In the earlier Cornwall posts, I’ve been looking at folklore, but to make a gazetteer I need to grapple with mundane matters like geography, politics and commerce. For this I’m using the History of Cornwall by Polwhele which is ancient, but it’ll do while I’m waiting for something more modern to be delivered.
Geographical extent
Hunt really doesn’t accept that Devon and Cornwall are divided in a useful sense. He sees both of them as descentant states of Dumnovia, which he sees as heading out to Exeter. There’s always a temptation to stretch a project out: to claim more land, because by doing so you claim more folklore, which makes the digging easier. At the same time, that’s a flaw. If the Cornish supplement is terribly popular, then some fan may want to do something with Devon beyond such minor incursions as I’m required to make. In addition, there’s a little material in Heirs to Merlin, so I’m not leaving readers beret if I make the Tamar as the border of my interest.
In choosing the Tamar, I’m using a modern border: Cornwall at various times has spread out to the east of the river, and in 1220 parts of the shire do extend over the boundary. They’ll be included if it serves a useful purpose for game design. Historically this border is a linguistic one: although Hunt may be right to say you have Dumnovii living in both areas, the Kings of Wessex, who were Saxons, had their capital in Exeter. Polwhele places the loss of Exeter, and the lands between the Exe and the Tamar, in 937.
The Cornish tended to ally with the Danes to fight, or rebel against, the kings of Wessex. There are records of this happening over and over. In 1000, for example, Hugh of Cornwall (who has an odd name because he was a Norman) allied with the King of the Danes, guaranteeing him ports, supplies and soldiers. The Danes took Exeter, and held territory for two years, until the local women killed all of the Danes in a single night. Exeter, apparently with Cornish support, stood against William the Conquerer, and was besieged for a while before suing for peace under favourable terms. Cornwall was given to Robert, Earl of Moreton, William’s half-brother, as so much else of the country. Thew arms of the previous Earl, according to Polwhele, were eventually taken up by Richard of Cornwall, and are the modern arms, although this seems untrue.
Cornwall was heavily involved in the wars of Matilda and Stephen, during the 11th Century, when some of the older Hermetic covenants formed. The Earl of Cornwall was Matilda’s brother, and because he had the sort of “corner of the board” advantage you see in some computer games, he could afford to push forces out into England, without leaving a lot of garrison behind him. Cornwall didn’t do the sort of hedging popular in the rest of the country: it fully fell in on the side of the Empress and decided to fight the English, so the place didn’t get raided and wrecked like the midlands. Polwhele mentions that Matilda’s chamberlain has a name strangely similar to his own.
When Henry III and Richard I head off to do horrible things to the Muslims, the Cornish basically ignored the whole thing. There are a couple of Cornish crusaders. Polwele says that in 1191 Richard I gave Arthur’s sword Caliburn to Tancred I of Sicily., which is interesting if unlikely. He notes the rebellion of Herny of Pomeri, which sounds like the sort of thing players might want to replay if their character are part of an earlier generation of magi.
Henry de la Pomeroy
When Richard I was off crusading, he left Bishop Longchamp of Ely as his chancellor (the office of regent hasn’t been invented at this stage). Henry of Pomery flees the failing Norman possessions in what’s now France, and in service of John of Cornwall, personally murders Richard’s son. He then flees to Cornwall, to raise it in rebellion against Richard (or Longchamp, which is much the same thing legally). He doesn’t do much here, but manages to take Mount Saint Michael, which he fortifies and holds against Richard’s forces until 1196. (There is an alternative history in which he commits suicide when Richard is first ransomed).
Charters and documents
Polwhele here goes into the Domesday book and royal charters to a terrifying depth, down to the fees paid of manors and the sources of names. I’m skipping all of this, but flagging it in case I ever need it. It’s about Vol 2 p.50.
Polwhele marks the following as the main places of the earls and dukes of Cornwall: Tremarton, Lanceston, Leskerd and Restamorel, which was the castle of Richard King of the Romans.
A Word on Richard
Henry III has a younger brother, Richard, who he gives the Earldom of Cornwall slightly after the game period He also gave him Exeter in 1227. This makes the hard boundary on the Tamar tough to enforce. I am tending to call him “Richard, King of the Romans” because he eventually basically buys the job of Holy Roman Emperor. He’s one of the richest men in Europe. The problem is there are too many Richards about. There is the Lionheart, in the previous generation, and Richard of Cornwall, who is this Richard’s child by a mistress. I could call him “Richard, First Earl of Cornwall” but that seems to heavy-handed. I’m hoping there’s a better term later in the research.
