| Battle of Hehil | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| Unknown | Unknown | ||||||
The Battle of Hehil was a battle won by a force of Britons, probably against the Anglo-Saxons of Wessex around the year 720. The location is unknown, except that it was apud Cornuenses ("among the Cornish").
The only direct reference to the battle appears in the Annales Cambriae . A translation from the original Latin is as follows:
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. [1] [2]
The Annales Cambriae are undated but Egerton Phillimore placed the entry in the year 722. [3]
Although the source does not name the Anglo-Saxons as the enemy in any of the three battles, it has been claimed that the failure to specify the enemy was simply because this was so obvious to all, and that any other opponents would have been clearly named. [4]
The battle is not mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , and H. P. R. Finberg has speculated that this is because Wessex was defeated. [5]
The location of Hehil is not known, but many scholars have tried to identify it. In 1916 the Celtic scholar Donald MacKinnon was not willing to say more than that it was on "the Devonian peninsula". [6] In 2003 Christopher Snyder simply stated that "722 The Annales Cambriae record a British victory at Hehil in Cornwall". [7]
Based simply on the place name, Frank Stenton suggested that the battle was at Hayle in west Cornwall. [8] In 1987 Leslie Alcock noted that the most obvious interpretation of 'Hehil among the Cornish' is the River Hayle in west Cornwall, but referred to Ekwall's identification of the name with the River Camel, previously known as the Heil, and concluded that this "more easterly attribution may be preferable". [9] Other scholars preferring the River Camel include W. G. Hoskins, who put Hehil at Egloshayle on that river; [8] Leonard Dutton, who suggested in 1993 "at or near the spot where the fifteenth century bridge at Wadebridge crosses the Camel"; [10] and Philip Payton who in 2004 located it "probably [at] the strategically important Camel estuary". [11]
Malcolm Todd took the view in 1987 that these sites were "too far west to be taken seriously", and made two suggestions. The first was Hele at Jacobstow in north Cornwall, [12] a place which had been mentioned as a possibility in 1931 in the introduction to The Place-Names of Devon, [13] and was also supported by the landscape archaeologist Della Hooke in 1994. [14] Todd's other suggestion was Hele in the Culm Valley in east Devon. [12]
In 2022 John Fletcher explained why he thought that the village of Merton, north of Okehampton, has "potentially excellent credentials as the site for the historic Hehil". [15]
The British victory at Hehil in 722 may have proved decisive in the history of the West Britons: it was not until almost a hundred years later (in 814) that further battles are recorded in the area, a period which Nicholas Orme sees as probably consolidating the division between Cornwall and Devon. [16]
In 2013 T. M. Charles-Edwards, noting that the battle came "not long after Geraint was last attested as king of Dumnonia", suggested that it might indicate that Dumnonia had fallen by 722 and that the victory of Hehil had secured the survival of the kingdom of Cornwall for another 150 years. [17]
The Dumnonii or Dumnones were a British tribe who inhabited Dumnonia, the area now known as Cornwall and Devon in the further parts of the South West peninsula of Britain, from at least the Iron Age up to the early Saxon period. They were bordered to the east by the Durotriges tribe.
The Kingdom of Wessex was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom in the south of Great Britain, from 519 until England was unified by Æthelstan in 927.
Ecgberht, also spelled Egbert, Ecgbert, Ecgbriht, Ecgbeorht, and Ecbert, was King of Wessex from 802 until his death in 839. His father was King Ealhmund of Kent. In the 780s, Ecgberht was forced into exile to Charlemagne's court in the Frankish Empire by the kings Offa of Mercia and Beorhtric of Wessex, but on Beorhtric's death in 802, Ecgberht returned and took the throne.
The Battle of Deorham is claimed as a decisive military encounter between the West Saxons and the Britons of the West Country in 577. The battle, which was a major victory for Wessex's forces led by Ceawlin and his son, Cuthwine, resulted in the capture of the Brythonic cities of Glevum (Gloucester), Corinium Dobunnorum (Cirencester), and Aquae Sulis (Bath). It also led to the permanent cultural and ethnic separation of Dumnonia from Wales.
Ine, also rendered Ini or Ina, was King of Wessex from 689 to 726. At Ine's accession, his kingdom dominated much of southern England. However, he was unable to retain the territorial gains of his predecessor, Cædwalla, who had expanded West Saxon territory substantially. By the end of Ine's reign, the kingdoms of Kent, Sussex, and Essex were no longer under West Saxon sway; however, Ine maintained control of what is now Hampshire, and consolidated and extended Wessex's territory in the western peninsula.
Geraint, known in Latin as Gerontius, was a King of Dumnonia who ruled in the early 8th century. During his reign, it is believed that Dumnonia came repeatedly into conflict with the neighbouring Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Wessex. Geraint was the last recorded king of a unified Dumnonia, and was called King of the Welsh by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Subsequent kings of Dumnonia reigned over an area that was eventually reduced to the limits of present-day Cornwall.
Dumnonia is the Latinised name for a Brythonic kingdom that existed in Sub-Roman Britain between the late 4th and late 8th centuries CE in the more westerly parts of present-day South West England. It was centred in the area of modern Devon, but also included modern Cornwall and part of Somerset, with its eastern boundary changing over time as the gradual westward expansion of the neighbouring Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex encroached on its territory. The spelling Damnonia is sometimes encountered, but that spelling is also used for the land of the Damnonii, later part of the Kingdom of Strathclyde, in present-day southern Scotland. The form Domnonia also occurs and shares a linguistic relationship with the Breton region of Domnonée.
The history of Cornwall goes back to the Paleolithic, but in this period Cornwall only had sporadic visits by groups of humans. Continuous occupation started around 10,000 years ago after the end of the last ice age. When recorded history started in the first century BCE, the spoken language was Common Brittonic, and that would develop into Southwestern Brittonic and then the Cornish language. Cornwall was part of the territory of the tribe of the Dumnonii that included modern-day Devon and parts of Somerset. After a period of Roman rule, Cornwall reverted to rule by independent Romano-British leaders and continued to have a close relationship with Brittany and Wales as well as southern Ireland, which neighboured across the Celtic Sea. After the collapse of Dumnonia, the remaining territory of Cornwall came into conflict with neighbouring Wessex.
Devon is a county in south west England, bordering Cornwall to the west with Dorset and Somerset to the east. There is evidence of occupation in the county from Stone Age times onward. Its recorded history starts in the Roman period when it was a civitas. It was then a separate kingdom for a number of centuries until it was incorporated into early England. It has remained a largely agriculture based region ever since though tourism is now very important.
The Timeline of conflict in Anglo-Saxon Britain is concerned with the period of history from just before the departure of the Roman Army, in the 4th century, to just after the Norman Conquest in the 11th century.
The Cornovii is a hypothetical name for a tribe presumed to have been part of the Dumnonii, a Celtic tribe inhabiting the south-west peninsula of Great Britain, during some part of the Iron Age, Roman and post-Roman periods. The Cornovii are supposed to have lived at the western end of the peninsula, in the area now known as Cornwall, and if the tribal name were correct it would be the ultimate source of the name of that present-day county.
Cuthwulf, also sometimes Cutha, was the third son of Cuthwine, and consequently a member of the House of Wessex. Although a member of the direct male line from Cynric to Egbert, Cuthwulf was never king. He is said to have been born circa 592, and his death date is unknown.
This timeline summarizes significant events in the History of Cornwall
Donyarth or Dungarth was the last recorded king of Cornwall. He was probably an under-king, paying tribute to the West Saxons.
The Bishop of Cornwall was the bishop of a diocese which existed between about 930 and 1050. Nothing is known about bishops in the post-Roman British Kingdom of Cornwall, but by the mid-ninth century Wessex was gaining control over the area, and between 833 and 870 a bishop at Dinuurrin, probably Bodmin, acknowledged the authority of the Archbishop of Canterbury. There may have been another bishop at St Germans. By the end of the century Cornwall was part of the diocese of Sherborne, and Asser may have been appointed the suffragan bishop of Devon and Cornwall around 890 before he became bishop of the whole diocese. When he died in 909, Sherborne was divided into three dioceses, of which Devon and Cornwall were one. In Æthelstan's reign (924-939) there was a further division with the establishment of a separate Cornish diocese based at St Germans. Later bishops of Cornwall were sometimes referred to as the bishops of St Germans. In 1050, the bishoprics of Crediton and of Cornwall were merged and the Episcopal see was transferred to Exeter.
Gafulford is the site of a battle in South West England known from the first entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 823 AD : "Her waes Weala gefeoht Defna aet Gafulford". A translation is: "there was a fight between the Weala and the Defna at Gafulford".
The Battle of Pencon or Pencoed was a battle won by the Britons, possibly against the Mercians or against themselves, around the year 720.
The Battle of Hingston Down took place in 838, probably at Hingston Down in Cornwall between a combined force of Cornish and Vikings on the one side, and West Saxons led by Ecgberht, King of Wessex on the other. The result was a West Saxon victory. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, which called the Cornish the West Welsh:
