[cornwall] a separate kingdom, methinks

The Witanagemot are well within their rights to point out that on the traditional 1579 Christopher Saxton map, the counties are as shown on the map top left but on the Obnoxious EU map, whilst Scotland, Ireland and Wales are treated as separate identities, England is not mentioned and instead, the NWO designations such as EU Region N2 are used for nine arbitrary divisions.

This is spitting in the face of the English and is yet another reason I'm diametrically opposed to these bozos. However, the Saxton map is also troublesome because of Cornwall, which this blogger is quite uneasy for the English to include in England.

Craig Weatherhill seems to have a point when he answers the question: "So, you don’t believe that Cornwall is part of England?"

No, and for many reasons. First of all, Cornwall was portrayed on numerous maps, including the famous Mappa Mundi, as separate from England right up until the mid 16th century. Henry VIII even listed England and Cornwall separately in the list of his realms given in his coronation address and, interestingly, Elizabeth I stated that she did not rule Cornwall (but Cornish was among the languages she was reputed to speak).

I don't thnk the true Englishman will dispute this and certainly in my education, we were taught that "The West" - Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall and Brittany were part of other races, other nationalities.

Even the Telegraph seems to concede this:

Like Cornwall, Brittany has a Celtic heritage.

This is far more in line with what I understood to be the case and it appears to be claimed in the musical traditions as well:

Cornwall is that piece of land at the southwest corner of Great Britain that sticks out into the Atlantic. Historically, the culture had a strong Celtic element.

Trouble is, where does it stop? The dividing sign on the A1[M] used to say "The North" and Northern England certainly feels its Viking roots, not only in the Jorvik exhibition. Henry VIII certainly had no love for the region as any student of history will recall.

Wiki concedes:

The north may be considered to constitute the six ancient counties of Cumberland, Northumberland, Westmorland, Durham, Lancashire and Yorkshire. This region coincides with the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Northumbria before it expanded into Gododdin and the Vikings conquered the Kingdom of Strathclyde.

To return to Cornwall, In 2000, Dr Brian Sykes of the Institute of Molecular Research carried out a huge genetic survey of Britain that highlighted the fact that:

… even today, there is a striking contrast between the western side of Britain (Sykes specifically named Cornwall, Wales, the western side of Scotland and the Hebrides, as well as running down into the Atlantic coasts of Europe), and eastern Britain …

In the new Britain which I'd like to see, there would seem to be England, Scotland, Ireland, Ulster [the nine counties], Wales and Cornwall. What's it to us, except for retirement homes to write memoirs from, to claim Cornwall?

Further essential reading here.

Crossposted at Ian Appleby's site.