Dumnonia

Dumnonia ( in latin ) or Damnonia ( used by Ptolemy, who was writting in greek cf. Δαμνόνιον, and later Gildas ) is the name for a Brythonic kingdom that existed in Sub-Roman Britain between the 6th century CE and the 7th century CE in the modern Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset Named after the Dumnonii, the dominant tribe living in the region at the time of the Roman invasion of Britain, it was gradually absorbed by the neighbouring Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex around the 7th century AD. But the part that corresponds to now days Cornwall wasn't subjected until the 8th century AD.

After it became a kingdom in his own right c. 500, it was organized around itinerant "kingly" residences, likely Tintagel, South Cadbury Castle, as well as two reused roman civitas ( Exeter known as Caer Uisc in Brythonic, Dorchester possibly the Caer Durnac mentionned by Nennius's Historia Brittonum ), both taken by the Saxons during the 7th century AD.

However the list of rulers of Dumnonia is fragementary since it's recontructed from the ancient welsh genealogies mentionning the Vth and VIth century AD rulers, and from a single contemporary source Gildas, who names Constantine, ruler of Dumnonia c. 530 . However Gildas doesn't give any information apart from castigated him for various sins, including the murder of two "royal youths" inside a church. It's likely Cystennin ap Cadwy, whom we know from the welsh genealogies. Other useful written sources for the history of post roman Dumnonia include William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum Anglorum , along with texts from the Black Book of Carmarthen and the Red Book of Hergest

The kingdom established close cultural links with Brittany, whith Domnonée being a sister kingdom through emigration, although there is no proof of a double kingship over Dumnonia and Domnonée and the later term being used later in hagiographies. Furthermore, it was culturally linked with Wales -

Dumnonia relied on a network of hillforts and promontory forts. Most of the time, they are used a chieftain's strongholds or defensive outposts or multifonction settlements.

Among those, only Tintagel has no evidence it was important before or at the roman time. It's only from around 450 AD it became an important trade point with the mediterannean under a local chieftain and then in 6th century AD and 7th century AD it transforms into the richest "capitale" of Dumnonia . The apparent surge in late-5th-century Mediterranean imports ( Gaul, Byzantine... ) that can be seen in Tintagel and other major hillforts is thought to be related to the trade in tin from Cornwall and Wales .

The others known hillforts are refortified iron age hillforts ( located mostly in Somerset and Cornwall ).

- South Cadbury Castle : constructed c. 500 BC, first reused by the roman legions between 43 AD and 70 AD and then refortified around 470 AD to the 580's AD. It might have been a stronghold for either chieftain of the region and then became the richest "kingly" residence of Dumnonia, along side Tintagel. Based on it's name in the XVth century ( Camallate ) and it's importance during the post roman period, it's also often regarded as the historical inspiration for Camelot from the Arthurian Legends, although that name is a XIIth century invention. Most likely candidate for Arthtur's final Battle of Camlann is on the River Cam, Somerset, nearby, around the village West Camel.

- Trevelgue Head : reoccupied during postroman time.

- Kelly Rounds also known as Castle Killibury : used between 400 BC and 100 BC and then reused at the time of postroman kingdom of Dumnonia. It might have been the Kelliwic in which Arthut holds his court, in the welsh tradition .

- Castle Dore ? : Only the Drystan stone in the vincity suggest that it was the stronghold of a chieftain in the 6th century AD, Cunomor Marc’h ( potential inspiration of « King Mark »  in the legends ). But there is no artefacts dating to the same period. .

- Cannington Camp also known as Cannington Hillfort : the datation of the potteries from 350 up to 800 AD suggest activity for the 5th and 6th AD. The presence of a cemetery from IIIth century AD to VIIIth century AD may indicate the site may have been linked to a settlement nearby. The most logical explanation is that the local also lived in the hillfort, which was refortitified eihter at the roman time or after.

- Cadbury Hill or Cadbury Congresbury : reocupied between c. 430 / 450 to 600 AD. Mythology links ot to the monastry of St Congar, hence the name, but most likely it has multiple fonction almong which being a defensive stronghold and may be pagan religious fonctions indicated by the deposit.

- Ham Hill : used during the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD. There is limited evidence for its resue during the 5th and 6th century AD but it's due to endommagents by the quarry. Imported potteries indicate a stronghold. A saxon shield boss has been found, suggesting it was later used by a chieftain in the kingdon ogf Wessex.

