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Us and Them

Graham Smith | 14:19 UK time, Wednesday, 25 August 2010

Should it be the Duchy of Devon? Or is Devon a county? The Duchy of Cornwall owns four times as much land in Devon (28,507 hectares) as it does in Cornwall (source: Duchy of Cornwall accounts 2010).

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    No, because ACCORDING TO LAW, Devon is not a territorial duchy. Cornwall is.

    Look at THE LAW, not the Duchy's website. Read the Cornish Foreshore Case of 1858 - this will show you why the Duchy is not what it says it is.

    In 1858 it argued that the Duchy was a territorial duchy that covered the whole of Cornwall - that it instead of the Crown owns the Cornish foreshore.

    That description is still accurate today, no matter what it describes itself as now. Between 1858 and the present day the Duchy went from being all of Cornwall (a territorial duchy, like Luxembourg) to a private estate, without ANY change in the law.

  • Comment number 2.

    Had I feeling I'd get to 1858 eventually.

  • Comment number 3.

    Graham,

    Try this research from John Kirkhope public notary and currently studying the Cornish constitution at Plymouth Uni I believe.


    The Duchy of Cornwall - A very Peculiar 'private estate:

  • Comment number 4.

    It's important to make a distinction between the "Duchy of Cornwall" - a private estate that owns 54,090 hectares in south west Britain, and which nobody is disputing the existence of - and the Duchy of Cornwall - a territorial duchy that, according to law, covers the entire land area of Cornwall.

    The Duchy of Cornwall private estate does not recognise the Duchy of Cornwall territorial duchy, but that doesn't mean it doesn't still exist in law.

    The Duchy management claimed in 1858 that it was a territorial duchy, but now it claims that it is a private estate. It can't be both. Somehow between then and now, Cornwall's constitution has been pushed aside, something which should concern anyone who values democracy and the rule of law.

    I'm glad you're at least trying to look into it Graham, and I appreciate it. Not many journalists would bother. But it's going to take a lot more digging than the Duchy's PR machine.

    "The Duchy Charters have always been construed and treated, not merely by the Courts of Judicature, but also by the Legislature of the Country, as having vested in the Dukes of Cornwall the whole of the territorial interest and dominion of the Crown in and over the entire County of Cornwall".

  • Comment number 5.

    Get a grip, Mr Smith. You're behaving like a gullible GCSE student!
    You won't be getting the Pilger prize at this rate!

    Try this for some factual Duchy stuff:



    How about this simple explanation: The Duchy Of Cornwall is a distinct territorial entity separate and apart from England which lies to the west and NEXT to England. In the course of the last seven centuries the Dukes of the Duchy Of Cornwall have used income derived from the people of Cornwall to acquire additional land and property beyond the territorial boundary of The Duchy Of Cornwall. Those properties beyond the boundary of The Duchy Of Cornwall are assets of The Duchy Of Cornwall but do not constitute any part of the territory that is The Duchy Of Cornwall. Is that simple enough for you?

  • Comment number 6.

    I read a valid comment in another place which explains why so many males "USE" Cornish independence whereas say in Devon the movement is more or less none existent

    Full quote

    Does anyone else think had Cornwall a top flight football team all this male oestrogen would be deployed to team colours rather than bigoted racist pursuits, food for thought? Professor Simon Davis

    The Duchy is a sub-division of the monarchy state, it is noting more than a slice of cake with the whole cake being the UK controlled by the head of state, as head of state they are free to chop up the cake however they like

    The very nature of how the monarchy operates has drastically changed with them holding no real power and are just a very rich tourist attraction

  • Comment number 7.

    Setting aside unsourced territorial distinction denialists and whether the question as to whether 'Peter Tregantle''s 'Professor Simon Davis' actually exists...

    Mr Smith - your mind really does appear to have come straight out of the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖlone factory. It's very simple, however much the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ attempt to impose and propagate their wilfully ill-informed and foolish notion of equivalence between a county over in England - Devon, and the Celtic Nation and Duchy Of Cornwall which is a different kind of territorial entity altogether and is NEXT to England, just like Scotland and Wales.

    Do some more homework, why don't you, before coming out with your spontanteous and whimsical nouveau arriviste poppings, cracklings and gurglings :

    /dna/h2g2/A3712510









    Acts Of Parliament:

  • Comment number 8.

    I would have thought he stands more chance of existing than a person called AccurateChronometer does. It was the salient comment Professor Simon Davis makes which justifies behaviour as shown by you I was driving at.

    As for the tedious links often used to abuse all things Cornish I wonder if anyone would click on any of them given the hostility shown by the person providing them.

    You need to work on PR before trying adapt people, hostile people make poor salesman. Cornwall being a duchy makes very little difference to the average man in the street and as the topic highlights makes us no more unique than Plymouth, the only person who cares about the duchy is Charles, it has no meaning in my life and the only reason nationalists like it is they believe it offers a clear divide, which it does but only for one duke not the people within the English county of Cornwall

  • