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for the murder of his brother was sent on pilgrimage, says that he departed for Armorica, as "Guidnerth himself and the Britons and the archbishop of that land were of one tongue and of one nation, although divided by a tract of land." 27

We are obliged to repose largely on inference with regard to the earliest settlement of Britons in Armorica prior to the migration of the first half of the 6th century. But when we come to the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasion, it is otherwise, we have documentary evidence concerning that.

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Gildas, after describing in his inflated style the miseries of his native Britain, goes on to say :-"Some of the wretched remnant were consequently captured on the mountains and killed in heaps. Others, overcome by hunger, came and yielded themselves to the enemies, to be their slaves for ever, if they were not instantly slain, which was equivalent to the highest service. Others repaired to parts beyond the sea, with strong lamentation, as if, instead of the oarsman's call, singing thus beneath the swelling sails, Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for eating, and among the Gentiles hast Thou scattered us.' Gildas does not say whither the British refugees betook themselves, that we learn from other sources. Eginhard, writing under the date 786, says: “At the period when insular Britain was invaded by the Angles and Saxons, a large portion of its inhabitants traversed the sea and came to occupy the country of the Veneti and the Curiosoliti, at the extremity of Gaul.” 29 Procopius says: "The isle of Britain is inhabited by three nations that are very numerous, each having its own king, the Angles, the Frisians (ie., Saxons) and the Britons. These nations possess such an abundance of men, that annually a number of them quit the isle along with wives and children, and emigrate to the Franks, who assign to them as dwelling the most distant portion of their empire." 30 Procopius, living at Byzantium, was ill-informed. There is no evidence of Saxons and Angles settling in the extremities of Gaul, though there is of" Frisians" ravaging the north coast of Brittany. Ernold Nigellus, in 834, also speaks of the migration to Armorica, and says that it was conducted peaceably.

The author of the Life of S. Winwaloe says:-"The sons of the Britons, leaving the British sea, landed on these shores, at a period

27 Book of Llan Dáv, p. 181.

28 De excidio Brit., ed. Williams, p. 57.

29 "

'Cum ab Anglis et Saxonibus Britannia fuisset invasa, magna pars incolarum ejus mare trajicentes, in ultimis Galliæ finibus, Venetorum et Curiosolitarum regiones occupavit." Annal., ann. 786.

30 De Bello Gothico, iv, 20.

when the barbarian Saxon conquered the Isle. These children of a beloved race established themselves in this country, glad to find repose after so many griefs. In the meantime, the unfortunate Britons who had not quitted their country, were decimated by plague. Their corpses lay without sepulture. The major portion of the isle was depopulated. Then a small number of men who had escaped the sword of the invaders abandoned their native land, to seek refuge, some among the Scots, the rest in Belgic Gaul.” 31 Wrdistan wrote this in the ninth century, but he rested his statements on early authorities, though for this particular fact he quotes only popular tradition, "ut vulgo refertur."

To about the years 460 or 470, in documents relating to Armorica, that name prevails, and the inhabitants are spoken of as Veneti, Ossismi, Curiosoliti, Redones, or Naneti. But from that date all is altered. The name of Armorica disappears, the ancient peoples are no more spoken of, but the land is entitled Lesser Britain, and the inhabitants are Britons. 32

The linguistic evidence is conclusive as to the extent and completeness of the colonisation. "The Armorican Breton tongue was not only closely akin to that of the insular British or Welsh, it was identical with it." 33 Now, if there had been a mere infiltration of colonists, the result would have been a fusion of the British with the base Gallo-Latin of the inhabitants. But this did not take place. The Gallo-Roman population had disappeared out of the country places, and remained only in the towns. Those natives who clung to the fields and woods were of the original non-Aryan stock, and probably still retained their agglutinative tongue.

M. de Courson 34 first promulgated the theory that the settlers in Breton Cornubia were refugees from the North of Britain, and he was followed by M. de la Borderie. According to him the Otadini of the Wall fled before the Picts and found a home in Armorica, and founded the settlement of Cornubia there. He relied on no

31 Britannia insula, de qua stirpis nostra origo olim, ut vulgo refertur, processit . . . Longe ab hujus moribus parvam distasse sobolem suam non opinor, quæ quondam ratibus ad istam devecta est, citra mare Britannicum, terram tempore non alio quo gens-barbara dudum, aspera jam armis, moribus indiscreta-Saxonum maternum possedit cespitem. Hinc se cara soboles in istum conclusit sinum, quo se tuta loco, magnis laboribus fessa, ad oram concessit sine bello quieta." Vita S. Winwaloei, i, 1.

32 De la Borderie, Hist. de Bretagne, i, p. 248.

33 J. Loth, L'Emigration bretonne en Armorique, p. 92.

34 De Courson, La Bretagne, Paris, 1863, p. 163; De la Borderie, Hist. de Bretagne, i, pp. 301-2. J. Loth, in Revue Celtique, t. xxv, p. 91 et seq.

better foundation than this:-that there was a Corstopitum on the Wall near Newcastle, and that the name of Quimper was Curiosopitum. Also:-that a troop raised among the Cornovii of the Severn Valley had been sent to guard the Wall, as noticed in the Notitia Dignitatum, "Sub dispositione ducis spectabilis Britanniarum, per lineam valli, Tribunus cohortis Cornoviorum." The Notitia gives us information relative to the disposition of troops during the period between the reign of Constantine and the retreat of the Roman armies.

Now if Cornovii from the Severn basin had been stationed on the Wall, when the troops were recalled, they would go whither summoned. If they dispersed, they would return to their own homes. Moreover Corstopitum is not the same name as Curiosopitum, of the Coriosoliti.

What we do know is that Cunedda and a large body of men, who did hold the Wall, after the withdrawal of the Roman legions, when unable to keep out the barbarians any longer, took refuge, not in Armorica, but in Gwynedd, where they drove the Irish out of all the north and west of Wales, and established themselves in Gwynedd. and Ceredigion, and portions of Powys. It is more probable that the native Britons of Cornwall founded the Armorican Cornubia, when forced to migrate by the occupation of the entire west of the peninsula by the Irish from Ossory, and the whole north-east and the Tamar down to the mouth by the settlers from Brecknock, who were also of Irish extraction. It is significant that something like fifty saintly Celtic patrons in Cornwall should also be culted in Finistère, whereas there is not a trace of any saint from the district of the Otadini having ever effected a colonisation there. But no argument can be based on identity of names, for the name Cornubia for Cornwall does not occur earlier than the end of the 7th century. Previously the whole peninsula is spoken of as peopled by the Dumnonii.

On settling in Armorica, the colonists from the beginning organized themselves into tribes. But the tribal system had to be modified to meet the new conditions.

The ancient tribe consisted of those who were united by blood. In all the Celtic tribes the tie of kinship, of blood relationship, was that which bound them together. But in process of time this went through considerable modification, and upon blood-relationships other links were forged, those of mutual rights and mutual protection. "This new idea of mutual protection very soon entered most forcibly into tribal development, and almost eclipsed the original idea of the tie of blood-relationship being the basis of tribal society. The tribe

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was to a great extent reorganised upon these new ideas, which played the most important part in the later tribal development." 35 alteration was forced on the colonists, as annually fresh arrivals came to the coast, and solicited adoption into the already constituted plebes, if they were not numerous enough themselves to form an independent plebs.

Thus the tribe was reorganised on a broader basis. It formed a plou, the Welsh plwyf, consisting of the original band that had come over, made up of tribesmen, under their hereditary chief, who disposed of his clansmen in their trefs, and the settling of controversies among them took place in the chieftain's lis. That the regular cantref was formed is improbable, the trefs were fewer, and were multiplied as fresh settlers arrived and placed themselves under the jurisdiction of the chief and were received into his tribe by adoption.

The artificial character of the organisation apparently may be traced in the settlement of Fragan, the father of S. Winwaloe. He was married to Gwen Teirbron, she being an Armorican Briton by birth. So as to have as many plous, nuclei for tribal formations, he not only established one near S. Brieuc, and a second in the county of Léon, but also constituted a plou for his wife, Gwen, near S. Brieuc, and another near his own place in Léon.

The consolidation of the plous under sovereign princes came somewhat later. The first to exercise sovereign jurisdiction in Dumnonia was Rhiwal, about the year 515,36 but he did not venture to do so without the permission of the king of the Franks. 37

Rhiwal, who died about 520, was succeeded by his son Deroc, who ruled till about 535, and to him succeeded his son Jonas, who died about 540, leaving a son Judual. Conmore, Count of Poher, married the widow of Jonas, and usurped the rule over Domnonia. Judual, fearing for his life, fled to S. Leonore, who facilitated his escape to the court of Childebert. This Frank king confirmed Conmore in his

35 Willis Bund, The Celtic Church of Wales, p. 59.

36 Riwalus Britanniæ dux filius fuit Derochi . . . Hic Riwalus, a transmarinis veniens Britanniis cum multitudine navium, possedit totam minorem Britanniam tempore Chlotarii regis Francorum . Hic autem rexit Britanniam tempore Dagoberti filii Clotharii." Ex Cod. MS. S. Vedasti Dom Morice, Preuves, i, 211; Mabillon, Acta SS. O.S. B., sæc. ii. The statement that Rhiwal possessed all Little Britain is an exaggeration. This is the Rhiwal who received and welcomed S. Brioc. De la Borderie supposed they were distinct personages because he placed the period of S. Brioc earlier than need be, misled by the assumption that Brioc had been a disciple of Germanus of Auxerre.

37 Le Baud, Hist. Bretagne, 1638, p. 65. The passage is quoted under S. Brioc further on. Also the late Chron. Briocense, quoted by De la Borderie, Hist. Bret., i, 353.

usurpation, made him his lieutenant in Brittany, and retained Judual in honorary restraint at Paris, till S. Samson obtained leave in 554 to organise an insurrection for the overthrow of Conmore, who was killed in 555, and then Judual was elevated to the throne of Domnonia. The pedigree of the princes of Domnonia, as well as can be made out, is as follows:

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Léon was probably, as already said, colonised from Gwent, or at all events the chief who consolidated the settlement there under his rule, and gave the name to the land, probably came from Gwent. His name was Withur. In the Life of S. Paul of Léon he is mentioned as the chief; he died probably about 525. According to the Life of S. Tudwal, Deroc, son of Rhiwal, exercised rule in Léon, perhaps by usurpation in the old age of Withur. It is singular that no mention is made of him in the Life of S. Paul. About the year 520 Deroc became Prince of Domnonia.

Perhaps the next chief was Ewen, who is mentioned in the Life of S. Goulven as having his lis or court at Lesneven, and who was engaged in repelling an invasion of Saxon or Frisian pirates on the coast. But if so, he has been confounded by the writer of the Life with another Ewen of Léon who lived much later. Soon after, Conmore, Count of Poher, began his encroachments by annexing Léon, and thenceforth it formed a portion of Domnonia.

Cornubia, or Cornugallia, was formed into a principality earlier

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