Conomor - Historical Record

Historical Record

Conomor is mentioned in Cornish genealogies, and may have established himself in Brittany after a youth in Cornwall, i.e. Dumnonia. He is mentioned by Gregory of Tours as a Breton count; he is listed as "prefectus du roi des Francs" in the life of Saint Tugdual and in the life of Saint Paul Aurelian he is called ruler of "different peoples of four languages", which may suggest that his territory included both Brittany and Cornwall. Conomor is said to been count of Carhaix and to have become king by murdering his predecessor Jonas. He married Jonas' widow, but she later fled from him to seek asylum in the Frankish court with her son Judael. He is later said to have come into conflict with Waroch, count of Vannes, whose daughter Tréphine he had married after his first wife's death. In unclear circumstances he is said to have murdered Tréphine and later his son by her, Trémeur.

Eventually the local bishops were persuaded by Saint Samson to excommunicate Conomor. Samson also prevailed on the Frankish king Childebert I to abandon his support for Conomor as protector of the English channel and to release Judael. Judael gathered an army supported by Childebert's brother Chlothar I and killed Conomor in a battle in the Monts d'Arrée near Le Relecq, Plounéour-Ménez, which is named from the relics of the victims.

The Tristan Stone near Fowey records the burial of a 'Drustanus son of Conomorius' - see below.

The Cynfawr (Conomor) of medieval Welsh tradition is probably unrelated. An obscure figure with the epithet "Cadgaddug" ("Battle-winner"), he appears in the genealogies and one of the Welsh Triads as a descendant of Coel Hen from the Hen Ogledd. It is also unclear whether Cornish evidence points to the same individual as the Breton leader, or to an earlier relative with the same name.