Albion is the oldest known name of the island of Great Britain. It is thought to derive from the white cliffs of Dover. Today, it is still sometimes used poetically to refer to the island or England in particular. It is also the basis of the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland,
was colonised by refugees from TroyTroy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer...
under Brutus, who renamed his new kingdom Britain, and how the island was subsequently divided up between his three sons, the eldest inheriting Loegria (roughly modern England, Lloegr in WelshWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of Celtic spoken natively in Wales, in England by some along the Welsh border and in the Welsh immigrant colony in the Chubut Valley in Argentine Patagonia....
), the other two AlbaAlba is the Scottish Gaelic name for Scotland. It is cognate to Alba in Irish and Nalbin in Manx, the other Goidelic Insular Celtic language, as well as similar words in the Brythonic Insular Celtic languages of Cornish and Welsh also meaning Scotland.Hence also the early classical name Albion...
nia (modern Scotland, Alba in Scottish Gaelic) and CambriaCambria is the classical name for Wales, being the Latinised form of the Welsh name Cymru . The etymology of Cymry "the Welsh", Cimbri, and Cwmry "Cumbria", improbably connected to the Biblical Gomer and the "Cimmerians" by 17th-century celticists, is now known to come from Old Welsh combrog...
(modern Wales, Cymru in Welsh). In addition, according to the legend, a second and smaller group of TrojansTroy is a legendary city and center of the Trojan War, as described in the Epic Cycle and especially in the Iliad, one of the two epic poems attributed to Homer...
arrived in Britain, led by a warrior named CorineusCorineus, in medieval British legend, was a prodigious warrior, a fighter of giants, and the eponymous founder of Cornwall.According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain , he led the descendants of the Trojans who fled with Antenor after the Trojan War and settled on the coasts...
, to whom Brutus granted extensive estates. Just as Brutus had "called the island Britain...and his companions Britons", so Corineus called "the region of the kingdom which had fallen to his share Cornwall, after the manner of his own name, and the people who lived there...Cornishmen". This indicates that, at least as far as Geoffrey was concerned, Cornwall possessed an identity distinct from the other parts of Britain.
Early relationship between Cornwall and England
Pre-Norman Conquest
In the pre-Roman times, Cornwall was part of the kingdom of DumnoniaDumnonia is the Latinised name for a Brythonic kingdom, or group of sub-kingdoms, in sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries, located in the farther parts of the south-west peninsula of Great Britain...
, and was later known to the Anglo-Saxons as "West Wales" http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A10686710http://www.gillshaw.me.uk/Historical%20Notes%20of%20lamorna,%20Cornwall.htm, to distinguish it from "North Wales" (modern day WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
). The Anglo-Saxon word Wealh, which is retained in the last syllable of "Cornwall" meant a "foreigner" http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Welsh, or person who did not speak the English tongue. "Corn" is of uncertain origin but may refer to the peninsula on which Cornwall lies.
Cornwall was first recognised as part of the Saxon kingdom of WessexThe Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest of...
in the 8th century. The Anglo-Saxon ChronicleThe Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a collection of annals in Old English chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The annals were initially created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great. Multiple manuscript copies were made and distributed to monasteries...
records a battle in 825 and quotes "The West Wealas (Cornish) and the Defnas (men of Devon) fought at Gafulforda". However it doesn't say who won or who lost, whether the men of Cornwall and Devon were fighting each other or on the same side and certainly no mention of Egbert of WessexEgbert was King of Wessex from 802 until 839. His father was Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s Egbert was forced into exile by Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802 Egbert returned and took the throne.Little is known of the first twenty years of Egbert's reign, but...
. "Gafulforda" is thought to be GalfordGalford can refer to:* Galford, a place near Lewdown in Devon, England, the site of a battle between Cornish and Devonian forces in the early 9th century...
on the banks of the River LewThe River Lew can refer to either of two short rivers that lie close to each other in Devon, England.The more northerly of the two rises just south of the village of Beaworthy, and flows east, then turns north to run past Hatherleigh before joining the River Torridge about 1 km north of the town...
(tributary of the Lyd), though some translations render it as CamelfordCamelford is a town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom.The town lies on the River Camel, and is a few miles north-west of the highest part of Bodmin Moor. The only large industrial enterprise in the area is the slate quarry at Delabole but there is a small industrial estate at Highfield...
, some 60 km further west.
References in contemporary charters (for which we have either the original manuscript or an early copy regarded as authentic) show Egbert of WessexEgbert was King of Wessex from 802 until 839. His father was Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s Egbert was forced into exile by Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802 Egbert returned and took the throne.Little is known of the first twenty years of Egbert's reign, but...
(802-39) granting lands in Cornwall at KilkhamptonKilkhampton is a village northeast of Bude in north Cornwall in England, UK. The population in 2001 was 1,191. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Chilchetone". To the west of the village are the remains of a late Norman period motte-and-bailey castle...
, Ros, Maker, Pawton (in St BreockSt Breock is a village and a civil parish in north Cornwall, United Kingdom....
, not far from Wadebridge, head manor of Pydar in DB), Caellwic (perhaps CelliwigCelliwig, Kelliwic or Gelliwic, is perhaps the earliest named location for the court of King Arthur. It may be translated as 'forest grove'.-Literary references:...
(Kellywick in EgloshayleEgloshayle is a small village situated near the banks of the River Camel adjacent to Wadebridge in north Cornwall, United Kingdom....
?), and LawhittonLawhitton is a small village and civil parish in east Cornwall, United Kingdom.The parish of Lawhitton is in the Launceston registration district. It is a comparatively small parish and Lawhitton village is the principal settlement. The county border with Devon forms the parish's eastern boundary...
to SherborneSherborne is an affluent market town in north west Dorset, England. It is situated on the River Yeo and A30 road, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale six miles east of Yeovil....
Abbey and to the Bishop of Sherborne. All of the identifiable locations except Pawton are in the far east of Cornwall, so these references show West Saxon control over its eastern fringes. Such control had certainly been established in places by the later ninth century, as indicated by the will of King Alfred the Great (871-99).. Apart from the reference to Egbert's grant at Pawton there is no indication that English rule extended deep into Cornwall at this stage and the absence of any burhs west of Lydford in the Burghal HidageThe Burghal Hidage is an Anglo-Saxon document providing a list of the fortified burhs in Wessex and elsewhere in southern England. It offers an unusually detailed picture of the network of burhs that Alfred the Great designed to defend his kingdom from the predations of Viking invaders.-Burhs and...
may suggest limitations on the authority of the Kingdom of Wessex in parts of Cornwall.
King Athelstan, who came to the throne of England in 924 CE, immediately began a campaign to consolidate his power, and by about 926 had taken control of the Kingdom of NorthumbriaNorthumbria or Northhumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now north-east England and southern Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory: the Humber...
, following which he established firm boundaries with other kingdoms such as ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and Cornwall. The latter agreement, according to 12th century West CountryThe West Country is an informal term for the area of south western England roughly corresponding to the modern South West England government region. It is often defined to encompass the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset and the City of Bristol, while the counties of...
historian William of MalmesburyWilliam of Malmesbury , English historian of the 12th century, was born about the year 1080/1095, in Wiltshire. His father was Norman and his mother English...
, ended rights of residence for Cornish subjects in ExeterExeter is a city and district in Devon, England; it is the county town of Devon. Exeter is located approximately northeast of Plymouth, and southwest of Bristol, on the River Exe. The city has a population of 111,076 according to the 2001 Census....
, and fixed the Cornish boundary at the River TamarThe Tamar is a river in South West England, that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall . At its mouth, the Tamar flows into the Hamoaze where it joins with the River Lynher before entering Plymouth Sound...
. At Easter 928, Athelstan held court at Exeter, with the Welsh and "West Welsh" subject rulers present, and by 931 he had appointed a bishop for Cornwall within the English church (i.e. subject to the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury). The Bodmin manumissionsThe Bodmin manumissions or Bodmin Gospels is a manuscript supposed to be of the 9th century. The document is of interest to language scholars as it contains writing in Latin, Saxon and Cornish texts....
, two to three generations later, show that the ruling class of Cornwall quickly became "Anglicised", most owners of slaves having Anglo-Saxon names (not necessarily because they were of English descent; some at least were Cornish nobles who changed their names). Among those manumitting (releasing) slaves in the Bodmin record are four English kings, but no Cornish kings, dukes or earls.
It is clear that at this time areas beyond the core of Anglo-Saxon settlement were recognised as different by the English kings. Athelstan's successor, Edmund, in a charter for an estate just north of Exeter, styled himself as "King of the English, and ruler of this province of Britons." Edmund’s successor Edgar styled himself, "King of the English and ruler of the adjacent nations." This was followed by king Aethelred II (978-1016) describing Cornwall not as an English shire, but as a province, or client territory (though a reference for this statement is hard to find).
