For the Wikipedia page Cornish People: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_people
I would like to encourage contribution to a section that will look at references to the Cornish people as a distinct British peoples throughout the history of these isles.
So if people could give me examples of historical reference to the Cornish, our language and our country it would be most appreciated.
I am looking for things like the words of the ambassador to Venice or Genoa (i cant remember) who mentioned the Cornish as a peoples of Britain.
1531 - Remarks made by a series of foreign visitors to England during the Tudor period make it clear that, if Cornwall was commonly regarded as almost a separate country, then the Cornish were commonly regarded as a separate ethnic group.
Lodovico Falier, an Italian diplomat at the Court of Henry VIII, had no doubts on this score. 'The language of the English, Welsh and Cornish men is so different that they do not understand each other', Falier informed a correspondent in 1531 - adding that it was possible to distinguish the members of each group by their alleged 'national characteristics'.
Seven years later, Gaspard de Coligny Chatillon - the French Ambassador in London - showed that he, too, was aware of this ethnic split. The kingdom of England was by no means a united whole, he wrote back to his political masters, for it also 'contains Wales and Cornwall, natural enemies of the rest of England, and speaking a [different] language'. Perceptions remained very much the same throughout the rest of the 16th century.
Following the death of Henry's daughter, Elizabeth I, in 1603, the Venetian ambassador wrote that the late queen had ruled over five different 'peoples': 'English, Welsh, Cornish, Scottish ...and Irish'.
1616 - Arthur Hopton stated that: 'England is ...divided into 3 great Provinces, or Countries ...every of them speaking a several and different language, as English, Welsh and Cornish.'
1509 - Henry VIII's coronation procession includes "nine children of honour" representing "England and France, Gascony, Guienne, Normandy, Anjou, Cornwall, Wales and Ireland."
1485 - An Italian cleric, Polydore Vergil, living in England and commissioned by the king, Henry VII, to write a history of England made the following distinction: "The whole country of Britain is divided into four parts, whereof the one is inhabited by Englishmen, the other of Scots, the third of Welshmen, the fourth of Cornish people … and which all differ among themselves either in tongue, either in manners, or else in laws and ordinances." At this time the concept of the 'Island of England' was rife as the incoming Tudor dynasty gave a new, and sinister, meaning to English imperial domination.
Very interesting read. Nice to read about the 'real' people of the past referring to the Cornish rather than the ongoing debate about what the status of Kernow is. Though that's a fascinating and crucial topic too.
Good to be back by the way. Glad to see the board as vibrant as ever!
The Ravenna Cosmography, compiled c700 AD from Roman material 300 years older, lists a route running westward into Cornwall. On this route is a place then called Durocornovio (latinised from the British Celtic duno-Cornouio-n "fortress of the Cornish")
In 878, the drowned king Donyarth is recorded in the Welsh annals as rex Cerniu.
In 1937 Bartholomew published a Map of European Ethnicity prepared by the Edinburgh Institute of Geography which featured "Celtic Cornish".
More recently Jim Fitzpatrick MP, an ODPM Parliamentary Under Secretary in the current Labour government, said in the Commons in response to Andrew George MP, a Liberal Democrat representing the St Ives Constituency in Cornwall, I realise that the people of Cornwall consider that they have a separate identity.
Phil Woolas MP, Minister for Local Government, did the same in answer to a letter from Mebyon Kernow On your point about Cornwall’s desire to control its own future, the Government is very much aware of the strength of feeling about Cornwall’s separate identity and distinctiveness and The Government recognises that many people in Cornwall consider they have a separate identity.
NGO's such as Eurominority and the Federal Union of European Minorities also give varying degrees of recognition to a Cornish people
The small selection of comments below made in a standing committee during a first reading of the Regional Development Agencies Bill 1998:
Quote Angela Eagle, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions: "The hon. Member for South-East Cornwall argued that his area of the south-west was a separate region. The hon. Member for South Suffolk (Mr. Yeo) argued in debates on previous amendments, to which he referred today, the case of Devon and Cornwall. However, anyone who has visited Devon and Cornwall knows that the Cornish believe that they should have their own RDA, and do not want to be included with Devon. There is therefore no consensus across such areas about where the boundaries should be."
Quote David Curry MP: My hon. Friend has raised a crucial issue. I had some responsibility for the south-west, and it was apparent that there is tremendous incoherence in that region. The region ranges from some extremely prosperous parts of the M4 corridor to Cornwall, which is one of the most deprived areas in the United Kingdom. My only quarrel with my hon. Friend is about putting Cornwall and Devon together, because they are very separate areas. Devon is significantly more prosperous than Cornwall. Indeed, I believe that there is a strong case that, when the European fund revision takes place, they should no longer be linked and Cornwall should stand on its own as one of the regions eligible for European assistance. Cornwall is characterised by a low-wage economy and high unemployment, because it is an industrial county. If one looks at the history of Cornwall, one sees that it has a strong industrial tradition, which one occasionally overlooks when one thinks of it in terms of its recreational and sporting facilities.
Quote Stephen Day MP: "The amendment allows us to bring to the Committee’s attention the fact that, as Opposition Members have tried to explain, there is no such thing as a purely regional identity. The south-west, which is often automatically accepted as having more of a regional identity than other parts of England, is a classic example of not having a regional identity to speak of. Anybody who has been to Cornwall knows that a Cornishman if asked who he is, will say that he is a Cornishman, as opposed to an Englishman, and feels that sense of identity, in cultural and economic terms. It is true that Cornwall has not benefited in the same way as many other parts of the United Kingdom, as prosperity has grown in this country. It is essential that such differences in so-called administrative areas, which the Government like to call “regions�, as if they had an identity, should be recognised.
The amendment allows us to discuss these differences and the realities of people’s sense of identity I hope that the Government will be willing to accept that and thereby recognise the differences between, particularly, Devon and Cornwall."
As you can see the Cornish are certainly recognised as distinct or having distinct problems, but the issues of populations sizes and economies of scale are a major mental block to them, preventing them going that one step further.
I was re-reading The Case For Wessex last night, vain person that I am (I co-wrote it along with David Robins, though David did more work on it than I did, cos he's cleverer than me). The following remark from Rob Key, Conservative (!) MP for Salisbury stood out:-
"I do not favour regional government - frankly England is too small for that. However, historically and culturally Cornwall is quite distinct, as is the territory I am proud to call Wessex."
Has anyone seen the essay "Taxation, Not Tyranny" by Samuel Johnson? He is really talking about the American revolution, but he uses the analogy of an independent Cornwall later on in the essay.
Yes, AL Rowse published an extract of this in his little land of Cornwall. As with many Cornish things he was pretty equivocal about it - but the very bottom line is that it does compare Cornwall with revolutionary America
More specifically, he uses the idea of Cornish independence to ridicule the calls for American independence. So the next time some Unionist trots out the "Cornwall could never survive on its own" line, you can counter with "you lot said that about the USA"!
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