Constitutional status of Cornwall

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The flag of Cornwall (Kernow)

Cornwall is a unitary non-metropolitan and ceremonial county of England.^[1] However, a number of organisations and individuals actively dispute this constitutional status.

Cornwall is the remnant of the former "West Wales" region of south west Britain which was known to the Romans as Dumnonia. Its history is highly idiosyncratic with various survivals, such as a Celtic language surviving into the early modern period (which was revived in the twentieth century) giving it a distinct identity. Cornish nationalists and others consider that Cornwall is legally entitled to greater autonomy. They consider that the United Kingdom is not a homogeneous nation-state, but is instead composed of several Home Nations.

Cornish nationalists who assert that Cornwall is, or ought to be, separate from England, do not necessarily mean to advocate separation from the United Kingdom, but merely Cornwall's recognition as a fifth "home nation". They also cite laws and constitutional peculiarities related to the Duchy of Cornwall that seem to them to indicate that the territory of Cornwall is not simply an English county. However, there has been no formal challenge to its constitutional status as a county of England, nor has a group wishing to make such a challenge achieved any electoral representation.

Myth of origin

In much of medieval Europe, great weight was attached to foundation myths, which usually linked people/peoples to others in classical legends, or the Bible. Such stories were taken so seriously that they were even included in legal documents such as Scotland's Declaration of Arbroath in 1320.^[2] The Welsh (Cymry), for example, traditionally associated themselves with Gomer.

An ancient tale, the legend of Brutus, recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth, makes explicit reference to a distinct origin of the Cornish people. The legend tells how Albion was colonised by refugees from Troy 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 Welsh), the other two Albania (modern Scotland, Alba in Scottish Gaelic) and Cambria (modern Wales, Cymru in Welsh). In addition, according to the legend, a second and smaller group of Trojans arrived in Britain, led by a warrior named Corineus, 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

Roman Britannia showing those areas under Roman rule, and the position of Dumnonia as an integral part of Roman Britain.

Boundaries of Cornwall and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - Cornwall is shown as a named part of Wessex, though by contrast Ireland and Wales, as all the individual Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, are shown as separate entities. The map - which is merely an antiquarian's interpretation - refers to the position about 700AD.

The British Isles c802.

Pre-Norman Conquest

In the pre-Roman times, Cornwall was part of the kingdom of Dumnonia, and was later known to the Anglo-Saxons as "West Wales" [2][3], to distinguish it from "North Wales" (modern day Wales). The Anglo-Saxon word Wealh, which is retained in the last syllable of "Cornwall" meant a "foreigner" [4], 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 Wessex in the 8th century. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 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 Wessex. "Gafulforda" is thought to be Galford on the banks of the River Lew (tributary of the Lyd), though some translations render it as Camelford, 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 Wessex (802-39) granting lands in Cornwall at Kilkhampton, Ros, Maker, Pawton (in St Breock, not far from Wadebridge, head manor of Pydar in DB), Caellwic (perhaps Celliwig (Kellywick in Egloshayle?), and Lawhitton to Sherborne Abbey and to the Bishop of Sherborne.^[3] 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).^[4]. 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 Hidage 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 Northumbria, following which he established firm boundaries with other kingdoms such as Scotland and Cornwall. The latter agreement, according to 12th century West Country historian William of Malmesbury, ended rights of residence for Cornish subjects in Exeter, and fixed the Cornish boundary at the River Tamar.^[5][6] At Easter 928, Athelstan held court at Exeter, with the Welsh and "West Welsh" subject rulers present,^[7] 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).^[8] The Bodmin manumissions^[9], 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,^[10] 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 I (939-46), Edgar (959-75), Edward the Martyr (975-8), Aethelred II (978-1016), Edmund II (1016), Cnut (1016-35) and 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 thane Eanulf in 960, Edward the Confessor's grant of estates at Traboe, 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.^[11][12]

In 1051, with the exile of Godwin, Earl of Wessex and his sons and the forfeiture of their earldoms, a man named Odda was appointed earl over a portion of the lands thus vacated: this comprised Dorset, Somerset, Devon, and "Wealas".^[13] 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 Book, 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 Cornwall.

