In the 17th and 18th centuries the grietmannen were definitely the most powerful and most respectable regents of the province of Friesland. These key judicial officers and magistrates of the thirty rural districts or grietenijen were appointed for life. Usually they had been granted authority by their grietenij and as such they were delegated to the Landdag, the assembly of the States of Friesland, where three quarters of the votes rested with the representatives of the rural areas. Consequently, these grietmannen were the ones in charge at the Landdag. As both a grietman and power of attorney they were elected by the proprietors of about 10.000 sites which were entitled to vote. These sites largely consisted of farms.

In order to maintain their position of power, landownership, thus possession of votes, mattered greatly to the grietmannen and their relatives. This situation was completely different from the one in the other provinces of the Dutch Republic, where towns were much more important and the bourgeois elites were in charge. Moreover, in none of the other provinces the electorate was as extensive as in the Frisian province.

The core of the study will be an analysis of the stemkohieren of 1640, 1698, 1758 and 1788. In these registers every vote and its owner was registered. Due to an increasing number of combined votes within a limited number of families and the voting monopolies that were formed within the grietenijen real dynasties of grietmannen originated in the course of the 17th and 18th centuries.

In addition, the circumstances which caused this oligarchy will be examined, as well as the strategies which were pursued to obtain and preserve authority in the grietenijen, for next generations as well. Moreover, the division of lucrative offices which were given away at the Landdag as well as the political mores concerning such a division will be studied. Furthermore, the Frisian political elite will be elaborated upon and analysed in case-studies concerning two regent families: the Vegilin van Claerbergen family and the Sminia family.

The results will be published in a doctoral dissertation.