Surviving charters issued by the Kings of England Edmund IEdmund I , called the Elder, the Deed-doer, the Just, or the Magnificent, was King of England from 939 until his death. He was a son of Edward the Elder and half-brother of Athelstan...
(939-46), EdgarEdgar I the Peaceful , also called the Peaceable, was a king of England . Edgar was the younger son of Edmund I of England.-Accession:...
(959-75), Edward the MartyrEdward the Martyr , was king of the English from 975 until he was murdered in 978. Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar, but not his father's acknowledged heir. On Edgar's death, the leadership of the England was divided, some supporting Edward's claim to be king and other supporting his much...
(975-8), Aethelred IIÆthelred the Unready, or Æthelred II, , was a king of the English . He was a son of King Edgar and Queen Ælfthryth. His reign was much troubled by Danish Viking raiders. Æthelred was only about 10 when his half-brother Edward was murdered and was not personally suspected of participation...
(978-1016), Edmund IIEdmund Ironside or Edmund II was king of the English from 23 April to 30 November 1016. The cognomen "Ironside" refers to his efforts to fend off a Danish invasion led by King Cnut. His actual authority was limited to Wessex, or the area south of Thames. The north was controlled by Cnut, who...
(1016), CnutCnut the Great , also known as Canute or Knut or Cnut Sweynsson, was a Viking king of England and Denmark, Norway, and parts of Sweden...
(1016-35) and Edward the ConfessorEdward the confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last English kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066 Edward the confessor ...
(1042-66) record grants of land in Cornwall made by these kings. In contrast to the easterly concentration of the estates held or granted by English kings in the ninth century, the tenth and eleventh-century grants were distributed across the whole of Cornwall. As is usual with charters of this period, the authenticity of some of these documents is open to question (though Della Hooke has established high reliability for the Cornish material), but that of others (e.g. Edgar's grant of estates at Tywarnhale and Bosowsa to his thaneThe term thegn , from OE þegn, ðegn "servant, attendant, retainer", is commonly employed by historians to describe either an aristocratic retainer of a king or nobleman in Anglo-Saxon England, or as a class term, the majority of the aristocracy below the ranks of ealdormen and high-reeves...
Eanulf in 960, Edward the Confessor's grant of estates at TraboeTraboe is a hamlet within the Lizard Peninsula, Cornwall. It is approximately a mile down the road from Goonhilly Satellite Earth Station. It contains eleven houses and a building which used to house Rosuick Farm Shop, this being the purpose for which it was built...
, Trevallack, Grugwith and Trethewey to Bishop Ealdred in 1059) is not in any doubt. Some of these grants include exemptions from obligations to the crown which would otherwise accompany land ownership, while retaining others, including those regarding military service. The attachment of these obligations to the King of England to ownership of land in Cornwall demonstrates that the region was under his direct rule and implies that the legal and administrative relationship between the king and his subjects was the same there as elsewhere in his kingdom.
In 1051, with the exile of Godwin, Earl of WessexGodwin of Wessex , also known as Goodwin, was one of the most powerful lords in England under the Danish king Canute the Great and his successors. Canute made him the first Earl of Wessex...
and his sons and the forfeiture of their earldoms, a man named OddaOdda of Deerhurst was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman active in the period from 1013 onwards. He became a leading magnate in 1051, following the exile of Godwin, Earl of Wessex and his sons and the confiscation of their property and earldoms, when King Edward the Confessor appointed Odda as earl over a...
was appointed earl over a portion of the lands thus vacated: this comprised DorsetDorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town has been Dorchester since at least 1305, situated in the south of the county at . Between its extreme points Dorset measures from east to west and north to south, and has an area of...
, SomersetSomerset is a county in South West England. The county town is Taunton, which is in the south of the county. The ceremonial county of Somerset borders the counties of Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west...
, DevonDevon is a large county in England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, although that is an unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county itself and often indicating a traditional or historical context. The county shares borders with Cornwall to the west and Dorset and Somerset to...
, and "Wealas". This denotes "West Wales" rather than "North Wales", since modern Wales was governed at this time by Welsh kings rather than English earls, and since Cornwall, unlike Wales, would have formed a continuous bloc with the other territories mentioned. It therefore appears that by this time Cornwall had been incorporated into the English administrative structure as part of Godwin's earldom of Wessex. Elizabethan historian William Camden, in the Cornish section of his Britannia, notes that
"As for the Earles, none of British bloud are mentioned but onely Candorus (called by others Cadocus), who is accounted by the late writers the last Earle of Cornwall of British race".
There is no evidence, however that any such person had power in Cornwall at the time of the Norman conquest in 1066.
Norman conquest and after
Cornwall was included in the survey, initiated by William the Conqueror, the first Norman king of England, which became known as the Domesday BookThe Domesday Book is the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England, or William the Conqueror...
, where it is included as a county of the Kingdom of England. It was, however, most unusual in that nearly all land was held by one person, William's half-brother Robert of Mortain, who may have been the first Norman to bear the title, Earl of CornwallThe title of Earl of Cornwall was created several times in the Peerage of England before 1337, when it was superseded by the title Duke of Cornwall, which became attached to heirs-apparent to the throne.-Earls of Cornwall, 1st creation :...
.
Henry of Huntingdon, writing about 1129, included Cornwall in his list of counties of England in his History of the English.
On the Mappa MundiThe Hereford Mappa Mundi is a mappa mundi, of a form deriving from the T and O pattern, dating to ca. 1300. It is currently on display in Hereford Cathedral in Hereford, England.- Features :...
, circa 1300, now in Hereford CathedralThe current Hereford Cathedral, located at Hereford in England, dates from 1079. Its most famous treasure is Mappa Mundi, a mediæval map of the world dating from the 13th century. The cathedral is a Grade I listed building.-Origins:...
, Cornwall (as "Cornubia") is one of the very few regions within Britain to be named individually. The significance and relevance of this is, as yet, unclear; the map belongs to a category of map known as Complex (Great) World Maps and its depiction, within such a world context, should be seen in parallel with related contemporaneous material. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A10686710.
It has been claimed that the phrase "England and Cornwall" (or the equivalents in Latin and Norman French) was used in the laws of England until the Tudor periodThe Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...
. Use of the search facility of a scanned copy of the printed laws indicates that this is not correct. However, such phrases certainly have been used on occasion in post-Norman official documents referring to the Duchy of Cornwall:
Extracted from a commission of the first Duke of Cornwall, 1351:
"25 Edw. III to "John Dabernoun, our Steward and Sheriff of Cornwall greeting. On account of certain escheats we command you that you inquire by all the means in your power how much land and rents, goods and chattels, whom and in whom, and of what value they which those persons of Cornwall and England have, whose names we send in a schedule enclosed......"
The original document was not written in English; the phrase "Cornwall and England" may be a mistake of translation, or shorthand for "Cornwall and other parts of England", or it may possibly suggest that the writer believed Cornwall to be separate from England.
A similar situation exists today with the Isles of ScillyThe Isles of Scilly form an archipelago off the southwestern tip of the Cornish peninsula of the British Isles. Traditionally administered as part of the county of Cornwall, the islands have had a unitary authority council since 1889...
within Cornwall (i.e. Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly).
Tudor Period
The Italian Polydore VergilPolydore Vergil or Virgil was an Italian historian, otherwise known as PV Castellensis. He is a primary source for the early Tudor period, though his historical accuracy is often questioned.-Life:...
in his Anglica Historia, published in 1535 wrote that four peoples speaking four different languages inhabited Britain:
"the whole Countrie of Britain ...is divided into iiii partes; whereof the one is inhabited of EnglishmenThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
, the other of ScottesThe Scots people and an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland.An ethnic group, historically they emerged from an amalgamation of Picts, Gaels and Brythons....
, the third of WallshemenThe Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
, [and] the fowerthe of Cornishe peopleThe Cornish are the people of Cornwall, the most south-westerly part of England, and the United Kingdom. As an ethnic group, the Cornish are interpreted as modern Celts, the lineal descendants of the ancient Britons who inhabited southern and central Great Britain...
, which all differ emonge them selves, either in tongue, ...in manners, or ells in lawes and ordinaunces."
During the Tudor period some travellers regarded the Cornish as a separate cultural group, from which some modern observers conclude that they were a separate ethnic group. For example Lodovico Falier, an Italian diplomat at the Court of Henry VIII said, "The language of the English, Welsh and Cornish men is so different that they do not understand each other." He went on to give the alleged 'national characteristics' of the three peoples, saying for example "the Cornishman is poor, rough and boorish".