Henry of Huntingdon, writing about 1129, included Cornwall in his list of counties of England in his History of the English.

On the Mappa Mundi, circa 1300, now in Hereford Cathedral, 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. [5].

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 period. Use of the search facility of a scanned copy of the printed laws indicates that this is not correct.^[14] 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 Scilly within Cornwall (i.e. Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly).

Tudor Period

The Italian Polydore Vergil 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 Englishmen, the other of Scottes, the third of Wallshemen, [and] the fowerthe of Cornishe people, 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 Wales. However most post-date the incorporation of Wales as a principality of England. Examples include the maps of Sebastian Munster (1515),[6][7] Abraham Ortelius,[8] and Girolamo Ruscelli.[9] Maps that depict Cornwall as a county of the Kingdom of England and Wales include Gerardus Mercator's 1564 atlas of Europe,[10] and Christopher Saxton's 1579 map authorised by Queen Elizabeth I.[11]

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.^[15] 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 England 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-Tweed) until the Wales and Berwick Act 1746. 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 Cornish identity and culture by the English.^{[citation needed]}

In 1769 the antiquary William Borlase 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 Belinus, 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 Tweed, Westward, as far as the river Ex; Wales inclosed by the rivers Severn, and Dee; and Cornwall from the river Ex to the Land's-End".

Here Borlase reproduces ideas from Geoffrey or Monmouth's account of pre-Roman Britain, a mythical history.

The 18th century writer, Richard Gough, 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 Johnson created an ironic Cornish Declaration of Independence that he used in his essay Taxation no Tyranny ^[16] 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.^{[citation needed]}

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."^[17]

The famous crime writer Wilkie Collins 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."^[18]

Chambers' Journal in 1861 described Cornwall as "one of the most un-English of English counties."^[19] - 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"^[20]

Cornish "shires"

Hundreds of Cornwall in the early 19th century, (formerly known as Cornish Shires)

Additionally, Cornwall was also divided into "Hundreds", 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. Salfordshire), but where English shires were split into hundreds each having their own constable, Cornish hundreds had constables at parish level.^[21]

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.^[22]

Status quo: the County of Cornwall

Current constitution status

Regardless of the question of whether Cornwall constitutes one of the historic counties of England, an administrative county of Cornwall was set up by the Local Government Act 1888, 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 1972, 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^[23].

The argument for non-English status

At the time of King Canute, Cornwall fell outside his British realms.^[24]

A line drawing of the Domesday Book. Notably, large swathes of northern England, Winchester and London do not appear in it, but Cornwall does

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 Norse. Sweyn Forkbeard, the first Danish King of England, died a few weeks after his English opponent Ethelred the Unready had fled, so it is probable that he never properly took control of Cornwall.^[25][26] His son Canute never properly conquered or controlled Scotland or Wales^[27], 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 Cornwall (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 Survey was initiated, by William, 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 shire, coming under the jurisdiction of the sheriff, is known alternatively as sheriffdom, shrievalty, or vicecomitatus and equates to the modern meaning of the word county.

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^{[citation needed]}. (N.B. some historians do not regard Cadoc of Cornwall 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 John, younger brother of King Edward III.^[28] 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^{[citation needed]}. 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.^[29] 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.^[30]

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.^[31]

On the 14th of July 2009, Dan Rogerson MP, of the Liberal Democrats, 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 Case 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."^[32][33][34]

The argument for English county status

The English parliament in front of Edward I c.1300. From its foundation until 1707, it intermittently included areas not now considered to be in England, e.g. Wales was represented in the parliament from 1536 to 1707. At other times, Berwick-upon-Tweed and Calais were included, but Berwick was not formally incorporated into England until the 19th century.

Cornwall is part of South West England (in red). This region is used for some governmental purposes.

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 Yorkshire, Kent, and Cheshire (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^{[citation needed]}. 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 dynasty, or since the creation of Cornwall County Council in 1888^{[citation needed]}. Finally, they agree with representatives of the Duchy itself that the Duchy is, in essence, a real estate company that serves to raise income for the Prince of Wales^{[citation needed]}. They compare the situation of the Duchy of Cornwall with that of the Duchy of Lancaster, which has similar rights in Lancashire, which is indisputably part of England^[35]. 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.^[36]

• 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 ^[37].

