FRITZLAR, a town formerly of Electoral Hesse and now of Prussia, at the head of a circle in the district of Cassel, about 16 miles S.S.W. of Cassel, on the left bank of the Eder, a left-hand sub-tributary of the Weser. It is an old-fashioned place still surrounded with watchtowers, and it possesses a large number of churches, an Ursuline nunnery, and an old Franciscan monastery, now partly used as a Protestant church and partly as a poorhouse. Its inhabitants, who according to the census of 1875 numbered 2965, are mainly engaged in agriculture, but also manufacture considerable quantities of earthenware. As early as 732 Boniface, the apostle of Germany, established the church of St Peter’s and a small Benedictine monastery at Frideslar, “the quiet home” or “abode of peace.” Before long the school connected with the monastery became famous, and among its earlier scholars it numbered Sturm, abbot of Fulda, and Megingoz, bishop of Würzburg. When Boniface found himself unable to continue the supervision of the society himself, he entrusted the office to Wigbert of Glastonbury, who thus became the first abbot of Fritzlar. In 774 the little settlement was taken and burnt by the Saxons; but it evidently soon recovered from the blow. For a short time after 786 it was the seat of the bishopric of Buraburg, or Bürberge, which had been founded by Boniface in 741. At the diet of Fritzlar in 919 Henry I. was elected by the Franks and Saxons. In the beginning of the 13th century the village received municipal rights; in 1232 it was captured and burned by the landgrave, Conrad of Thuringia, and his allies; in 1631 it was taken by storm by William of Hesse; in 1760 it was successfully defended by General Luckner against the French; and in 1761 it was occupied by the French ...