Cornwall
Kernow
Motto of County Council: Onen hag oll (Cornish)
One and all
Geography
Status Ceremonial county & (smaller) Unitary district
Origin Historic
Region South West England
Area
- Total
- Admin. council
- Admin. area Ranked 12th
3,563 km2 (1,376 sq mi)
Ranked 2nd
3,546 km2 (1,369 sq mi)
Admin HQ Truro
ISO 3166-2 GB-CON
ONS code 00HE
NUTS 3 UKK30
Demography
Population
- Total (2008 est.[1])
- Density
- Admin. council Ranked 39th
534,300
150 /km2 (388/sq mi)
Ranked 4th
Ethnicity 99.0% White British, 1% Other
Politics
Cornwall Council
http://www.cornwall.gov.uk/
Executive Conservative / Independent
Members of Parliament 6[show]
George Eustice (Con)
Andrew George (LD)
Stephen Gilbert (LD)
Sheryll Murray (Con)
Sarah Newton (Con)
Dan Rogerson (LD)
Districts
Cornwall Council (unitary)
Isles of Scilly (sui generis unitary)
Cornwall (English pronunciation: /'k?rnw?l/; Cornish: Kernow ['k?rn??]) is a ceremonial county and unitary authority in England in the United Kingdom, forming the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Taken with the Isles of Scilly, Cornwall has a population of 534,300, and covers an area of 3,563 km2 (1,376 sq mi). The administrative centre and only city is Truro.
The area now known as Cornwall was first inhabited in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic periods. It continued to be occupied by the Celtic peoples. There is little evidence that Roman rule was effective west of Exeter and few Roman remains have been found. Cornwall was afterwards part of the Brythonic (Celtic) area of Dumnonia, separated from Wales after the Battle of Deorham, often coming into conflict with the expanding saxon kingdom of Wessex before King Athelstan in 936 AD set the boundary between saxon and Cornish people at the Tamar. Today, Cornwall's economy struggles after the decline of the mining and fishing industries, and has become more dependent on tourism. The area is noted for its wild moorland landscapes, its extensive and varied coastline and its very mild climate.
Cornwall is recognised as one of the Celtic nations by many Cornish people, residents and organisations. It retains a distinct cultural identity, reflecting its celtic history, and modern use of the revived Cornish language is increasing. Some people question the present constitutional status of Cornwall, and a nationalist movement seeks greater autonomy within the United Kingdom in the form of a devolved legislative assembly, and greater recognition of the Cornish people as a national minority.
Etymology
"Cornweallas" (corn-wee-las)in the Saxon Chronicle. The name Cornwall comes from combining two different terms from separate languages. The Roman term for the Celtic tribe which inhabited what is now Cornwall at the time of Roman rule in Britain, Cornovii, came from a Brythonic tribal name which gave modern Cornish Kernow, also known as Corneu to the Brythons. This could be from either of two sources; the common Celtic root cern, or the Latin cornu, both of which mean "horn" or "peninsula", suggestive of the shape of Cornwall's landmass. There is a problem with this theory however. At least two other known Celtic tribes bore the name Cornovii, one tribe in Caithness which may also be considered a "headland" or "horn-land", yet another, the principal tribe known to the Romans as Cornovii lived in the West Midlands and Powys areas, calling into question the derivation of the name from a peninsula (however, Celtic tribes were not necessarily permanently settled, and the Latin forms may be based on different British names). Another theory suggests that the name of the Cornovii tribes may well be connected to totemic worship of the "horned god" such as the Gaulish Cernunnos or a similar totemic cult. Nevertheless, the Cornovii were sufficiently established in the present day area recognised as Cornwall for their territory to be recorded as Cornubia by 700 AD, and remained as such into the Middle Ages. The Ravenna Cosmography, of around 700, makes reference to Purocoronavis, (almost certainly a corruption of Durocornovium), 'a fort or walled settlement of the Cornovii', (unidentified, but possibly Tintagel or Carn Brea).the saxon name "weallas"(which is the saxon name of wales "weallas") means strange ones,thus Cornwall means "peninsula of strange ones.
During the 6th and 7th centuries, the name Cornubia became corrupted by extensive changes in the Old English language. The Saxons provided the suffix wealas, meaning "(romanised) foreigners or strange ones", creating the term Corn-wealas. Some historians note that this was the word for Wales, however it is understood that the term applied instead to all Brythonic peoples and lands, who were considered foreign or strange by the Saxons. As Cornwall was known as West Wales (as being west of Wessex) and present-day Cumbria as North Wales during those times, the "Wales" meaning is probable.