Another example is Gaspard de Coligny Chatillon – the French Ambassador in London - who wrote saying that England was not a united whole as it "contains Wales and Cornwall, natural enemies of the rest of England, and speaking a different language." His use of the phrase "the rest of" implies that he correctly regards both Wales and Cornwall as a part of England.
Some maps of the British Isles prior to the 17th century showed Cornwall (Cornubia / Cornwallia) as a territory on a par with WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
. However most post-date the incorporation of Wales as a principality of England. Examples include the maps of
Sebastian MunsterSebastian Münster , was a German cartographer, cosmographer, and a Hebrew scholar.- Life :Münster was born at Ingelheim near Mainz, the son of Andreas Munster. He was appointed to the University of Basel in 1527...
(1515),http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~genmaps/genfiles/COU_files/ENG/aaEng/munster_england-det_1550.jpghttp://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~genmaps/genfiles/COU_files/ENG/aaEng/munster_england_1550.htm Abraham Orteliusthumb|180px|right|Abraham Ortelius.Abraham Ortelius was a Flemish cartographer and geographer, generally recognised as the creator of the first modern atlas.-Life:...
,http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~genmaps/genfiles/COU_files/ENG/aaEng/ortelius_anglia-epitome_1595.htm and Girolamo Ruscelli.http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~genmaps/genfiles/COU_files/ENG/aaEng/ruscelli_angla_1561.htm Maps that depict Cornwall as a county of the Kingdom of England and Wales include
Gerardus Mercatorthumb|right|200px|Gerardus MercatorGerardus Mercator was a Flemish cartographer. He was born in Rupelmonde in the County of Flanders. He is remembered for the Mercator projection world map, which is named after him...
's 1564 atlas of Europe,http://www.walkingtree.com/mapscornwall.html and Christopher SaxtonChristopher Saxton was a British cartographer, probably born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire around 1540.Saxton grew up in the village of Dunningley, near Wakefield. As a young man he was employed as a servant of Dewsbury and Thornhill vicar John Rudd, who was a keen cartographer and passed on his skills to...
's 1579 map authorised by Queen Elizabeth IElizabeth I was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called the Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
.http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/june2002.html
A miniature "epitome" of Ortelius' map of England & Wales, published in 1595, names Cornwall, but this hardly means it is a separate political and administrative entity as the same map also displays Kent in an equivalent manner. Maps of Britain which display Cornwall usually in their legends do not refer to Cornwall, e.g. Lily 1548. This suggests that caution is needed in interpreting the status of places on maps.
17th & 18th Centuries
Recognition that several peoples lived within Britain continues through the 17th century. For example after the death of Elizabeth I in 1603, the Venetian ambassador wrote that the late queen had ruled over five different 'peoples': "English, Welsh, Cornish, Scottish ...and Irish".
Writing in 1616, diplomat Arthur Hopton stated:
"England is ...divided into 3 great Provinces, or Countries ...every of them speaking a several and different language, as English, Welsh and Cornish."
Wales was effectively annexed to the Kingdom of EnglandThe Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state and island country to the northwest of continental Europe. At its zenith, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands—what is today the legal unit of...
in the 16th century by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542, but references to 'England' in law were not presumed to include Wales (or indeed Berwick-upon-TweedBerwick-upon-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town in the county of Northumberland and is the northernmost town in England, on the east coast at the mouth of the River Tweed. It is situated 2.5 miles south of the Scottish border....
) until the Wales and Berwick Act 1746The Wales and Berwick Act 1746 was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain explicitly expressing that all future laws applying to England would likewise also be applicable to Wales and Berwick-upon-Tweed unless the body of the law explicitly stated otherwise...
. Certainly by this time the use of "England and Cornwall" had ceased - if it had ever existed.
Some would point to the lack of any formal union between England and Cornwall as evidence that Cornwall was already recognized as de facto a part of England; others would regard this as illustrating the suppression of CornishThe Cornish are the people of Cornwall, the most south-westerly part of England, and the United Kingdom. As an ethnic group, the Cornish are interpreted as modern Celts, the lineal descendants of the ancient Britons who inhabited southern and central Great Britain...
identity and culture by the English.
In 1769 the antiquary William BorlaseWilliam Borlase , Cornish antiquary and naturalist, was born at Pendeen in Cornwall, of an ancient family . From 1722 he was Rector of Ludgvan and died there in 1772.-Life and works:...
wrote that,
"Of this time we are to understand what Edward I. says (Sheringham. p. 129.) that Britain, Wales, and Cornwall, were the portion of BelinusBelinus the Great was a legendary king of the Britons, as recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth. He was the son of Dunvallo Molmutius and brother of Brennius. He was probably named after the ancient god Belenus.- Earning the crown :...
, elder son of Dunwallo, and that that part of the Island, afterwards called England, was divided in three shares, viz. Britain, which reached from the TweedThe River Tweed is long and flows primarily through the Borders region of England and Scotland. It rises on Tweedsmuir at Tweed's Well near where the Clyde, draining northwest, and the Annan draining south also rise. "Annan, Tweed and Clyde rise oot the ae hillside" as the Border saying has it....
, Westward, as far as the river ExThe River Exe in England rises near the village of Simonsbath, on Exmoor in Somerset, near the Bristol Channel coast, but flows more or less directly due south, so that most of its length lies in Devon. It reaches the sea at a substantial ria, the Exe Estuary, on the south coast of Devon...
; Wales inclosed by the rivers SevernThe River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at . It rises at an altitude of on Plynlimon near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales. It then flows through Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, with the county towns of Shrewsbury, Worcester, and Gloucester...
, and DeeThe River Dee is a long river in the United Kingdom. It travels through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between them....
; and Cornwall from the river Ex to the Land's-EndLand's End is a headland on the Penwith peninsula, located near Penzance in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is the most westerly point of the English mainland; the westernmost point of the island of Great Britain as a whole is Corrachadh Mòr, Ardnamurchan, Scotland which is farther west...
".
Here Borlase reproduces ideas from Geoffrey or Monmouth's account of pre-Roman Britain, a mythical history.
The 18th century writer, Richard GoughRichard Gough was an English antiquarian.-Life:He was born in London, where his father was a wealthy M.P. and director of the British East India Company. In 1751 he entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he began his work on British topography, published in 1768...
, noted this Cornish paradox by writing "Cornwall seems to be another Kingdom", in his "Camden's Britannia", 2nd ed.(4 vols; London, 1806). He stresses that it seems to be another kingdom, recognising that it is not.
During the eighteenth century, Samuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson , often referred to as Dr. Johnson, was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, essayist, moralist, novelist, literary critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. Johnson was a devout Anglican and political conservative, and has been...
created an ironic Cornish Declaration of IndependenceA declaration of independence is an assertion of the independence of an aspiring state or states. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state...
that he used in his essay Taxation no Tyranny His irony starts:
- "As political diseases are naturally contagious, let it be supposed, for a moment, that Cornwall, seized with the Philadelphian phrensy, may resolve to separate itself from the general system of the English constitution, and judge of its own rights in its own parliament. A congress might then meet at Truro, and address the other counties in a style not unlike the language of the American patriots ..."
The irony works because he sees the idea of Cornish independence as so absurd that no-one could countenance it. It includes such intentionally comic ideas as:
- "We are the acknowledged descendants of the earliest inhabitants of Britain, of men, who, before the time of history, took possession of the island desolate and waste, and, therefore, open to the first occupants. Of this descent, our language is a sufficient proof, which, not quite a century ago, was different from yours."
Curiously even this statement, designed to point fun at the ludicrous idea of Cornish independence, implicitly assumes that the inhabitants now east of Cornwall are mainly descended from other, later, groups. Modern genetic studies currently suggest that most of the English descend primarily from the pre-Saxon population and that the invaders formed a mainly male minority.
19th century
Popular Cornish sentiment during the 19th century appears to have been still strong. For example, Hamilton Jenkin records the reaction of a school pupil who was asked to describe Cornwall's situation replied: "he's kidged to a furren country from the top hand" - i.e. "it's joined to a foreign country from the upper part". This reply was "heard by the whole school with much approval, including old Peggy (the school-dame) herself."
The famous crime writer Wilkie CollinsWilliam Wilkie Collins was an English novelist, playwright, and author of short stories. He was hugely popular in his time and wrote 27 novels, more than 50 short stories, at least 15 plays, and over 100 pieces of non-fiction work...
described Cornwall as:
- "a county where, it must be remembered, a stranger is doubly a stranger, in relation to his provincial sympathies; where the national feeling is almost entirely merged into the local feeling; where a man speaks of himself as Cornish in much the same way that a Welshman speaks of himself as Welsh."
