also: Friselagen) is a term for the islands, halligen and marshes off the mainland of North Frisia in the Southwest Jutland, modern Nordfriesland district, Germany.

The name was first recorded in a 12th-century document. At the time, the islands differed considerably from the mainland regarding both their social constitution and political status. Today parts of the former Uthlande are submerged in the Wadden Sea — especially large parts of the island Strand — or have themselves become a part of the mainland by the construction of dikes or land reclamation.

On the Danish mainland the Hundreds later became the largest administrative subdivisions. They were composed of several parishes. In mainland Jutland there were also the syssels which used to comprise a number of Hundreds, but were completely unknown in the Uthlande. The local North Frisians became direct subjects of the Danish king and fought for him against the Holy Roman Empire and Holstein. However they succeeded in gaining a large-scale autonomy in the Middle Ages. They were exempt from the Code of Jutland of 1241 and were allowed to judge according to Frisian law (see also Lex Frisionum).

When Eric IV of Denmark tried to collect the plogpennig, a tax of one penny on every plow, in the Uthlande as well, he was forced to leave the area after having lost a number of knights due to resistance against the new tax law. His brother, killer and successor Abel even lost the greatest part of his army and his life when he tried to again enforce the plogpennig in Frisia in 1252.

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