<P> The Franks became Christians after their king Clovis I converted to Catholicism, an event which is traditionally set in 496 . Christianity was introduced in the north after the conquest of Friesland by the Franks . The Saxons in the east were converted before the conquest of Saxony, and became Frankish allies . </P> <P> Hiberno - Scottish and Anglo - Saxon missionaries, particularly Willibrord, Wulfram and Boniface, played an important role in converting the Frankish and Frisian peoples to Christianity by the 8th century . Boniface was martyred by the Frisians in Dokkum (754). </P> <P> In the early 8th century the Frisians came increasingly into conflict with the Franks to the south, resulting in a series of wars in which the Frankish Empire eventually subjugated Frisia . In 734, at the Battle of the Boarn, the Frisians in the Netherlands were defeated by the Franks, who thereby conquered the area west of the Lauwers . The Franks then conquered the area east of the Lauwers in 785 when Charlemagne defeated Widukind . </P> <P> The linguistic descendants of the Franks, the modern Dutch - speakers of the Netherlands and Flanders, seem to have broken with the endonym "Frank" around the 9th century . By this time Frankish identity had changed from an ethnic identity to a national identity, becoming localized and confined to the modern Franconia and principally to the French province of Île - de-France . </P>

Where did the last name holland come from