In the time of King John, the farming of Cornish tin was 100 marks a year (66 pounds). Devon tin was mined for 100 pounds a year. Later Richard was said he able to “spend 100 marks a day for ten years”. Richard is one of the few nobles in period who seem to have really understood how to make money, and encourage others to make money while taking a slice.
Continued Notes on Geography
The Cornish and Devon stanneries (local parliaments) meet at Henston-hill, and the prion of the stanneries is at Lidford.
The king appoints the sherrif, a role which is very rapidly turned over. There’s a list in Polwhele on II p. 86 (p. 345 of the pdf) but this may not be relevant. Richard, king of the Romans, is given the job of “high sheriff” when he comes of age, but the table keeps going, so it might be a list of the men actually doing the job. Richard makes a lot of places free boroughs, lets them set up gildhalls, and permits markets and fairs, in exchange for an annual payment. Being a borough means you get to send a representative to the kingdom’s Parliament, so the Cornish suddenly have a little regional faction.
Church lands
Before the Norman invasion, there were seven bishops in Cornwall, and they had the right of both secular and sacred justice. When the Normans take over they can’t be having with these pocket bishoprics, and place all of Cornwall into a single archdeaconery within the Bishopric of Exeter. The older bishoprics become deconries or deaneries in the new structure.
The Normans rework the hundreds of Cornwall, and they restructure the church lands to be coterminal. Polwhele discusses these, and their contents, at many pages of length, even to the point of saying why different manors are named. As an example, the deaneries are East, West, Trigge Major, Trigge Minor, Pider, Powder, Kerrier, and Penwith. I’m going to flag this in case I need it, but…there’s more depth here than we need. That’s odd for an Ars supplement. There’s more here about the swannery under a house in a sliver of Cornwall than about some of the royal castles of Hungary.
Richard King of the Germans founds a heap of churches and monasteries during the game period.
Sigh…I’ve double checked and I do need some of this, at the level of keeping notes in case they are important later, at least from a church perspective. Here we go. These notes won’t make it to the podcast.
East: Centred on St Germans, which has a collegiate church. In East-Anthony there was a cell of the Black Monks of Angiers. A Trebeigh there is (since 1150) a preceptory of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem: Henry de Pomeroy was a major benefactor of theirs. They have all kinds of odd privileges, freeing them from all law but their own, saving only “life and limb”.
West: May be about St Neot, which is named for the brother of Alfred the Great. There’s a collegiate church here.
Trigg Major: Centres perhaps on St Stephen near Launceston. In 1226 the bishop forces the secular canons there to move to a new foundation, “under the Rule of St Austin” beneath the castle. There’s probably a nunnery at Altarnun.
Trigg Minor: There’s a Benedicitine monastery here for a couple of centuries, but the “black canons” took it over in 1110-1120. 60 years later, one of the monks steals the body of the Founder, Saint Petroc, and sails to Brittany. Henry II forces them to give it back.
In the east of Bodmin there is a place called “St Lawrence” which is a leprosarium, “well-endowed for 19 lepers”. Polwhele says leprosy spreads to England in about 1100. He describes it as a white eczema over all the body, and says all such shelters are legally under the supervision of the first house of this type, at Burton in Leicstershire. There seems to be a 5 pound fee to join the leprosarium, so it may be for the sxcions of noble families.
At Temple there was a small cell or temple of Templars.
Pider: St Crantoc is the premier house, and possibly collegiate, but St Colum may also have been significant. St Bennet in Lavinet was a nunnery.
Powder: St Probus is the collegiate church. Tywardeeth was a priory of Augustians. Toward the end of Henry III’s reign a convent of Augustinians settles in Truro. St Michael Penkiwell is an ancient endowed house with a chantry. Polwhele then goes through this area parish by parish, which is terrifyingly precise.
Kerrier: There’s a collegiate church called Glaseney in the parish of Gluvias. St Keverne has a sanctuary. St Martin had a nunnery. St Michael’s Mont and the Scilly Isles are in this deanery. Constantine also has a pre-Norman church of some note.
Games From Folktales 