• From the mid-ninth century the Cornish Church acknowledged the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and in the 10th century the English king Athelstan created a diocese of Cornwall centred on St Germans. In 1050, King Eadward subsumed the diocese of Cornwall under that of Exeter ^[38].

• In 1051, as noted above, Cornwall was granted with Devon, Somerset and Dorset to Earl Odda, indicating that Cornwall had by then been integrated into the normal English system of local government.^[13]

• The Domesday Book, 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 Lancashire (parts of which were listed with Cheshire, other parts with Yorkshire) is given a listing in the normal Domesday county-based style.^[39]

• 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^{[citation needed]}.

• 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, as in the case of Edmund, 2nd Earl of Cornwall (died 1300)^[40]

• The Patent Rolls 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)^[41], the King granting licences to trade to people in Cornwall in 1364, the Duke of Cornwall complaining in 1371 to the King's Council 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^{[citation needed]}.

• 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^{[citation needed]}.

• Cornwall sent members to the Parliament of England from the late thirteenth century when that parliament originated^{[citation needed]}.

• Some national policies in the Middle Ages, such as the taxation of boroughs,^[42] or the setting of prices for wool,^[43] were applied on a county-by-county basis- including Cornwall.

• Medieval taxes such as the Papal 1291 taxation, the 1377 poll tax^{[citation needed]} and the tax for defence against "the cruel malice of the Scots" in 1496-7^[44] include Cornwall among the other English counties.

• The subsidies/taxes and musters of the Tudor period^{[citation needed]}.

• The grants of fairs and markets in Cornwall by the king; for example, Penzance in 1406^{[citation needed]}.

Cornwall is currently in the South West England European Parliament constituency, which also takes in Gibraltar.

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.”^[45]

Moves for recognition of legal autonomy

The Duchy of Cornwall

The banner of 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 Sheriffs, bona vacantia, treasure trove, a separate exchequer, and such forth. Most of these rights are still exercised by the Duchy. The Kilbrandon Report (1969–1971) into the British constitution recommends that, when referring to Cornwall, official sources should cite the Duchy not the County. This was suggested in recognition of its constitutional position.

In 1780 Edmund Burke 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 people, including Cornish Solidarity and the group claiming to be the Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament, argue that Cornwall has a de jure 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 palatine and that although the duke was not granted Royal Jurisdiction, 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:

1. That Cornwall, like Wales, was at the time of the Conquest, and was subsequently treated in many respects as distinct from England.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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 palatine' appears not to have been used historically of Cornwall, and the duchy did not have as much autonomy as the County Palatine of Durham, which was ruled by the Prince-Bishop of Durham. 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 Parliaments and Revived Cornish Stannary Parliament

Since 1974, a group has claimed to be a revived Cornish Stannary Parliament and have the ancient right of Cornish tin-miners' assemblies to veto legislation from Westminster. In 1977 the Plaid Cymru MP Dafydd Wigley 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 Wales, stated that a Stannator's right to veto Westminster legislation had never been formally withdrawn.^[46][47]

Moves for a change of constitutional status

The Modern Celtic nations as recognised by the Celtic League and the Celtic Congress

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     Scotland      Ireland      Man      Wales      Cornwall      Brittany

Campaigns for fuller regional autonomy

An early campaign for an independent Cornwall was put forward during the first English Civil War by Sir Richard Grenville, 1st Baronet. He tried to use "Cornish particularist sentiment" to gather support for the Royalist cause. The Cornish were fighting for their Royalist privileges, notably the Duchy and Stannaries and he put a plan to the Prince which would, if implemented, have created a semi-independent Cornwall.^[48]

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 Kernow, for example, has for many years sought for Cornwall the position of a first-order (NUTS 1) EU region, which would put Cornwall on the same statistical level as Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Regions of England.

