Timeline of Cornish history

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This timeline summarizes significant events in the History of Cornwall.

Cornwall's earliest recorded history pre-dates the Roman invasions and conquests of Britain. In the Iron Age Cornwall was part of the Celtic Kingdom of Dumnonia. It is likely that the western half of the kingdom formed part of what we now know as 'Kernow' (in Cornish) or 'Cornwall' in English. 'Dumnonia' is how the Romans described the kingdom in Latin - there is no record of what the Cornish called it at the time. The Romans absorbed the Dumnonii into their Empire, and the Cornish were well represented in the capital of the Romanised 'civitates', at the Roman garrison city of 'Isca Dumnoniorum' or modern day Exeter.

Cornwall became a separate independent Celtic kingdom in its own right only after the Romans had left Britain in the early fifth century AD. Dumnonia as a viable political entity collapsed under the onslaught of the Germanic invaders which we know as the Angles and Saxons and its remnants ruled by its indigenous Romano-British aristocracy retreated westwards towards and across the natural frontier of the River Tamar to survive as an independent State long after the fall of Rome. The Saxon Kingdom of Wessex eventually conquered the eastern half of Dumnonia to form the marcher County of Devon but there was no major military invasion of Celtic Cornwall.

[edit] 4000BC

[edit] 2000BC

  • Mining in Cornwall has existed from the early Bronze Age around 2150BC and it is thought that Cornwall was visited by metal traders from the eastern Mediterranean. It has been suggested that the Cassiterides or "Tin Islands" as recorded by Herodotus in 445BC may have referred to the Scilly Islands and Cornwall as when first discovered they were both thought to have been islands.[1][2]

[edit] 330BC

  • Pytheas of Massilia (now Marseilles), a Greek merchant and explorer, circumnavigated the British Isles between about 330 and 320 BC and produced the first written record of the islands. He described the Cornish as civilised, skilled farmers, usually peaceable, but formidable in war and also described the Cornish trade in tin with the Mediterranean. Pytheas studied the production and processing of tin in Cornwall and recorded the earliest reference to the presence of a civil administration in Cornwall. He recorded the local name of the islands in Greek as Prettanike - this supports theories that the coastal inhabitants of Cornwall may have called themselves Pretani or Priteni, 'Painted' or 'Tattooed' people.[3]

[edit] 100BC

[edit] 400

[edit] 500

  • 500 The Kingdom of Cornwall emerged around the 6th century which included the tribes of the Dumnonii and the Cornish Cornovii.[4].
  • 577 Battle of Deorham Down near Bristol results in the separation of the West Welsh (the Cornish) from the Welsh by the advance of the Saxons. Earliest Cornish Saints systematically convert Cornwall to Christianity, a considerable period before the conversion of the Anglo-Saxon peoples of England (the territory east of the River Tamar). These early monastic foundations were started by Christian preachers or Christian Druids from other Celtic lands, mainly Ireland (as in the cases of Saint Piran and Saint Petroc), Wales (as in the case of Saint Lewis or Gluvias) and Britanny (as in the case of Saint Mylor).

[edit] 600

  • 664 The Synod of Whitby determines that England is again an ecclesiastical province of Rome, with its formal structure of dioceses and parishes. The Celtic Church of Dumnonia is not party to the decision and the Cornish Church remains monastic in nature.

[edit] 700

[edit] 800

  • 814 The Anglo Saxon Chronicle states King Egbert "laid waste to Cornwall from east to west"
  • 825 The Battle of Gafulforda, unidentified but perhaps Galford, near Lydford. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle only states: "The West Wealas (Cornish) and the men of Defnas (Devon) fought at Gafalforda".[5][6]
  • 838 The Cornish in alliance with the Danes were defeated by Egbert of Wessex at Hingston Down (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). In 838 the eastern Cornish border was still on the River Exe-River Taw line) and the site of the battle is disputed, but now believed to be at Hingston Down near Moretonhampstead in Devon. The only record of this is from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which state: "There came a great ship army to the West Wealas where they were joined by the people who commenced war against Ecgberht, the West Saxon king. When he heard this, he proceeded with his army against them and fought with them at Hengestesdun where he put to flight both the Wealas and the Danes".[7][8].
  • 875 King Dungarth (Donyarth) of Cerniu ("id est Cornubiae") drowns in what is thought to be the River Fowey.

[edit] 900

  • 927 William of Malmesbury, writing around 1120, says that Athelstan evicted the Cornish from Exeter and perhaps the rest of Devon - "Exeter was cleansed of its defilement by wiping out that filthy race".[9] The area inside the city walls still known today as 'Little Britain' is the quarter where most of the Cornish Romano-British aristocracy had their town houses, from which the Cornish were expelled. Under Athelstan's statutes it eventually became unlawful for any Cornishman to own land, and lawful for any Englishman to kill any Cornishman (or woman or child)..[citation needed]
  • 928 It is thought that the Cornish king Huwal, "King of the West Welsh" was one of several kings who signed a treaty with Aethelstan of Wessex at Egmont Bridge.
  • 936 Athelstan fixed Cornwall's eastern boundary at the Tamar.[10] There is no record of Athelstan taking his campaigns into Cornwall and it seems probable that Huwel, King of the Cornish, agreed to pay tribute thus avoiding further attacks and maintaining a high degree of autonomy. Prior to this the West Saxons had pushed their frontier across the Tamar as far west as the River Lynher, but this was only temporary. It was long enough, however, for Saxon settlement and land charters to influence our modern day inheritance of placenames: between Lynher and Tamar there are today many more English than Cornish place names, as is also the case in that other debatable land between Otter and Tamar in north Cornwall.

[edit] 1000

[edit] 1100

  • 1120 Ingulph's Chronicle records Cornwall as a nation distinct from England.
  • 1173 Reginald de Dunstanville, 1st Earl of Cornwall, grants a charter to his 'free bugesses of Triueru' and he addresses his meetings at Truro to: "All men both Cornish and English" suggesting a continuing differentiation. Subsequently, for Launceston, Reginald's Charter continues that distinction - "To all my men, French, English and Cornish".
  • 1198 William de Wrotham (Lord Warden of the Stannaries) writes of those working tin in Cornwall paying twice the taxation of their Devon counterparts.

[edit] 1200

  • 1265 Work starts on the Lostwithiel Stannary Palace. It is reputed to be the oldest non-ecclesiastical building in Cornwall and was said to have been built as a replica of the Great Hall of Westminster. Its original function was as a Court dealing with the Cornish tin industry.
  • 1265 Glasney College was founded at Penryn.

[edit] 1300

[edit] 1400

[edit] 1500

  • 1508 'Charter of Pardon' granted by Henry VII Cornwall's legal right to its own Parliament was confirmed and strengthened by the 1508 Charter of Pardon.[14]
  • 1509 King Henry VIII's coronation procession includes "nine children of honour" representing "England and France, Gascony, Guienne, Normandy, Anjou, Cornwall, Wales and Ireland."
  • 1531 From the court of King Henry VIII, the Italian diplomat Lodovico Falier writes in a letter that "The language of the English, Welsh and Cornish men is so different that they do not understand each other". He also claims it is possible to distinguish the members of each group by alleged "national characteristics".
  • 1538 Writing to his government, the French ambassador in London, Gaspard de Coligny Chatillon, indicates ethnic differences thus: "The kingdom of England is by no means a united whole, for it also contains Wales and Cornwall, natural enemies of the rest of England, and speaking a [different] language".
  • 1549 Cornish rose up in the Prayer Book Rebellion - some 4,000 "rebels" were killed by mercenary forces. The Book of Common Prayer was enforced resulting in a decline in the use of the Cornish language.

[edit] 1600

  • 1603 Following Queen Elizabeth I's death, the Venetian ambassador writes that the "late queen had ruled over five different 'peoples' - English, Welsh, Cornish, Scottish and Irish".
  • 1616 Arthur Hopton (ambassador to Madrid) writes that "England is ... divided into three great Provinces, or Countries ... speaking a several and different language, as English, Welsh and Cornish".
  • 1642 The Cornish played a significant role Civil War as Cornwall was a Royalist stronghold in the generally Parliamentarian south-west. The reason for this was that Cornwall's rights and privileges were tied up with the royal Duchy and Stannaries and the Cornish saw the Civil War as a fight between England and Cornwall as much as a conflict between King and Parliament.[15]
  • 1642 First Battle of Lostwithiel.
  • 1643 January 19 - Cornish Royalist victory at the Battle of Braddock
  • 1643 May 15 - Cornish Royalist victory at the Battle of Stratton.
  • 1644 August 1 - King Charles I arrived in Cornwall and spent the night at Trecarrell near Launceston[16]
  • 1644 August 31 - Cornish Royalist victory at the Second Battle of Lostwithiel.
  • 1645 Cornish Royalist leader Sir Richard Grenville, 1st Baronet made Launceston his base and he stationed Cornish troops along the River Tamar and issued them with instructions to keep "all foreign troops out of Cornwall". Grenville tried to use "Cornish particularist sentiment" to muster support for the Royalist cause and put a plan to the Prince which would, if implemented, have created a semi-independent Cornwall.[17][18][19][20]

[edit] 1700

[edit] 1800

[edit] 1900

[edit] 2000


[edit] See also


[edit] External links

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Google books - Sharon Turner
  2. ^ Cornish Stannary Parliament since AD 700
  3. ^ BBC - British History Timeline
  4. ^ Peter Berresford Ellis. (1993). Celt and Saxon. London: Constable and Co
  5. ^ "The Kingdom of Dumnonia: Studies in History and Tradition in South western Britain, AD 350 - 1150", Susan. M. Pearce, 1978, St George Printing Works Ltd, Camborne, Cornwall/Lodenek Press, Padstow, ISBN O 902899 68 6
  6. ^ Philip Payton. (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
  7. ^ Philip Payton. (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
  8. ^ "The Kingdom of Dumnonia: Studies in History and Tradition in South western Britain, AD 350 - 1150", Susan. M. Pearce, 1978, St George Printing Works Ltd, Camborne, Cornwall/Lodenek Press, Padstow, ISBN O 902899 68 6
  9. ^ Philip Payton. (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
  10. ^ Philip Payton. (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
  11. ^ Malcolm Todd, 1987 p289
  12. ^ Dominions of King Canute
  13. ^ Philip Payton. (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
  14. ^ Sources of Cornish History - Charter of Pardon - 1508
  15. ^ Philip Payton. (1996). Cornwall. Fowey: Alexander Associates
  16. ^ [1] 'Parishes: Lawhitton - Luxulion', Magna Britannia: volume 3: Cornwall (1814), pp. 193-206.
  17. ^ West Britons, by Mark Stoyle (Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Southampton) University of Exeter Press, 2002
  18. ^ A.H. Burne & P. Young, The Great Civil War, a military history, 1959
  19. ^ S.R. Gardiner, History of the Great Civil War vol. i, 1888
  20. ^ Peter Gaunt, The Cromwellian Gazetteer, 1987
  21. ^ House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 29 Mar 2007 (pt 0004)
  22. ^ Cornwall timeline
  23. ^ BBC News 11th December 2001 [2]
  24. ^ BBC News November 2002 - Cornish gains official recognition from Government
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