Chambers' Journal in 1861 described Cornwall as "one of the most un-English of English counties." - a sentiment echoed by the naturalist W.H. Hudson who also referred to it as "un-English" and said there were:
- "[few] Englishmen in Cornwall who do not experience that antipathy or sense of separation in mind from the people they live with, and are not looked upon as foreigners"
Cornish "shires"
Additionally, Cornwall was also divided into "HundredsCornwall was from Anglo-Saxon times until the 19th century divided into hundreds, some with the suffix shire as in Pydarshire, East and West Wivelshire and Powdershire which were first recorded as names between 1184-1187. In the Cornish language the word for "hundred" is keverang and is the...
", which often bore the name of "shire" in English. In Cornish, they were called kevrangow (sing. kevrang).
Although the name "shire", today implies some kind of county status, hundreds in some English counties often bore the suffix 'shire' as well (e.g. SalfordshireThe hundred of Salford was an ancient division of the historic county of Lancashire, in northern England. It was sometimes known as Salfordshire, the name alluding to its judicial centre being the township of Salford...
), but where English shires were split into hundreds each having their own constable, Cornish hundreds had constables at parish level.
The Kevrangow were not however, English hundreds: Triggshire came from Tricori 'three warbands', suggesting a military muster area capable of supporting three hundred fighting men.
The Cornish kevrang replicated England's shire system on a smaller scale. Although by the 15th century the shires of Cornwall had become hundreds, the administrative differences remained in place long after.
Current constitution status
Regardless of the question of whether Cornwall constitutes one of the historic counties of EnglandThe historic counties of England are ancient subdivisions of England established for administration by the Normans and in most cases based on earlier Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and shires. They were used for various functions for several hundred years and continue to form, albeit with considerably...
, an administrative countyAdministrative counties were a level of subnational division of England used for the purposes of local government from 1889 to 1974. They were created by the Local Government Act 1888 and abolished by the Local Government Act 1972...
of Cornwall was set up by the Local Government Act 1888The Local Government Act 1888 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which established county councils and county borough councils in England and Wales...
, which came into effect on 1 April 1889. This was replaced by a non-metropolitan county of Cornwall in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972The Local Government Act 1972 is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom that reformed local government in England and Wales on 1 April 1974....
, which includes it under the heading of "England". The Duke of Cornwall is still granted a number of unique statutory "privileges, exemptions, powers, rights and authority" in the Cornwall (Tamar Bridge) Act 1998, s.41, and other Acts. In addition the Treasury Solicitors agency for Bona Vacantia Division considers The Duchy of Cornwall to comprise the County of Cornwall.
The argument for non-English status
As noted above, English kings of the 10th century, from Athelstan onward, referred to themselves as rulers of both the English and the other nations within Britain, so there is a question as to whether Cornwall had similar autonomy to, in particular, Wales. During the latter part of the pre-Norman period, the eastern seaboard of modern day England became increasingly under the sway of the NorseNorsemen is used to refer to the group of people as a whole who speak one of the North Germanic languages as their native language. The meaning of Norseman was "people from the North"...
. Sweyn Forkbeard, the first Danish King of England, died a few weeks after his English opponent Ethelred the UnreadyÆthelred the Unready, or Æthelred II, , was a king of the English . He was a son of King Edgar and Queen Ælfthryth. His reign was much troubled by Danish Viking raiders. Æthelred was only about 10 when his half-brother Edward was murdered and was not personally suspected of participation...
had fled, so it is probable that he never properly took control of Cornwall. His son Canute never properly conquered or controlled Scotland or Wales, but he appears to have had some authority in Cornwall, for in 1027 his counsellor Lyfing (already bishop of Crediton) was appointed as bishop of CornwallThe Bishopric of Cornwall was created in about 833 AD. The later Bishops of Cornwall were sometimes referred to as the Bishops of St Germans. In 1050, Cornwall was merged with the Bishopric of Crediton and the Episcopal see was transferred to Exeter....
(St. Germans), beginning the merger which would later form the See of Exeter. While the map pictured, by William R. Shepherd (1926), appears to show Cornwall as not part of Canute's realm, this is an oversimplification, and has been corrected by more recent scholarship, as shown in David Hill's "An Atlas of Anglo-Saxon England", 1981. Ultimately, the Danes' control of Wessex was lost in 1042 with the death of both of Canute's sons (Edward the Confessor retook Wessex for the Anglo-Saxons) but nevertheless the historical possibility that Cornwall was not a fully subdued part of the English kingdom under the Danes is critical and is an argument that may be advanced for the idea that both the Anglo-Saxon and Danish kings had limitations on their political status in Cornwall in the 10th and 11th centuries.
When the Domesday SurveyThe Domesday Book is the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England, or William the Conqueror...
was initiated, by WilliamWilliam I , better known as William the Conqueror, was Duke of Normandy from AD 1035 and King of England from late 1066 to his death. William is sometimes also referred to as "William II" in relation to his position as the second Duke of Normandy of that name...
, in 1086, men were sent to "each shire" in his new Kingdom. This has to be seen within the context of matters of land, property and taxation and not as a means of misrepresenting what is understood, at that time, as a county. A shireA shire is a traditional division found in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in Australia.In Britain, "shire" is the original term for what is usually known as a county; the word county having been introduced at the Norman Conquest. The two are synonymous...
, coming under the jurisdiction of the sheriffA sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
, is known alternatively as sheriffdomA sheriffdom is a judicial district in Scotland.Since 1 January 1975 there have been six sheriffdoms. Previously sheriffdoms were composed of groupings of counties...
, shrievalty, or vicecomitatus and equates to the modern meaning of the word countyA county is a land area of local government within a country. A county may have cities and towns within its area. Originally, in continental Europe, a county was the land under the jurisdiction of a count .Counts are called earls in post-Celtic Britain, Ireland and France—the term is from Old...
.
Whether it was held by the Crown or granted to family or favourites, the Earldom (or County) of Cornwall (Comitatus Cornubiǽ) included all territorial revenues, rights and property which were held "as of the Honor". When held by the Crown, it was held not jure coronǽ but jure Comitatus - or jure Ducatus, when augmented to a Duchy—as of the Honor in manu Regis existente, and did not merge into the Crown. (N.B. some historians do not regard Cadoc of CornwallAccording to William of Worcester, writing in the fifteenth century, Cadoc was a survivor of the Cornish royal line at the time of the Norman Conquest of England in 1066 and was appointed as the first Earl of Cornwall by William the Conqueror....
and Robert of Mortain as being Earls of Cornwall.)
In 1328 the Earldom of Cornwall, extinct since the disgrace and execution of Piers Gaveston in 1312, was recreated and awarded to JohnJohn of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall was the son of Edward II of England and Isabella of France.He was born in 1316 at Eltham Palace, Kent and was created Earl of Cornwall on 6 October 1328. He was due to marry Maria, daughter of Ferdinand IV of Castile, but he died, aged 20, at Perth, before the...
, younger brother of King Edward III. In September 1336, shortly before he was due to marry, John died, so his heir was his brother the King, who at the beginning of March the following year proposed to Parliament that the Earldom should become a Royal Duchy, for the maintenance of the Sovereign's eldest son. This was agreed, and put into law by a charter dated the 17th of March 1337. A second charter, immediately following the "Great Charter," attempted to clarify the Duke's rights specifically within the County of Cornwall. In addition to extensive estates (among them a number of entire towns and villages) this included the administration and law enforcement of the entire county.
When the first Duke of Cornwall came of age in 1351, one of his first official acts was to carry out his own form of Domesday survey (Commission 25 Edward III). This has already been referred to above and confirms that Cornwall was not in England, when the Duke refers to his tenants and property as being in Cornwall and England. This implies Cornwall was at that time a distinct non-English territory, a province of the Britons, with people and rights. To dismiss this as a relic of mediaeval feudalism, as stated above, may be construed as seriously misrepresenting the rights of Cornwall and its people to be seen as one of the constituent British nations.
It has been claimed that sometime between 1858 and prior to the UK Parliament passing the Local Government Act in 1888, several Acts of Parliament were made to disappear, although this statement cannot be exactly true, as all English Acts of Parliament had been published together in book form in 1811. Allegedly, the pre-1st charter Letters Patent and the last two duchy charters were shredded, and the English translation of the remaining 1st duchy charter was altered from the original translation (these actions being kept secret, and the people of Cornwall never consulted). The 1st duchy charter (Constitutional Law 10) is still on the statute books but is marked by government as being ‘revised’ again in 1978. The alleged co-conspirators in the coup d’état were and are the Government of the Duchy of Cornwall and the Government of the United Kingdom.
