Politics in the Middle Ages

In the early Middle Ages, French, British and Irish missionaries came to the Netherlands to spread Christianity, but they did not succeed without a struggle. In the year 754, for example, Frisians opposing Christian interference murdered Bishop Boniface. And in 838, Frederick, the Bishop of Utrecht, also met a violent end. The Rijksmuseum holds a reliquary containing part of his skull, made by the silversmith Elias Scerpswert. From the 5th to the 9th centuries the Netherlands was part of the Frankish Kingdom, which extended over much of what are now France and Germany. Its most famous ruler was Charlemagne, who in was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800 in Rome.