Dumnonia
| Dumnonia | |
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| Geography | |
| Capital | Kings of Dumnonia |
Dumnonia is the
Name
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 Southwestern Brythonic languages, it was Dyfneint and this is the form which survives today in the name of the county of Devon (Modern Welsh: Dyfnaint, Cornish: Dewnans, Breton : Devnent).
There is evidence, based on an entry in the Ravenna Cosmography, that there may have been a sub-tribe in the western part of the territory known as the Cornovii from whose name the first element of the present-day name of Cornwall is probably derived.[4] Following a period of emigration from south-western Britain to north-western Gaul (Armorica) in the 5th and 6th centuries, a sister kingdom (Domnonée in modern French), was established on the north-facing Atlantic coast of the continent in the region that was to become known as Brittany. Historian Barbara Yorke has speculated that the Dumnonii may have seen the end of the Roman empire as an opportunity to establish control in new areas.[5] Before the arrival of the Romans, the Dumnonii seem to have inhabited the south-west peninsula of Britain as far east as the fact or opinion?] Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, Book III notes the close trading and military relationship between the continental Veneti of Armorica and the south-western insular British.
In the post Roman period the kingdom of Dumnonia covered Cornwall, Devon and parts of west Somerset. It had close cultural and religious links with Brittany, Wales and Ireland.[7] Culture and industries The cultural connections of the pre-Roman Dumnonii, as expressed in their ceramics, are thought to have been with the peninsula of Armorica across the Channel, and with Wales and Ireland, rather than with the south-east of Britain.[8][9] The people of Dumnonia would have spoken a Brythonic dialect, the ancestor of modern Cornish and Breton.[10] Irish immigrants, the Déisi, are evidenced by the inscribed stones they have left behind—sometimes written in Ogham, sometimes in Latin, sometimes in both,[11] confirmed and supplemented by place-name studies. Apart from Mediterranean after the Roman withdrawal, and it is likely that tin played an important part in this trade.[3] Post-Roman imported pottery has been excavated from many sites across the region. An apparent surge in late-5th-century Mediterranean imports is thought to be related to the trade in metals from Cornwall and Wales to the Byzantine Empire.[14][15][16]
See of Canterbury in the mid-9th century. Parish organisation was a later development of fully Normanised times.[18]
Settlements Around 55 CE, the Romans established a legionary fortress at Exeter, called Caer Uisc in Brythonic, was later the site of an important Saxon minster, but was still partially inhabited by Dumnonian Britons until the 10th century when Æthelstan expelled them.[22] By the mid-9th century, the royal seat may have been relocated further west, during the West Saxon advance, to Lis-Cerruyt (modern Liskeard). Cornish earls in the 10th century were said to have moved to Lostwithiel after Liskeard was seized.[23] It has been suggested that the rulers of Dumnonia were itinerant, stopping at various royal residences, such as Tintagel and Cadbury Castle, at different times of the year, and possibly simultaneously holding lands in Brittany across the Channel. There is textual and archaeological evidence that districts such as Trigg were used as marshalling points for "war hosts" from across the region.[24] History and rulersAlthough subjugated by about 78 CE, the local population could have retained strong local control, and Dumnonia may have been self-governed under Roman rule.[22] Geoffrey of Monmouth stated that the ruler of Dumnonia, perhaps about the period c. 290 – c. 305, was Caradocus. If not an entirely legendary figure, Caradocus would not have been a king in the true sense but may have held a powerful office within the Roman administration.[25] The post-Roman history of Dumnonia comes from a variety of sources and is considered exceedingly difficult to interpret given that historical fact, legend and confused pseudo-history are compounded by a variety of sources in Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum as well as "The Descent of the Men of the North" (Bonedd Gwŷr y Gogledd, in Peniarth MS 45 and elsewhere) and the Book of Baglan .
Conflict with the SaxonsIn 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.[7] 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.[26] Bampton, Oxfordshire has also been proposed as the site, but the claim lacks evidence.[27] According to the Around 652 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.[31] 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)[32] 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.[33] 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,[34] known at the time as Cerniu, Cernyw, or Kernow, and to the Anglo-Saxons as Cornwall or "West Wales".
 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 Danish forces, was crushed by Egbert at the battle of Hingston Down.[36]
The Cornish Athelstan evicted the Britons from Exeter and the rest of Devon, and set the east bank of the River Tamar as Cornwall's border.[38]
Although the chronology of Wessex expansion into all of Dumnonia is unclear, Devon had long been absorbed into England by the reign of Norman Conquest as a man named Alef.[41]
Dumnonian continuity in Cornwall and BrittanyTwo waves of migrations took place to 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. Gover[b] wrote in 1931 that
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.[c] The territories of the ancient Cornouaille region coincide mostly with the southern part of the French departement of the Finistère,[d] 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.[e] There is debate about the location of Arthur's supposed great victory at the Battle of Mount Badon, where the Britons fought off Anglo-Saxons. Most historians believe this battle, if it was historical, was fought outside the territory, at Bath, for instance. Geoffrey of Monmouth claimed that Arthur's final Battle of Camlann was fought in Cornwall: tradition points to Slaughterbridge, near Camelford, which itself has been claimed, without foundation, to be the location of Camelot. See also
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