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The Arumer Black Heap was a group of well-trained and highly specialised warriors lead by the legendary freedom fighter and folk hero Pier Gerlofs Donia, who fought against the suppression by the Burgundians. Most of all, they fought against a Burgundian-vassal, the Count of Nychlenborch, and his soldiers.

Contents 1 Members 2 Clothing and habits 3 Success 4 Major victory 5 The best of all... 6 The end 7 Trivia

[edit] Members

The members of the Arumer Black Heap were often simple farmers, bandits and pirates. Others were former mercenaries. Many of them didn't have work, or at least no steady and proper work. Pier Gerlofs Donia, their leader, had quite a difficult job turning them into well-trained and highly specialised warriors. But still, after a lot of work, he succeeded. They became an effective and closely bonded group of warriors, and they were surprisingly, for their kind of people, very loyal to their leader.

[edit] Clothing and habits

The Arumer Black Heap-members used to wear black clothing and black armour, the most of all. They painted there cuirasses, blades, and helmets black, and even the arrows their bowmen shot, had black points. They handled a strict ranking, and the highest in rank was officially not Grutte Pier, but Maarten van Rossum. Strangely enough, van Rossum didn't fight even a single battle with them; he might have thaught the risk they took were to big.

[edit] Success

The small and hopeful group of freedom fighters had several small successes and victories. Their small, private guerrilla war went on well. Their leader Pier Gerlofs Donia (also known as Grutte Pier, which meant Big Pier or Big Lad in Frisian), made quite an impressive appearance. The man was known for his legendary strenghth, and for wielding an enormous sword (it measures 2.15 meters in length and weighs over 24 kilograms, and it currently still exisists, lying in a museum in Frisia, held in the private collection of a collector of rare artefacts, and currently on display within the museum). With that enormous blade, he was able to behead more than one enemy at once, in just one hit. Nobody else could do that, and nobody had such strength. He was a giant himself, being even longer than the enormous blade he handled (according to some old accounts, he was around 2.5 meters tall, and he should have weighed about 400 to 500 pounds). And he handled it quite a lot, because his reasons for going to battle were not only political, but also rather personal (Habsburgians had killed and allegedly raped his wife, Rintze Syrtsema, and Pier wanted revenge).

[edit] Major victory

At last, the Arumer Black Heap defeated the Count of Nychlenborch. The count was forced to quit fighting their rebellion, because he ran out of soldiers. It was their only real major victory, and felt like winning part of the war. The only thing that really happened after this was that the Burgundians had to send another vassal to fight off the rebellion. In 1517 the Arumer Zwarte Hoop captured the city of Asperen. Killing many of the inhabitants the Arumer Zwarte Hoop used the fortified city as a base until driven out by Holland's Stadhouder.

[edit] The best of all...

Pier Gerlofs Donia could behead more than one man in just one hit, at the same time. It was said that he could allways behead an enemy in at least one hit during battle; less talented warriors would need far more cutting to do the same job. This made Donia a feared and efficient warrior, who could personally make a difference between winning or losing a battle. Some enemy's just ren the moment that they saw him arriving at the battlefields, but this is probably just a myth. Nonetheless, he wás a highly talented warrior. And than, his enormous size helped him amking an even bigger impression! The stories of his enemies became highly unusual at one point; some men swore he was 10 feet and ate his enemies, and others said his sword to be 5 meter in length; nonsense!

[edit] The end

Despite their many successes, Pier could not turn the Burgundian/Habsburg tide. As one of his former warriors later said; We tried our best, but for every burgundian-mercenary we killed, ten came in place of. He retired disillusioned in 1519. The Arumer Black Heap was over, without their leader they didn't have any motivation to continue fighting. Some did, under other masters, but the band of warriors was said to have been disband by Pier Gerlofs Donia himself. He returned home, and died a year later, peacefully in bed. After Donia had died, not many of his warriors survived for long; five years after his death, they had all died either in battle, of illness, or had been executed by hanging for crimes they had admitted (many of them where former pirates and bandits before joining the group).

[edit] Trivia

Image:Ygo II Galama - The great crusader.jpg Ygo III of Galama wearing amour similar to that worn by the Arumer Black Heaps' traditional-armour

In 1197, Sir Ygo Youkes Galama, one of Donia's ancestors, had a very similar warrior group serving him, which only was way smaller. He also was the one who came up with the black armour all the members wore; he wore such an armour and weaponry himself, as can be seen in an old image of him.

See also

   * Pier Gerlofs Donia
   * Maarten van Rossum
   * Ygo Gales Galama
   * Friso-Hollandic Wars
   * Count of Nychlenborch
   * Frisia
   * Galama-family
   * Schieringers and Vetkopers
   * Haring Harinxma
   * Rulers of Frisia
   * History of the Netherlands

References

   * DOC Volksverhaal (Meertens Institute) on the saga (Dutch)

   * Another page with a lot of usefull information + images of Pier with the Frisian-flag + image's of Piers' statue in Kimswerd, Frisia (Dutch)

   * Sound clip of Pier's rhyme

   * About Piers' family-life, children and descendants

   * Official website of Grutte Piers' village of origin (Dutch)

   * photo's of the helmet of Grutte Pier, in the mayors' house in Sneek, Frisia (Dutch)

   * More information about Pier Gerlofs (Dutch)

   * A web page containing loads of information about the Galama-family and their deeds and members