- Cadbury Camp : reused from the roman period and into the subroman times.

- Worlebury Camp also named Worlebury Hillfort : It was used from 1st century AD onward. Few artefacts indicated a use in the 5th and 6th century AD : only some coins of the roman emperor Honorius ( died c. 423 ) and a pennalunar brooch

- Badbury Rings : reoccupied between 480 AD and 520 AD, according to radiocarbon data and stylistic analysis of the objects found there. It might have been an outspost for Dorchester and also the most likely site for Badon, given the location of the anglo-saxons settlements c. 500, the period of reoccupation of the site and the presence of anglo-saxon tombs around. According to the earliest sources such as Gildas, Bede's Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum and the welsh texts, it would more likely be a "siege" / series of raids stoped by warlord rather than the set piece battle of the later medieval texts .

Few hillforts were used for purely religious purposes such as Brean Down resued as a christian oratory in the 5th and 6th century AD.

Aside from the hillforts, local excavations revealed that the isolated enclosed farmsteads known locally as rounds seem to have survived the Roman departure from Britain; but they were subsequently replaced, in 6th centuries and 7th centuries, by unenclosed farms taking the Brythonic toponymic tre(f)-. They also show that Glastonbury Tor might have been used for pagan purposes ( orientation of the tombs are different from the christians ) for an elite ( wooden buildings of the 6th century with mediterrannean imports ) and on the other hand early Christian burials were found such as in Exeter, where 5th-century burials were discovered near the cathedral or the early monastic settlement in Beckery Chapel in the Vth and VIth century AD and may be later the ermitage on the Glastonbury Tor itself. William of Malmesbury's De Antiquitate Glastoniensis Ecclesiae evokes a charter of a Dumnonian king around 600 giving lands to the Abbey at Ynis Wydrin / Glastonbury Tor.

Notables commemorative stones

- Caractatus Stone, dated from 6th AD, is an example of latin inscription commemorating a local lord said to be a descendant of a certain Caractatus ( may be a mythological to the Caradoc named by Montmouth as a Dumnonii chief ? )

- Irish immigrants are also evidenced by the inscribed stones they have left behind—sometimes written in Ogham, sometimes in Latin, sometimes in both such as the inscription on the stone found at Slaughterbridge near Camelford, which is said to be the location of Camlan, without any foundation. the presence of irish settlers is confirmed and supplemented by place-name studies.

- Arthnou stone at Tintagel c. 6th century AD. The only one which not funerary but marks a memorial monument made to a Arthnou by a Paternus Colus.

- Drystan stone c. 550 AD.

- A stone at Mên-an-Tol, Penwith commorating a warrior named Rialobranus, son of Cunovalus. c. 6th / 8th century AD.

Later Dumnonia and conflicts with the Saxons

In 577 Ceawlin of Wessex's victory at the Battle of Deorham caused the Britons of Dumnonia to be cut off by land from their Welsh allies, but since sea travel was not difficult this may not have been a severe loss. Clemen is thought to have been king when the Britons fought the Battle of Beandun in 614. This is most likely to have been at Bindon near Axmouth in Devon. Bampton, Oxfordshire has also been proposed as the site, but the claim lacks evidence.

According to the Flores Historiarum, attributed incorrectly to Matthew of Westminster, the Britons were still in possession of Exeter in 632, when it was bravely defended against Penda of Mercia until relieved by Cadwallon, who engaged and, according to Geoffrey of Monmouth, defeated the Mercians with "great slaughter to their troops". However, since the late 19th century this siege has not been considered a historical fact.

Around 652 Cenwalh of Wessex made a breakthrough against the Dumnonian defensive lines at the battle of Bradford-upon-Avon. The West Saxon victory at the Battle of Peonnum (possibly modern Penselwood in east Somerset), around 658, resulted in the Saxons capturing "as far as the Parrett" and the eastern part of Dumnonia being permanently annexed by Wessex.

The entry for 661 in Æthelweard's translation of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle into Latin, known as the Chronicon Æthelweardi, describes Cenwalh of Wessex fighting a battle at Posentesburh. Though it appears from the context that this is a battle against Wulfhere of Mercia (which he may have lost), if Posentesburh is identified with Posbury, near Crediton, Devon, then some conflict with the Britons can be postulated. In Willibald's Life of Saint Boniface the head of Examchester monastery, which can be identified with Exeter, Devon, has a Germanic name (Wulfhard) during the time Boniface studied there. Boniface self-identifies as Anglo-Saxon by birth (using Anglorum in his letter to the English people) and therefore Exeter may have been under West Saxon control at this time, that is, the late 7th century. At this time Dumnonia was sufficiently part of the known world for Aldhelm, later bishop of Sherborne, to address a letter around 705, to its king Geraint regarding the date of Easter. In 682 Wessex forces "advanced as far as the sea", but it is unclear where this was. In 705 a bishopric was set up in Sherborne for the Saxon area west of Selwood.

In 710 Geraint was defeated in battle by King Ine of Wessex, but in 722 the Annales Cambriae claim a victory by the British in Cornwall at Hehil. By about 755, the territory of the "Defnas" was coming under significant pressure from the Saxon army. The campaigns of Egbert of Wessex in Devon between 813 and 822 probably signalled the conquest of insular Dumnonia leaving a rump state in what is today called Cornwall, known at the time as Cerniu, Cernyw, or Kernow, and to the Anglo-Saxons as Cornwall or "West Wales".

File:King-donierts-stone.jpg

King Doniert's Stone in Cornwall, believed to commemorate Donyarth, the last recorded king of the rump state of Dumnonia

In 825 a battle was fought between the "Welsh", presumably those of Dumnonia, and the Anglo-Saxons. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states: "We fought the Wealas (Cornish) and the Defnas (Devonians) at Gafulforda" (perhaps Galford in west Devon). However, there is no mention of who won or who lost. A further rebellion in 838, when the "West Welsh" were supported by Danish forces, was crushed by Egbert at the battle of Hingston Down.

The Cornish bishop of Bodmin acknowledged the authority of Canterbury in 870 and the last-known Cornish king, Donyarth, died in 875. By the 880s Wessex had gained control of at least part of Cornwall, where Alfred the Great had estates. In about 936, according to William of Malmesbury writing around 1120, Athelstan evicted the Britons from Exeter and the rest of Devon, and set the east bank of the River Tamar as Cornwall's border.

Although the chronology of Wessex expansion into all of Dumnonia is unclear, Devon had long been absorbed into England by the reign of Edward the Confessor. The early-12th-century Gesta Herewardi gives the King of Cornwall just before the Norman Conquest as a man named Alef.

Links with Armorica

Two waves of migrations took place to Armorica (Brittany) from Dumnonia. Some histories propose the theory that this may have resulted in rulers who exercised kingship in both Brittany and Dumnonia, explaining those occurrences of the same names of rulers in both territories. There are also numerous correspondences of Insular Celtic saints, and place names and a close linguistic relationship between Cornish (Kernowek) and Breton (Brezhoneg). However, the Breton regions of Kernev/Cornouaille (Cornwall) and Domnonée (Devon) have well-established histories including entirely separate rulers from Dumnonia in Britain (see Duchy of Brittany).

While Cornwall retained its language and culture, Devon's had significantly diminished by the arrival of the Saxon invaders in the 7th century, almost entirely due to the large-scale migration of Britons from greater Dumnonia to Armorica at the end of the Roman occupation. J.B. GoverTemplate:Efn wrote in 1931 that

by the middle of the seventh century Devon was a sparsely settled Celtic kingdom due to large-scale emigration to Armorica a century and more earlier, and that once the resistance of its kings had been broken down no considerable native population remained to complicate the life of the new settlers.

The relationship between the new Saxon overlords and the remaining indigenous Britons appears to have been peaceable and many Celtic place-names survive in the county, although not to the extent of that of the neighbouring sub-tribe, the Cornovii, who became modern-day Cornwall.

The pre-medieval region of Cornouaille (Breton: Kernev) in the Brittany region of the Armorican peninsula is assumed to owe its name to descendants originating in insular Cornwall.Template:Efn The territories of the ancient Cornouaille region coincide mostly with the southern part of the French departement of the Finistère,Template:Efn and some of its territorial lands are included in the departements of Côtes d'Armor and Morbihan. At least part of the original territory associated with the pre-medieval Breton kingdom of Domnonea, coincides with the modern French department of Côtes-d'Armor.Template:Efn

See also

• List of legendary rulers of Cornwall, for the pseudo-historic kings and dukes of Cornwall mentioned by Geoffrey of Monmouth
• History of Devon
• History of Cornwall
• History of Brittany