Timeline of Cornish History - 900

900

• 926 The entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle reads....'This year fiery lights appeared in the north part of the heavens. And Sihtric perished: and king Aethelstan obtained the kingdom of the North-humbrians. And he ruled all the kings who were in this island: first, Huwal king of the West-Welsh (Cornish); and Constantine king of the Scots; and Uwen king of the people of Guent; and Ealdred, son of Ealdulf, of Bambrough : and they confirmed the peace by pledge, and by oaths, at the place which is called Eamot, on the 4th of the ides of July ; and they renounced all idolatry, and after that submitted to him in peace.
• 927 William of Malmesbury, writing around 1120, says that Athelstan evicted the Cornish from Exeter and perhaps the rest of Devon: "Exeter was cleansed of its defilement by wiping out that filthy race". The area inside the city walls still known today as 'Little Britain' is the quarter where most of the Cornish Romano-British aristocracy had their town houses, from which the Cornish were expelled. Under Athelstan's statutes it eventually became unlawful for any Cornishman to own land, and lawful for any Englishman to kill any Cornishman (or woman or child).
• 928 It is thought that the Cornish King Huwal, "King of the West Welsh" was one of several kings who signed a treaty with Aethelstan of Wessex at Egmont Bridge.
• 930 Armes Prydein, (the Prophecy of Britain), this early Welsh poem mentions 'Cornyw', the Celtic name for Cornwall. It foretells that the Welsh together with Cornwall, Brittany, Ireland and Cumbria would expel the English from Britain. This poem also demonstrates any early allegiance between the Celtic people of Britain.
• 936 Athelstan fixed Cornwall's eastern boundary as the east bank of the Tamar. There is no record of Athelstan taking his campaigns into Cornwall and it seems probable that Huwal, King of the Cornish, agreed to pay tribute thus avoiding further attacks and maintaining a high degree of autonomy. Prior to this the West Saxons had pushed their frontier across the Tamar as far west as the River Lynher, but this was only temporary. It was long enough, however, for Saxon settlement and land charters to influence our modern day inheritance of placenames: between Lynher and Tamar there are today many more English than Cornish place names, as is also the case in that other debatable land between Ottery and Tamar in north Cornwall.
• 944 Athelstan's successor, Edmund I of England, styled himself "King of the English and ruler of this province of the Britons"
• 981 The Vikings lay waste "Petroces stow" (probably Padstow) according to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.
• 986 Olaf Tryggvason allegedly visits the Isles of Scilly
• 997 The Dartmoor town of Lydford, near the Cornish/Wessex border just east of the Tamar is completely destroyed by an angry mob of Danish Vikings. The surprise attack on Lydford is ordered by the King of Denmark and Viking leader Sweyn Forkbeard (previously, Lydford was believed to be impregnable against Viking attack). However, Cornwall is left alone as Sweyn Forkbeard has no intention of crushing Cornwall—unlike Wessex.