History
Main articles: History of Cornwall and Timeline of Cornish history
Mên-an-Tol. Prehistory, Roman and post-Roman periods
See also: Dumnonia and Kingdom of Cornwall
The present human history of Cornwall begins with the occupation of Britain after the last Ice Age. According to John T. Koch and others, Cornwall in the Late Bronze Age was part of a maritime trading-networked culture called the Atlantic Bronze Age that also included the other Celtic nations, England, France, Spain and Portugal (Scotland Ireland Isle Of Man Wales Cornwall Brittany Galica Asturias and Cantabria) where Celtic languages developed with the Tartessian language the first written Celtic language so far discovered. During the Iron Age Cornwall, like all of Britain south of the Firth of Forth, was inhabited by the Celtic people known as the Britons. The Celtic British language spoken at the time eventually developed into several distinct tongues, including Cornish. The first account of Cornwall comes from the Sicilian Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (c. 90 BC – c. 30 BC), supposedly quoting or paraphrasing the fourth-century BC geographer Pytheas, who had sailed to Britain:
The inhabitants of that part of Britain called Belerion (or Land's End) from their intercourse with foreign merchants, are civilised in their manner of life. They prepare the tin, working very carefully the earth in which it is produced ... Here then the merchants buy the tin from the natives and carry it over to Gaul, and after travelling overland for about thirty days, they finally bring their loads on horses to the mouth of the Rhône.
Celtic tribes of Southern Britain. The identity of these merchants is unknown. There has been a theory that they were Phoenicians, however there is no evidence for this. (For further discussion of tin mining see the section on the economy below.)
There is a theory that once silver was extracted from the copper ores of Cornwall in pre-Roman times, as silver is easily converted to its chloride (AgCl) by surface waters containing chlorine. After a period of Roman rule, Cornwall reverted to independent Celtic chieftains.
Conflict with Wessex
The chronology of saxon dominance over Cornwall is unclear. In the 8th century Cornwall came into conflict with the expanding kingdom of Wessex. There are no recorded charters or legal agreements showing Cornwall as part of Wessex. Furthermore, there is little economic, military, social, cultural or archaeological evidence that Wessex established control over Cornwall, although some historians, notably Michael Swanton, and Malcolm Todd assert to the contrary.
The Annales Cambriae report that in 722 AD the Britons of Cornwall won a battle at Hehil. Annales Cambriae However, it is not stated whether the Cornish fought the West Saxons or some other enemy. acording to The Saxon Chronicle states in 815 "& þy geare gehergade Ecgbryht cyning on West Walas from easteweardum oþ westewearde."..."and in this year king Ecgbryht raided in Cornwall from east to west." and thenceforth apparently held it as a ducatus or dukedom annexed to his regnum or kingdom of Wessex, but not wholly incorporated with it. The Saxon Chronicles states that in 825 a battle was fought involving the "Welsh", presumably those of Cornwall, and the Defnas (men of Devon). It only states:- "The Westwealas (Cornish) and the Defnas (men of Devon) fought at Gafulforda". However, there is no mention of who won or who lost, whether the men of Cornwall and Devon were fighting each other or on the same side, and no mention of Egbert. This is the only record of this battle. In the same year Ecgbert, as a later document phrases it, "disposed of their territory as it seemed fit to him, giving a tenth part of it to God." In other words he incorporated Cornwall ecclesiastically with the West Saxon diocese of Sherborne, and endowed Ealhstan, his fighting bishop, who took part in the campaign, with an extensive Cornish estate consisting of Callington and Lawhitton, both in the Tamar valley, and Pawton near Padstow.
In 838, the Cornish and their saxon allies were defeated by Egbert at Hengestesdune (Saxon Chronicles): an unknown location (various places have been suggested over the years from Hengistbury Head in Dorset, Hingston Down, Devon to Hingston Down in Cornwall). In 875, the last recorded king of Cornwall, Dumgarth, is said to have drowned in battle. Around the 880s, Saxons from Wessex had established modest land holdings in the eastern part of Cornwall; notably Alfred the Great had acquired a few estates. William of Malmesbury, writing around 1120, says that King Athelstan of England (924–939) fixed the boundary between saxon and Cornish people at the east bank of the River Tamar.
Norman period
One interpretation of the Domesday Book is that by this time the native Cornish landowning class had been almost completely dispossessed and replaced by Saxon landowners, the largest of whom was Harold Godwinson himself. However, this is highly questionable: The Bodmin manumissions show that two leading Cornish figures, nominally had Saxon names, but these were both glossed with native Cornish names. This suggests that Saxon names in Cornwall indicate not ethnicity, but preferences in naming, perhaps as means to establish membership of a pro-Saxon ruling class.
However, after the Norman conquest most of the land was seized and transferred into the hands of a new Norman aristocracy, with the lion's share going to Robert, Count of Mortain, half-brother of King William and the largest landholder in England after the king. Ultimately this aristocracy eventually became a Norman ruling class, a phenomenon closely resembling the situation in the rest of England, and later in Ireland.