In the same vein, the Cornish Constitutional Convention — 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 Assembly resembling the National Assembly for Wales. The petition was undertaken in the context of an ongoing debate on whether to devolve power to the English regions, of which Cornwall is currently part of the South West. Cornwall Council's Feb 2003 MORI poll showed 55% in favour of an elected, fully-devolved regional assembly for Cornwall and 13% against. (Previous result: 46% in favour in 2002).^[49] However the same MORI poll indicated an equal number of respondents in favour of a South West Regional Assembley ).^[50]

The campaign has the support of all five Cornish Lib Dem MPs, Mebyon Kernow, and Cornwall Council. Lord Whitty, as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions, in the House of Lords, recognised that Cornwall has a "special case" for devolution.^[51] 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. ^[52]

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 Guardian 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, much less proud people from Berkshire will never know. Any new constitutional settlement which ignores these factors will be built on uneven ground." ^[53]

The Guardian also carried an article in November 2008 titled Self-rule for Cornwall written by the human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.^[54]

" 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, 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 England 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.^[55]

Some Cornish people 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 Tamar^[56], and that there is a Cornish language. 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 Census form, alongside those for people wishing to describe themselves as English, Welsh, Irish or Scottish. 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 phenomenon.^[57] 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^[58] for the 2011 Census,^[59] as a Welsh and English tick box option was recently agreed by the government.^[60]

Conspiracy theory

The "Cornish conspiracy theory" is claimed to be a long-running conspiracy by the English establishment to deprive Cornish people of their rights, identity and autonomy.^[61] 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 Cornwall, sometimes referred to as the "Cornish Question".^[62] Cornish historians point to the fact that in 1508 the 'Charter of Pardon' was granted by Henry VII to give Cornwall a legal right to its own Parliament with the power of veto over acts, statutes, laws, etc, passed by the Westminster government. These rights were granted in perpetuity and cannot be lawfully rescinded, but today are ignored by the UK government.^[63][64]

In 1858 the Cornish Foreshore Case (a case of arbitration between the Crown and the Duchy of Cornwall) confirmed that the Duke of Cornwall, 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 Wales 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'.^[65]

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 Minorities by the British government.^[66][67]

• The Crown Proceedings Act 1947 Section 40, 2g, gives the heir to the throne, the Duke of Cornwall, the authority to "control or otherwise intervene in proceedings that affect his rights, property and profits".^[68]

• The 1971 Kilbrandon Report 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.^[69]

• In 1977 Plaid Cymru MP Dafydd Wigley received confirmation in Parliament that the Stannators right to veto Westminster legislation is still valid.^[70][71]

• 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.^[72][73]

• On 12 December 2001 a petition with 50,000 signatures was presented to 10 Downing Street in favour of more autonomy for Cornwall - a Cornish Assembly - so far this has not been implemented by the Government.^[74]

• In June 2005 the government allocated £80,000 per year for three years of direct central government funding to the Cornish language. 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.^[75]

• The National History Curriculum officially starts with the Roman period, rather than earlier civilisations without their own written records, such as the Celts.^[76][77]

• In 2007 it was announced by the Office for National Statistics 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 Travellers 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.^[78]

• There has been official Government (HM Treasury) approval for the leasing of Cornish heritage sites such as Tintagel Castle by the commercial Duchy of Cornwall to the state subsidised organisation known as English Heritage.^[79] On January 18, 2002, at Truro Crown Court, three members of the Cornish Stannary Parliament attempted to raise issues regarding the history of the Duchy of Cornwall, but were prevented from doing so when a Public Interest Immunity certificate (gagging order) was presented to the court by the Crown Prosecution Service.^[80]

See also

• List of topics related to Cornwall
• Wiktionary definitions for Cornish, Nation and ethnic group

External links

• The Cornish Stannary Parliament
• Maps of Cornwall on the BBC
• What makes Cornwall unique? an article from Cornish World detailing claims about what makes Cornwall unique.
• Celtic Frontier or County Boundary? Competing discourses of a late nineteenth century British border
• The Cornish Stannary Parliament
• Mebyon Kernow
• The Cornish Assembly - Senedh Kernow
• The Simpsons & Cornwall episode
• Tyr Gwyr Gweryn - A radical look at factors affecting perceptions of Cornwall
• The Cornwall Tapes
• Celtic League
• The Federal Union of European Nationalities
• This is not Cornwall
• The Cornish National Minority
• Map of Cornwall (Kernow)
• The Cornish: A Neglected Nation?
• 44% Claim to be Cornish by Morgan Stanley survey

References

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