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Cornwall is a county in South West England, United Kingdom, on the peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar and Devon. The administrative centre and only city is Truro. Cornwall covers an area of 1,376 square miles (3,563 km²), including the Isles of Scilly, located 28 miles (45 km) offshore. Cornwall has a population of 513,528, with a relatively low population density of 144 people/km², or 373/mile². Cornwall is noted for its wild moorland landscapes, its extensive and varied coastline and its mild climate. Also notable is Cornwall's stone age and industrial archaeology, especially its historic mining landscape, a world heritage site. Tourism therefore forms a significant part of the local economy; however, Cornwall is one of the poorest areas in the United Kingdom with the lowest per capita contribution to the national economy. Cornwall is the historic homeland of the Cornish people and is also considered one of the six historic "Celtic nations" by many residents and scholars. Some inhabitants question the present constitutional status of Cornwall, referring to the status of the Duchy of Cornwall, and a self-government movement seeks greater autonomy for the county. History
The history of Cornwall begins with the pre-Roman inhabitants, including speakers of a Celtic language that would develop into Brythonic and Cornish. After a period of Roman rule, Cornwall reverted to independent Celtic chieftains. The Roman term for the tribe which inhabited what is now Cornwall at the time of Roman rule, possibly the Cornovii, came from the Iberian word corno, meaning the land shape, but it is assumed that it was derived from a Brythonic tribal name which gave modern Cornish Kernow. (For other examples of the survival of Brythonic names noted by the Romans, see Dyfed/Demetae, Cantiaci/Kent , Gwynedd/Veneti and Durotriges/Dorset.) The present English language name of the region derives from suffixing of Old English wealhas ("foreigners, Britons") to the Celtic name. In the historic times of the heptarchy, Cornwall was referred to as 'West Wales' with what is nowadays modern Wales being called 'North Wales'. The first account of Cornwall comes from the Sicilian Greek historian Diodorus Siculus (c.90 BC–c.30 BC), supposedly quoting or paraphrasing the fourth-century BC geographer Pytheas, who had sailed to Britain:
Who these merchants were is not known. There has been a theory that they were Phoenicians, however there is no evidence for this. Julius Caesar was the last classical writer to mention the tin trade, which appears to have declined during the Roman occupation. The Annales Cambriae reported that in 721 the Britons were victors in battle at Hehil (possibly on the Camel estuary or further north near Bude) among the Cornish (apud Cornuenses), presumably against the West Saxons. Annales Cambriae. A century passed before we hear of the West Saxons attacking Cornwall again, this time under King Egbert, who in 814 laid waste to Cornwall from east to west. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle tells us that in 825 (adjusted date) a battle was fought between the "Welsh" in Cornwall and the people of Devonshire, probably at Galford in Devon. Finally, in 838, the Cornish and their Viking allies were defeated by Egbert at Hengestesdune, probably Hingston Down near Moretonhampstead, Devon or Callington, Cornwall (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). The tin trade revived in the Middle Ages, and the Cornish Rebellion of 1497, in which a makeshift Cornish army marched on London only to be crushed by the royal troops, is attributed to tin miners. In the mid-nineteenth century, however, the tin trade again fell into decline. As Cornwall's reserves of tin began to be exhausted many Cornishmen emigrated to places such as the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa where their skills were in demand. The tin mines in Cornwall are now worked-out at current prices, but the expertise and culture of the Cornish tin miners lives on in a number of places around the world. It is said that, wherever you may go in the world, if you see a hole in the ground, you will find a Cornishman at the bottom of it (see Cornish emigration). Several Cornish mining words are in use in English language mining terminology, such as costean, gunnies, lode and vug. Since the decline of tin mining, agriculture and fishing, the area's economy has become increasingly dependent on tourism — some of Great Britain's most spectacular coastal scenery can be found here. Nevertheless, Cornwall remains one of the poorest parts of the United Kingdom and it has been granted Objective 1 status by the European Union. A political party, Mebyon Kernow, MK, or 'Sons of Cornwall', was formed in 1951 to attempt to assert some degree of autonomy (see Cornish nationalism); while the flag of St Piran is seen increasingly across Cornwall at protests, demonstrations and generally, the party has not achieved significant success at the ballot box, although they do have a number of district councillors. Two of the current Members of Parliament (MPs) in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, Andrew George, MP for St Ives, and Dan Rogerson, MP for North Cornwall, repeated their Parliamentary oaths in Cornish. Further, there is a caucus of local county councillors who are well-known locally for their persistent advocacy of Cornwall's political uniqueness. There is a theory that once silver was extracted from the copper ores of Cornwall in pre-Roman times, as silver is easily converted to its chloride (AgCl) by surface waters containing chlorine. Cornwall was the first of the Celtic nations to recognise that the fighting power and brutality of the Vikings could be used to its own advantage in trying to stop the expansionist designs of the Anglo Saxons/Franks. In 722 AD, the Britons of Cornwall united with the Vikings of Denmark to destroy an invading Anglo-Saxon army led by Ine of Wessex at "Hehil", somewhere around modern day Padstow. This decisive battle gave Cornwall nearly 100 years of freedom from attacks of Wessex, as the next recorded attack on Cornwall is not until 814 AD. Cornwall was not the only Celtic nation to ally with the Norsemen. In 865 AD, Brittany allied with the Danes to defeat the Franks at the Battle of Brissathe (modern day Le Mans), ensuring Brittany's independence from the Frankish kingdoms; while in 878 the Britons of Wales unified with Danish Vikings to crush an Anglo-Saxon (Mercian) army, and like Cornwall and Brittany, ensured Wales was autonomous from the Anglo-Saxon/Franks. Research Tips
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