Inventing Cornwall: Regional Autonomy in Early Stuart England

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Cornwall is an isolated region located on the peninsula of the same name in the southwest of Britain. The region was a territorial and ethno-cultural autonomy within the Early Modern composite monarchy. It has had an undefined constitutional status and specific privileges for centuries. Such autonomies were an important tool in maintaining the stability of the monarchy and the system of potestary relations. The construction of autonomies and corresponding regional identities took place at different levels, for example among intellectuals. Their work resulted in the creation of locally oriented narratives. The purpose of this article is to analyse the reflections of contemporaries on the status of Cornwall as part of the British composite monarchy. A treatise by Richard Carew, A Survey of Cornwall, was drawn upon as the main source. In this text Cornwall appears as a semi-autonomous region incorporated into the English monarchy. Carew offers his own version of the ethnogenetic myth, according to which the settlement of Britain begins precisely from the coast of Cornwall. This fact made this region the “key” to the whole history of Britain. Thus, the author postulates its inclusion in the English political and cultural space. Nevertheless, the Cornish managed to maintain their regional characteristics, which are actualized in modern Cornwall.