Celtic Kingdoms of the British Isles

Corniu / Cernieu / Kerniw (West Wales / Cornwall)

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Corniu became a kingdom in its own right through the simple fact that its traditional overlord, Dumnonia, had been squeezed out of existence. Over the course of the previous three and-a-half centuries Wessex had gradually pushed its border westwards, until all of the modern county of Devon had been captured.

Only the formidable barrier of the River Tamar provided a defensive line for the surviving Britons who took shelter in the rump region of Cornubia which became the kingdom of Corniu. Those Britons were already becoming Cornish. Cut off from Wales, their language was evolving differently, retaining closer links to that of their relations in Brittany.

Just when Dumnonia ceased and Corniu took over is entirely unknown. Records for the region are very sparse once the Annales Cambriae ceased to record events to the south of Wales (see feature link). There are large gaps in the known kingship.

Some late names are mentioned only in the Book of Baglan, a collection of Welsh manuscripts compiled in 1600-1607 which contains a pedigree which relates to Corniu and the earls of Cornwall. The names in it may not be Cornish kings at all, especially as one name seems suspiciously close to Godwin, earl of Wessex, father of King Harold II. These names are shown here in green to differentiate them from kings who are known from other sources.

Thanks to the variances in pronunciation and spelling in the Middle Ages, the kingdom was known by a large raft of names. To the Britons of the time, it was probably Corniu or Cernieu, an evolution of the earlier Cornovii tribal name and the Latinised Cornubia of the fifth and sixth centuries. Even later the 'c' of 'Corniu' would harden into a 'k' of Kerniw. To the Welsh the people here were South Britons, while to the English the land was Cornwall or, more usually, West Wales.

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(Information by Peter Kessler, with additional information from the Annales Cambriae, James Ingram (taken from the Harleian manuscript, the earliest surviving version, London, Everyman Press, 1912), from Roman Britain: A New History, Guy de la Bédoyère, from Wessex, Barbara Yorke, from the Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales, John Marius Wilson (1870-1872), from History of the Kings of Britain, Geoffrey of Monmouth, from The Landscape of King Arthur, Geoffrey Ashe, from the Ravenna Cosmography (compiled by an anonymous cleric), from The Cambridge Historical Encyclopaedia of Great Britain and Ireland, Christopher Haigh (Ed), from The Oxford History of England: Roman Britain, Peter Salway, from The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, Anne Savage (translator and collator, Guild Publishing, 1983), from A History of the English Church and People, The Venerable Bede (Leo Sherley-Price translation - revised by R E Latham), and from The Age of Arthur, John Morris, and from External Link: the Cornwall Archaeology Society.)

833 - 870

At some point between these dates, during the incumbency of Ceolnoth as archbishop of Canterbury, the independent Cornish bishops submit to the English church. Corniu is included within the diocese of Sherborne. The first bishop of Cornwall is Kenstec.

The victories of AD 722 were hugely important, as they apparently won the Dumnonians a century of peace, and may even have penetrated far into Devon - a West Saxon attack of AD 814 seemed to aim at the recovery of these regions (click on map to view full sized)

fl c.880s

Son of Fferferdyn ap Mordaf of Dumnonia (fl c.850s).

fl c.890s

Son. His line continues with Rolope, below.

fl 927

'King of the West Welsh'.

927

Dumnonian Corniu acknowledges Æthelstan of Wessex as its overlord and becomes a vassal state, with its rulers subordinated to the rank of earl by the English. Much removed from the more important political happenings to the east, it is not actually conquered.

Instead, it manages to retain independence in all but name until the middle of the eleventh century. Some scholars discount this mention of Huwell as a confusion with Hywel Dda of Deheubarth who also submits to Æthelstan in this year.

The broad expanse of the River Tamar proved to be Corniu's last and best defence, although it had always provided a barrier between east and west even before the arrival of the Romans

Also during Æthelstan's reign, a colony of Britons seems to occupy its own quarter in Exeter until it is expelled by the king in, or immediately before, 928. These are likely to be a remnant of the free Britons of Dumnonia, perhaps collected together in the way any foreign population does in a city, forming its own ghetto district.

fl c.930

'Rebel' king who probably denies the overlordship of Wessex.

fl c.940s

Son of Alanorus of c.890s.

fl c.960s

Son. 'Vortigern the High Lord'. 'Duke of Cornwall & Wessex'.

fl c.980s

Son. 'Duke of Cornwall & Wessex'.

c.990-1000

Hoël, count of Nantes has a daughter named Judith of Nantes. She marries one Count Alan of Corniu, and their daughter, Agnes, marries Eozen or Eudes, the 'regent of Brittany' in 1040-1056 and count of Penthièvre. Their descendants retain this county, whilst Nantes occasionally falls outside Breton control. However, it becomes the principle seat of Duke Peter I (1221-1250).

The greatest claim to fame for Mathuedoï, count of Poher and probably count of Vannes, may be as the father of Alain II, duke of Brittany, Vannes, and Nantes, and count of Poher, who returned from exile to lead the Bretons to victory over the Loire Vikings and thereby recover the duchy

up to 1000

Land's End area only (Corniu). Only the Latin form is known.

c.1000

Only the Latin form of this king's name is known, from an inscription on a carved memorial stone cross which has been dated to this year (roughly 1000-1050). The inscription reads Regis Ricati Crux ('The cross of King Ricatus').

However, a Cornish drama written in the native language and entitled Beunans Meriasek ('The Life of St Meriasek') mentions four Cornish kings, the second of which is one Pygys. This may be a misreading of Rygys, which is probably the Cornish form of Ricatus.

fl c.1000s

Son. 'Duke of Cornwall & Wessex'.

fl c.1010s

Son. 'Duke of Cornwall & Wessex'. Earl Godwin of Wessex?

fl c.1050s

Son. 'Duke of Cornwall & Wessex'. More of a Norman?

fl c.1054?

Prince or king of Corniu.

c.1054

The Gesta Herewardi, a Latin work written around the period 110-1130, recounts the life of Hereward 'the Wake'. At the age of eighteen he is exiled by his father and is declared an outlaw by Edward 'the Confessor' of England.

The Collegiate Church of St Peter, Westminster, contains the coronation throne which has been used for all monarchs since the fourteenth century, while some parts of the structure date back to Edward the Confessor's original abbey (click or tap on image to view more on a separate page)

He spends the early part of his exile in Scotland, Cornwall (Corniu), and Ireland. Whilst in Corniu he takes refuge at the court of the otherwise unknown Alef. The Gesta Herewardi is generally regarded as being a work of fiction in regard to much of its coverage of Hereward's exile, and all other records of Hereward are brief, contradictory and enigmatic.

? - 1066

Earl of Cornwall, within the earldom of Wessex.

1066

Although the existence of Caradoc as the last native Dumnonian earl of Corniu is only attested four centuries later by William of Worcester, it is at this point that he is deposed by William 'the Conqueror' of England.

By this time Corniu is part of the earldom of Wessex, but is not directly part of England, a status it has since retained (and which has been confirmed in a court of law in the 1850s and by the Tamar Bridge Act of 1998). Norman castle-building begins (see feature link).

Land's End in Cornwall, like the rest of this duchy never actually part of England, but certainly neighbouring it and, in the twenty-first century, a thriving tourist hotspot

Claimed as a descendant of Dunyarth, the last king of Dumnonia, some sources state that Caradoc is appointed or retains the earldom, while others show a new earldom of Cornwall being created by King William around 1068, with Brian of Brittany being appointed to the title.

It is also claimed that Caradoc's granddaughter Avice by his son, Cadoc, marries William FitzRobert de Mortaigne, which allows the earldom to pass through succession to the Normans.

The earldom is recreated a further eight times over the course of the next three hundred years. In 1337 it is recreated as the duchy of Cornwall for Edward, the Black Prince, and from that point is a title which is conferred upon the heir apparent to the English throne.

Corniu's name evolves along with the Cornish language, with the 'c' becoming interchanged with a 'k' to produce the modern version of the name, Kernow (Cornwall to the modern English, a land of ancient churches and chapels - see feature link).

St Mary's Parish Church in the Cornish city of Truro was built as the city's mother church in the mid-1200s, and was consecrated on 28 September 1259 by Bishop Bronescombe (click or tap on image to read more on a separate page)