The Council for Racial Equality in Cornwall website states the following:- Cornwall retains a unique and distinct constitutional relationship with the Crown, based on the Duchy of Cornwall and the Stannaries. For other purposes it is recognised as a Celtic region or nation and enjoys its own national flag.
On the 14th of July 2009, Dan RogersonDaniel John Rogerson is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for North Cornwall, first elected at the 2005 General election.-Early life:...
MP, of the Liberal DemocratsThe Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems or just Liberals, are a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom, formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party; the two parties had been in alliance for seven years, from shortly after the formation of...
, presented a Cornish 'breakaway' bill to the Parliament in Westminster - 'The Government of Cornwall Bill'. The bill proposes a devolved Assembly for Cornwall, similar to the Welsh and Scottish set up. The bill states that Cornwall should re-assert its rightful place within the United Kingdom. "Cornwall is a unique part of the country, and this should be reflected in the way that it is governed. The Bill would provide Cornwall for greater responsibility in areas such as agriculture, heritage, education, housing and economic sustainability. There is a political and social will for Cornwall to be recognised as its own nation. Constitutionally, Cornwall has the right to a level of self-Government, as demonstrated by the Cornish Foreshore CaseThe Cornish Foreshore Case was a case of arbitration between the Crown and the Duchy of Cornwall between 1854 and 1858. Officers of the Duchy successfully argued that the Duchy enjoyed many of the rights and prerogatives of a county palatine and that although the Duke of Cornwall was not granted...
in 1858 which confirmed that Cornwall is legally a Duchy which is extraterritorial to England. If the Government is going to recognise the right of Scotland and Wales to greater self-determination because of their unique cultural and political positions, then they should recognise the same right of Cornwall."
The argument for English county status
Some people reject all claims that Cornwall is, or ought to be, distinct from England. While recognising that there are local peculiarisms, they point out that YorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the British Isles. Because of its great size, functions were increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as...
, KentKent , originally Cantia, is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the River Thames estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent...
, and CheshireCheshire ; also known, archaically, as the County of Chester) is a ceremonial county in North West England. The traditional county town is the city of Chester, although Cheshire's largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Widnes, Runcorn, Macclesfield,...
(for example) also have local customs and identities that do not seem to undermine their essential Englishness. The legal claims concerning the Duchy, they argue, are without merit except as relics of mediaeval feudalism, and they contend that Stannary law applied not to Cornwall as a 'nation', but merely to the guild of tin miners. Rather, they argue that Cornwall has been not only in English possession, but part of England itself, either since Athelstan conquered it in 936, since the administrative centralisation of the Tudor dynastyThe House of Tudor was a prominent European royal house that ruled the Kingdom of England and its realms from 1485 until 1603. Its first monarch Henry Tudor, descended paternally from the rulers of the Welsh principality of Deheubarth, and maternally from a legitimised branch of the English royal...
, or since the creation of Cornwall County CouncilCornwall Council is the unitary authority for Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. The council has a tradition of large groups of independents, having been controlled by independents in the 1970s and 1980s....
in 1888. Finally, they agree with representatives of the DuchyThe duchy of Cornwall is, with the duchy of Lancaster, one of the two royal duchies in the United Kingdom. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch inherits the duchy and title of Duke of Cornwall at the time of his birth, or of his parent's succession to the throne...
itself that the Duchy is, in essence, a real estate company that serves to raise income for the Prince of Wales. They compare the situation of the Duchy of Cornwall with that of the Duchy of Lancaster, which has similar rights in LancashireLancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Lancashire County Council is based in Preston. However, Lancaster is still considered to be the county town...
, which is indisputably part of England. The proponents of such perspectives include not only Unionists, but most branches and agencies of government.
Below are some indications that Cornwall for more than the last thousand years has been governed as an integral part of England and in a way indistinguishable from other parts of England:
- It has been argued that Cornwall was absorbed into England rather than conquered.
- Several English charters dating from before 1066 show the king of England exercising effective power in Cornwall as in any other part of England. For example, in 960 King Eadgar gave land in "Tiwaernhel" to one of his thanes .
- From the mid-ninth century the Cornish Church acknowledged the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury
Also see Leaders of ChristianityThe Archbishop of Canterbury is the chief bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury, the see that churches must be in communion with in order to be...
, and in the 10th century the English king AthelstanAthelstan or Æthelstan , called the Glorious, was the King of England from 924/925 to 939. He was the son of King Edward the Elder, and nephew of Æthelflæd of Mercia...
created a diocese of Cornwall centred on St GermansSt Germans is a village in east Cornwall, England. It stands on the St Germans River or Lynher River, part of the Tamar Estuary. It takes its name from the St. German's Priory Church of St Germanus. This magnificent and ancient Norman church is adjacent to the Port Eliot estate of the present Earl...
. In 1050, King Eadward subsumed the diocese of Cornwall under that of ExeterExeter is a city and district in Devon, England; it is the county town of Devon. Exeter is located approximately northeast of Plymouth, and southwest of Bristol, on the River Exe. The city has a population of 111,076 according to the 2001 Census....
.
- In 1051, as noted above, Cornwall was granted with Devon, Somerset and Dorset to Earl Odda
Odda of Deerhurst was an Anglo-Saxon nobleman active in the period from 1013 onwards. He became a leading magnate in 1051, following the exile of Godwin, Earl of Wessex and his sons and the confiscation of their property and earldoms, when King Edward the Confessor appointed Odda as earl over a...
, indicating that Cornwall had by then been integrated into the normal English system of local government.
- The Domesday Book
The Domesday Book is the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England, or William the Conqueror...
, compiled in 1086, lists all territory in Great Britain under Norman control at that time, mostly listing individual manors grouped by county. Scotland is excluded, and so are nominally English areas then under Scottish control, such as Northumberland and most of Cumberland. Wales is also excluded, except for areas the Normans had managed to capture, such as Flintshire. Cornwall is not excluded, and, unlike, for example, the later LancashireLancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Lancashire County Council is based in Preston. However, Lancaster is still considered to be the county town...
(parts of which were listed with CheshireCheshire ; also known, archaically, as the County of Chester) is a ceremonial county in North West England. The traditional county town is the city of Chester, although Cheshire's largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Widnes, Runcorn, Macclesfield,...
, other parts with YorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the British Isles. Because of its great size, functions were increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as...
) is given a listing in the normal Domesday county-based style.
- The records of the medieval eyres, the court sessions of the king’s itinerant judges. Maitland FW (1888) Select pleas of the crown prints examples from Cornwall. The eyre records show Cornwall and England with common judicial arrangements from the police duties of tithings at the lowest level of administration to the highest itinerant courts.
- Before the creation of the Duchy, the assets of the Earl of Cornwall (including privileges such as bailiff rights, stannaries and wrecks) were subject to Crown escheat
Escheat is a common law doctrine that operates to ensure that property is not left in limbo and ownerless. It originally referred to a number of situations where a legal interest in land was destroyed by operation of law, so that the ownership of the land reverted to the immediately superior...
, as in the case of Edmund, 2nd Earl of CornwallEdmund of Almain , was the second Earl of Cornwall of the 7th creation.-Early life:Edmund was born at Berkhamsted Castle on 26 December 1249, the second and only surviving son of Richard, 1st Earl of Cornwall and his wife Sanchia of Provence, daughter of Ramon Berenguer, Count of Provence, and...
(died 1300)
- The Patent Rolls
The Patent Rolls are primary sources for English history, a record of the King of England's correspondence, starting in 1202....
which inter alia record the King and his council governing Cornwall after the creation of the Dukedom in 1337. Examples are the inquiries into the use of the English-controlled port of Calais in 1474 (when officials of all counties, including Cornwall, were required to submit returns), the King granting licences to trade to people in Cornwall in 1364, the Duke of Cornwall complaining in 1371 to the King's CouncilA privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a nation on how to exercise their executive authority, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government...
about offences by some local men in Cornwall, and in 1380 the King's Council ordering the Sheriff of Cornwall to arrest and imprison an offender.
- The 1337 charters describe Cornwall as a county, using the same word (comitatus) as that used to describe other counties such as Devon and Surrey.
- Cornwall sent members to the Parliament of England
The Parliament of England was the legislature of the Kingdom of England. The English Parliament traces its origins to the Anglo-Saxon Witenagemot. In 1066, William of Normandy brought a feudal system, by which he sought advice of a council of tenants-in-chief and ecclesiastics before making laws...
from the late thirteenth century when that parliament originated.
- Some national policies in the Middle Ages, such as the taxation of boroughs, or the setting of prices for wool, were applied on a county-by-county basis- including Cornwall.
- Medieval taxes such as the Papal 1291 taxation, the 1377 poll tax and the tax for defence against "the cruel malice of the Scots" in 1496-7 include Cornwall among the other English counties.
- The subsidies/taxes and musters of the Tudor period.
- The grants of fairs and markets in Cornwall by the king; for example, Penzance in 1406.
Cornwall is currently in the South West EnglandSouth West England is a constituency of the European Parliament. For 2009 it elects 6 MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation, reduced from 7 in 2004.- Boundaries :...
European Parliament constituencyIn six European Union Member States , the national territory is divided into a number of constituencies for European elections. In the remaining Member States the whole country forms a single electoral area...
, which also takes in GibraltarGibraltar is a self-governing British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula and Europe at the entrance of the Mediterranean overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar. The territory covers and shares a land border with Spain to the north...
.
The government has said it will not be undertaking a review of the constitutional status of Cornwall and will not be changing the present status of the county; the justice minister, Michael Wills, replying to a question from Andrew George MP, stated that “Cornwall is an administrative county of England, electing MPs to the UK Parliament, and is subject to UK legislation. It has always been an integral part of the Union. The Government have no plans to alter the constitutional status of Cornwall.”
The Duchy of Cornwall
The Earldom of Cornwall was made a Duchy in 1337, the Duke obtaining greater rights over Cornwall than the Earls had previously exercised. These increased powers over Cornwall included the right to appoint SheriffsThe High Sheriff is, or was, a law enforcement position in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. In England and Wales, the High Sheriff is an unpaid, partly ceremonial post appointed by The Crown through a Warrant from the Privy Council. In Cornwall the High Sheriff is appointed by the...
, bona vacantiaBona vacantia is a common law doctrine in the United Kingdom under which ownerless property passes by law to the Crown...
, treasure troveA treasure trove may broadly be defined as an amount of gold, silver, gemstones, money, jewellery, or any valuable collection found hidden underground or in places such as cellars or attics, where the treasure seems old enough for it to be presumed that the true owner is dead and the heirs...
, a separate exchequer, and such forth. Most of these rights are still exercised by the Duchy. The Kilbrandon ReportThe Royal Commission on the Constitution, also referred to as the Kilbrandon Commission or Kilbrandon Report, was a long-running royal commission set up by Harold Wilson's Labour government to examine the structures of the constitution of the United Kingdom and the British Islands and the...
(1969–1971) into the British constitutionA constitution is a set of rules for government—often codified as a written document—that establishes principles of an autonomous political entity. In the case of countries, this term refers specifically to a national constitution defining the fundamental political principles, and establishing the...
recommends that, when referring to CornwallCornwall is a county of 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...
, official sources should cite the Duchy not the County. This was suggested in recognition of its constitutional position.
In 1780 Edmund BurkeEdmund Burke PC was an Anglo-Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher who, after relocating to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as a member of the Whig party. He is mainly remembered for his opposition to the French Revolution...
sought to curtail further the power of the Crown by removing the various principalities which existed.
… the five several distinct principalities besides the supreme …. If you travel beyond Mount Edgcumbe, you find him [the king] in his incognito, and he is duke of Cornwall …. Thus every one of these principalities has the apparatus of a kingdom …. Cornwall is the best of them….
Some Cornish peopleThe Cornish are the people of Cornwall, the most south-westerly part of England, and the United Kingdom. As an ethnic group, the Cornish are interpreted as modern Celts, the lineal descendants of the ancient Britons who inhabited southern and central Great Britain...
, including Cornish SolidarityCornish Solidarity is a cross party organisation that is fighting for 'Cornish Rights' including the recognition of the ethnic Cornish as a national minority and for more Cornish autonomy in the form of a Cornish Assembly. It was first formed as a pressure group after the closure of South Crofty,...
and the group claiming to be the Revived Cornish Stannary ParliamentThe Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament , is a revived Cornish Stannary Parliament. It was established in 1974 and has campaigned since then against the government of the United Kingdom's position on the constitutional status of Cornwall...
, argue that Cornwall has a de jureDe jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact"....
status apart as a sovereign Duchy extraterritorial to England. A commonly cited basis for this argument is a case of arbitration between the Crown and the Duchy of Cornwall (1856 - 1857) in which the Officers of the Duchy successfully argued that the Duchy enjoyed many of the rights and prerogatives of a County palatineA county palatine is an area ruled by a count palatine with special authority and autonomy from the rest of the kingdom...
and that although the duke was not granted Royal JurisdictionJurisdiction is the practical authority granted to a formally constituted legal body or to a political leader to deal with and make pronouncements on legal matters and, by implication, to administer justice within a defined area of responsibility.Alternatively, jurisdiction is the authority given...
, was considered to be quasi-sovereign within his Duchy of Cornwall.
The arbitration, as instructed by the Crown, was based on legal argument and documentation, led to the Cornwall Submarine Mines Act of 1858. The Officers of the Duchy, based on its researches, made this submission:
- That Cornwall, like Wales, was at the time of the Conquest, and was subsequently treated in many respects as distinct from England.
- That it was held by the Earls of Cornwall with the rights and prerogative of a County Palatine, as far as regarded the Seignory or territorial dominion.
- That the Dukes of Cornwall have from the creation of the Duchy enjoyed the rights and prerogatives of a County Palatine, as far as regarded seignory or territorial dominion, and that to a great extent by Earls.
- That when the Earldom was augmented into a Duchy, the circumstances attending to its creation, as well as the language of the Duchy Charter, not only support and confirm natural presumption, that the new and higher title was to be accompanied with at least as great dignity, power, and prerogative as the Earls enjoyed, but also afforded evidence that the Duchy was to be invested with still more extensive rights and privileges.
- The Duchy Charters have always been construed and treated, not merely by the Courts of Judicature, but also by the Legislature of the Country, as having vested in the Dukes of Cornwall the whole territorial interest and dominion of the Crown in and over the entire County of Cornwall.
However, the term 'county palatineA county palatine is an area ruled by a count palatine with special authority and autonomy from the rest of the kingdom...
' appears not to have been used historically of Cornwall, and the duchy did not have as much autonomy as the County Palatine of DurhamCounty Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in North East England. The county town is Durham.The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington. The county has an industrial heritage and its economy was historically based on coal and iron mining...
, which was ruled by the Prince-Bishop of DurhamThe Bishop of Durham is the Anglican bishop responsible for the diocese of Durham in the province of York. The Diocese is one of the oldest in the country and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords...
. However, whilst not specifically called a county palatine, the Officers of the Duchy made the observation (Duchy Preliminary Statement - Cornish Foreshore Dispute 1856): "The Dukes also had their own escheators in Cornwall, and it is deserving of notice that in the saving clause of the Act of Escheators, 1 Henry VIII., c. 8, s. 5 (as is the case in numerous other acts of Parliament), the Duchy of Cornwall is classed with counties undoubtedly palatinate."
The Stannaries and their revival
Detailed article: Stannary Courts and ParliamentsThe Stannary Parliaments and Stannary Courts were legislative and legal institutions in Cornwall and in Devon , England. The Stannary Courts administered equity for the region's tin-miners and tin mining interests, and they were also courts of record for the towns dependent on the mines...
and Revived Cornish Stannary ParliamentThe Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament , is a revived Cornish Stannary Parliament. It was established in 1974 and has campaigned since then against the government of the United Kingdom's position on the constitutional status of Cornwall...
Since 1974, a group has claimed to be a revived Cornish StannaryThe Stannary Parliaments and Stannary Courts were legislative and legal institutions in Cornwall and in Devon , England. The Stannary Courts administered equity for the region's tin-miners and tin mining interests, and they were also courts of record for the towns dependent on the mines...
Parliament and have the ancient right of Cornish tin-miners' assemblies to veto legislation from WestminsterThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
. In 1977 the Plaid CymruPlaid Cymru is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union.Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...
MP Dafydd WigleyDafydd Wigley is a Welsh politician. He served as Plaid Cymru Member of Parliament for Caernarfon from 1974 until 2001 and as an Assembly Member for Caernarfon from 1999 until 2003...
in Parliament asked the Attorney General for England and Wales if he would provide the date upon which enactments of the Charter of Pardon of 1508 were rescinded. The reply, received on 14 May 1977 and now held at the National Library of WalesThe National Library of Wales is the national legal deposit library of Wales, located in Aberystwyth. It is one of the Assembly Government Sponsored Bodies....
, stated that a Stannator's right to veto Westminster legislation had never been formally withdrawn.
Moves for a change of constitutional status
Campaigns for fuller regional autonomy
An early campaign for an independent Cornwall was put forward during the first English Civil WarThe English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The first and second civil wars pitted the supporters of King Charles I against the supporters of the Long Parliament, while the third war saw fighting between supporters of...
by Sir Richard Grenville, 1st BaronetSir Richard Grenville, 1st Baronet was a Cornish Royalist leader during the English Civil War.He was the third son of Sir Bernard Grenville , and a grandson of the famous seaman, Sir Richard Grenville...
. He tried to use "Cornish particularist sentiment" to gather support for the Royalist cause. The Cornish were fighting for their Royalist privileges, notably the DuchyA duchy is a territory, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess.Some duchies were sovereign in areas that would become unified realms only during the Modern era...
and Stannaries and he put a plan to the Prince which would, if implemented, have created a semi-independent Cornwall.
In contrast to the arguments that Cornwall is already de jure autonomous, thanks to the Duchy and Stannary parliament, various ongoing political movements are seeking to change Cornwall's constitutional status. Mebyon KernowMebyon Kernow is a left-of-centre political party in the United Kingdom. The main objective of MK is to establish greater autonomy in Cornwall, through the establishment of a legislative Cornish Assembly. Mebyon Kernow have no MPs in the House of Commons, nor is the party present in the unelected...
, for example, has for many years sought for Cornwall the position of a first-order (NUTS 1The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics is a geocode standard for referencing the subdivisions of countries for statistical purposes. The standard is developed and regulated by the European Union, and thus only covers the member states of the EU in detail...
) EU regionThe European Union created ahe Committee of the Regions to represent Regions of Europe as the layer of EU government administration directly below the nation-state level...
, which would put Cornwall on the same statistical level as ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
, Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and it is situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
and the Regions of EnglandThe region, also known as the government office region, is currently the highest tier of sub-national government entity of England, used by central Government for statistical purposes. One of the regions, London, has a directly elected assembly...
.
In the same vein, the Cornish Constitutional ConventionThe Cornish Constitutional Convention was formed in November 2000 with the objective of establishing a devolved Cornish Assembly . The Convention is a cross-party, cross-sector association with a strong consensus of support both in Cornwall and elsewhere. It is not campaigning for any form of...
— composed of a number of political groups in Cornwall (including Mebyon Kernow) — gathered about 50,000 signatures in 2000 on a petition to create a Cornish AssemblyThe Cornish Assembly is a proposed devolved regional assembly for Cornwall in the United Kingdom along the lines of the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly.-Overview:...
resembling the National Assembly for WalesThe National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to make legislation in Wales. The Assembly comprises 60 members, who are known as Assembly Members, or AMs...
. The petition was undertaken in the context of an ongoing debate on whether to devolve power to the English regionsThe region, also known as the government office region, is currently the highest tier of sub-national government entity of England, used by central Government for statistical purposes. One of the regions, London, has a directly elected assembly...
, of which Cornwall is currently part of the South WestSouth West England is one of the regions of England. It is the largest such region in terms of area, covering including Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. It has a population of almost five million, and includes the area often known as...
. Cornwall Council's Feb 2003 MORIIpsos MORI is the second largest survey research organisation in the UK, formed by two of the UK's leading survey companies in October 2005. MORI was originally founded in 1969 by Robert Worcester, and was the largest independent research organisation in the United Kingdom...
poll showed 55% in favour of an elected, fully-devolved regional assembly for Cornwall and 13% against. (Previous result: 46% in favour in 2002). However the same MORI poll indicated an equal number of respondents in favour of a South West Regional Assembley ).
The campaign has the support of all five Cornish Lib Dem MPs, Mebyon KernowMebyon Kernow is a left-of-centre political party in the United Kingdom. The main objective of MK is to establish greater autonomy in Cornwall, through the establishment of a legislative Cornish Assembly. Mebyon Kernow have no MPs in the House of Commons, nor is the party present in the unelected...
, and Cornwall Council.
Lord Whitty, as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Environment, Transport and the RegionsThe Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions was a UK Cabinet position created in 1997, with responsibility for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions ...
, in the House of LordsThe House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is also commonly referred to as "the Lords". Parliament comprises the Sovereign, the House of Commons , and the Lords...
, recognised that Cornwall has a "special case" for devolutionDevolution is the statutory granting of powers from the central government of a Sovereign state to government at a subnational level, such as a regional, local, or state level...
. and on a visit to Cornwall deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said "Cornwall has the strongest regional identity in the UK."
To some extent the moves for autonomy in Cornwall have often been tied up with cultural/linguistic revivalist organisations. Rosalie Eastlake in a 1981 paper suggested that:
- In each historic period, economic exploitation and cultural alienation succeeded one another, until the nineteenth century when the mining economy of Cornwall became an essential part of the English industrial system. The twentieth century offers either the prospect of total incorporation into England, or a cultural revival spearheaded by the several small, national and cultural organisations which now exist.
However, over twenty years later, it seems unclear whether Cornwall is due for total incorporation, or will retain some residual or future autonomy.
Cornwall's distinctiveness as a national, as opposed to regional, minority has been periodically recognised by major British papers. For example, a GuardianThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
editorial in 1990 pointed to these differences, and warned that they should be constitutionally recognised:
- " Smaller minorities also have equally proud visions of themselves as irreducibly Welsh, Irish, Manx or Cornish. These identities are distinctly national in ways which proud people from Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the British Isles. Because of its great size, functions were increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as...
, much less proud people from BerkshireBerkshire is a county in the South East of England. It is also often referred to as the Royal County of Berkshire because of the presence of the royal residence of Windsor Castle in the county; this usage, which dates to the 19th century at least, was recognised by the Queen in 1958, and Letters...
will never know. Any new constitutional settlement which ignores these factors will be built on uneven ground."
The Guardian also carried an article in November 2008 titled Self-rule for Cornwall written by the human rights campaigner Peter TatchellPeter Gary Tatchell is an Australian-born British human rights activist, who gained international celebrity for his attempted citizen's arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 1999 and 2001, on charges of torture and other human rights abuses.Tatchell was selected as Labour Party...
.
- " Like Wales and Scotland, Cornwall considers itself a separate Celtic nation – so why shouldn't it have independence?"
Tatchell concluded his article with the question...
- "Cornwall was once separate and self-governing. If the Cornish people want autonomy and it would improve their lives, why shouldn't they have self-rule once again? Malta
Malta , officially the Republic of Malta , is a densely populated developed European country in the European Union. The Southern European island nation is an archipelago that includes the inhabited islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino, along with a number of smaller, uninhabited islands...
, with only 400,000 people, is an independent state within the EU. Why not Cornwall?"
Cornish cultural, civic and ethnic nationalism
While nearly all agree that Cornwall, along with Scotland, Wales and parts of Northern EnglandNorthern England, also known as the North of England, or simply The North is a cultural region or identity of England in the United Kingdom. It is not a government administrative region, but rather an amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the...
forms part of the British periphery in economic and social terms, some observers express surprise at enduring sentiments in Cornwall; Adrian Lee, for example, while considering Cornwall to be part of England, also considers it to have a unique status within England:
- The history of Cornwall as one of England's peripheral areas is relatively little known, as is the fact that it is the only part of England to have given rise to and sustained a nationalist/autonomist movement that has been neither spurious nor ephemeral.
Some Cornish peopleThe Cornish are the people of Cornwall, the most south-westerly part of England, and the United Kingdom. As an ethnic group, the Cornish are interpreted as modern Celts, the lineal descendants of the ancient Britons who inhabited southern and central Great Britain...
will, in addition to making the legal or constitutional arguments mentioned above, stress that the Cornish are a distinct ethnic group, that people in Cornwall typically refer to 'England' as beginning east of the TamarThe Tamar is a river in South West England, that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall . At its mouth, the Tamar flows into the Hamoaze where it joins with the River Lynher before entering Plymouth Sound...
, and that there is a Cornish languageThe Cornish language is one of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages. The language continued to function as a community language in parts of Cornwall until the late 18th century, and a process to revive the language was started in the early 20th century, continuing to this day.The revival of...
. For the first time in a UK Census, those wishing to describe their ethnicity as Cornish were given their own code number (06) on the 2001 UK CensusA nationwide census, commonly known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census....
form, alongside those for people wishing to describe themselves as EnglishThe English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity as a people is of early medieval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn....
, WelshThe Welsh people are an ethnic group and nation associated with Wales and the Welsh language.John Davies argues that the origin of the "Welsh nation" can be traced to the late 4th and early 5th centuries, following the Roman departure from Britain, although Brythonic Celtic languages seem to have...
, IrishThe Irish people are a Western European ethnic group who originate in Ireland, in north western Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolgs, Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesians The Irish...
or ScottishThe Scots people and an ethnic group indigenous to Scotland.An ethnic group, historically they emerged from an amalgamation of Picts, Gaels and Brythons....
. About 34,000 people in Cornwall and 3,500 people in the rest of the UK wrote on their census forms in 2001 that they considered their ethnic group to be Cornish. This represented nearly 7% of the population of Cornwall and is therefore a significant phenomenonA phenomenon is any observable occurrence. In popular usage, a phenomenon often refers to an extraordinary event. In scientific usage, a phenomenon is any event that is observable, however commonplace it might be, even if it requires the use of instrumentation to observe it...
. Although happy with this development, campaigners expressed reservations about the lack of publicity surrounding the issue, the lack of a clear tick-box for the Cornish option on the census and the need to deny being British in order to write "Cornish" in the field provided. There have been calls for the tick box option to be extended to the Cornish for the 2011 Census, as a Welsh and English tick box option was recently agreed by the government.
Conspiracy theory
The "Cornish conspiracy theory" is claimed to be a long-running conspiracy by the EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
establishmentThe Establishment is a term used to refer to the traditional ruling class elite and the structures of society that they control. The term can be used to describe specific entrenched elite structures in specific institutions, but is usually informal in application...
to deprive Cornish peopleThe Cornish are the people of Cornwall, the most south-westerly part of England, and the United Kingdom. As an ethnic group, the Cornish are interpreted as modern Celts, the lineal descendants of the ancient Britons who inhabited southern and central Great Britain...
of their rights, identity and autonomy. It is claimed that the main reason why the Cornish are being denied recognition of their identity is to prevent any public debate or official enquiry into the constitutional status of Cornwall regarding the Duchy of CornwallThe duchy of Cornwall is, with the duchy of Lancaster, one of the two royal duchies in the United Kingdom. The eldest son of the reigning British monarch inherits the duchy and title of Duke of Cornwall at the time of his birth, or of his parent's succession to the throne...
, sometimes referred to as the "Cornish Question". Cornish historians point to the fact that in 1508 the 'Charter of Pardon' was granted by Henry VIIHenry VII was the King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizing the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death on 21 April 1509, as the first monarch of the Tudor dynasty.Henry was successful in restoring the power and stability of the English monarchy after the political upheavals of the Wars...
to give CornwallCornwall is a county of 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...
a legal right to its own Parliament with the power of veto over acts, statutes, laws, etc, passed by the WestminsterThe Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom and British overseas territories. It alone has parliamentary sovereignty, conferring upon it ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories...
government. These rights were granted in perpetuity and cannot be lawfully rescinded, but today are ignored by the UK government.
In 1858 the Cornish Foreshore CaseThe Cornish Foreshore Case was a case of arbitration between the Crown and the Duchy of Cornwall between 1854 and 1858. Officers of the Duchy successfully argued that the Duchy enjoyed many of the rights and prerogatives of a county palatine and that although the Duke of Cornwall was not granted...
(a case of arbitration between the CrownThe Crown is a corporation sole that in certain countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, as well as in any provincial or state sub-divisions thereof, represents the legal embodiment of executive government...
and the Duchy of Cornwall) confirmed that the Duke of CornwallThe Dukedom of Cornwall was the first dukedom created in the peerage of England.The present Duke of Cornwall is The Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning British monarch .-History:...
, was considered to be a quasi-sovereign within the Duchy of Cornwall territory (Cornwall), but today the Duchy of Cornwall describes itself as a private estate which funds the public, charitable and private activities of the Prince of WalesPrince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the Heir Apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland...
and his family. It is claimed that at some point after 1858, the officers of the Duchy, with the support of members of the UK Government, developed a plan to portray the Duchy of Cornwall as a 'private estate'.
More recently in 2007 the Cornish were the only UK ethnic/cultural group and indigenous minority to be specifically mentioned for exclusion from the Framework Convention for the Protection of National MinoritiesThe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities was signed on February 1995 by 22 member States of the Council of Europe ....
by the British government.
- The Crown Proceedings Act 1947
The Crown Proceedings Act 1947 is an Act of Parliament passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allowed, for the first time, civil actions against the Crown to be brought in the same way as against any other party...
Section 40, 2g, gives the heir to the throne, the Duke of CornwallThe Dukedom of Cornwall was the first dukedom created in the peerage of England.The present Duke of Cornwall is The Prince of Wales, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II, the reigning British monarch .-History:...
, the authority to "control or otherwise intervene in proceedings that affect his rights, property and profits".
- The 1971 Kilbrandon Report
The Royal Commission on the Constitution, also referred to as the Kilbrandon Commission or Kilbrandon Report, was a long-running royal commission set up by Harold Wilson's Labour government to examine the structures of the constitution of the United Kingdom and the British Islands and the...
into the British constitution recommended that, when referring to Cornwall - "official sources should cite the Duchy not the County" - this was suggested in recognition of its constitutional position.
- In 1977 Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union.Plaid Cymru was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...
MP Dafydd WigleyDafydd Wigley is a Welsh politician. He served as Plaid Cymru Member of Parliament for Caernarfon from 1974 until 2001 and as an Assembly Member for Caernarfon from 1999 until 2003...
received confirmation in Parliament that the Stannators right to veto Westminster legislation is still valid.
- In July 1997 Andrew George MP attempted to raise a question concerning the Duchy of Cornwall in the House of Commons but was prevented from doing so by an injunction that disallows MPs raising any questions in Parliament that are in any way related to the Duchy. The injunction prevents MPs asking questions regarding the "role, rights, powers and privileges" of the Dukes of Cornwall in Cornwall - reference Tamar Bridge Act 1998, s.41 and letter from the House of Commons Library to Andrew George MP, dated 16 July 1997.
- On 12 December 2001 a petition with 50,000 signatures was presented to 10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street is the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury and hence Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...
in favour of more autonomy for Cornwall - a Cornish AssemblyThe Cornish Assembly is a proposed devolved regional assembly for Cornwall in the United Kingdom along the lines of the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly.-Overview:...
- so far this has not been implemented by the Government.
- In June 2005 the government allocated £80,000 per year for three years of direct central government funding to the Cornish language
The Cornish language is one of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages. The language continued to function as a community language in parts of Cornwall until the late 18th century, and a process to revive the language was started in the early 20th century, continuing to this day.The revival of...
. Although pleased with this development, Cornish language speakers point to the fact that during the same period for example the Ulster-Scots language is being allocated £1,000,000 per year of direct government funding.
- The National History Curriculum officially starts with the Roman
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
period, rather than earlier civilisations without their own written records, such as the Celts.
- In 2007 it was announced by the Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.-Overview:...
that a Cornish tick box would be refused on the next 2011 Census because "insufficient requirement for the data had been expressed by Census users" and "national identity and ethnicity questions will contain tick boxes only for the largest groups*. This is despite the fact that other groups such as Irish TravellerIrish Travellers are a traditionally nomadic people of Irish origin living predominantly in Ireland, Great Britain, and the United States. Among themselves, Travellers refer to themselves as Pavees. Derogatory terms are sometimes used to refer to them by non-Travellers, such as 'pikeys',...
s for example are recognised on the form and the Cornish had previously been allocated the ethnic code of '06' for the 2001 Census - ref. United Kingdom Census 2001 Ethnic Codes.
- There has been official Government (HM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy.- History :...
) approval for the leasing of Cornish heritage sites such as Tintagel CastleTintagel Castle is a castle currently in ruins found on Tintagel Island, located near the village of Tintagel in Cornwall, England, UK. The 'Island' is in fact a peninsula subject to erosion by the sea. The site was perhaps originally a Roman settlement, though the remains of the castle that stand...
by the commercial Duchy of Cornwall to the state subsidised organisation known as English HeritageEnglish Heritage . is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government with a broad remit of managing the historic built environment of England. It is currently sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
. On January 18, 2002, at TruroTruro is a city in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, and is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population of 20,920. It is the only city in the county, and the most southerly city in Great Britain...
Crown Court, three members of the Cornish Stannary ParliamentThe Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament , is a revived Cornish Stannary Parliament. It was established in 1974 and has campaigned since then against the government of the United Kingdom's position on the constitutional status of Cornwall...
attempted to raise issues regarding the history of the Duchy of Cornwall, but were prevented from doing so when a Public Interest ImmunityPublic Interest Immunity is a principle of English common law under which the English courts can grant a court order allowing one litigant to refrain from disclosing evidence to the other litigants where disclosure would be damaging to the public interest...
certificate (gagging order) was presented to the court by the Crown Prosecution ServiceThe Crown Prosecution Service, or CPS, is a non-ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for public prosecutions of people charged with criminal offences in England and Wales. Its role is similar to that of the longer-established Crown Office in Scotland, and the...
.
See also
External links