Abstract: At the beginning of the 8th Century an entry in the Welsh Annals records three victories of the Britons over Anglo-Saxon invaders: “And the battle of Hehil among the Cornish, the battle of Garth Maelog, the battle of Pencon among the south Britons, and the Britons were the victors in those three battles.”
This remarkable entry is the first time the Cornish are listed as their own people, separate to an overriding SW Kingdom of Dumnonia. But how did this identity emerge? What happened to Dumnonia? And how did the fledgling Cornish survive the eventual rise of England to preserve their own identity, language and culture into the modern era? John Fletcher, author of The Western Kingdom: The Birth of Cornwall will aim to answer these questions and paint a picture of a vibrant, outward looking and thriving kingdom and culture located in the far SW of Britain.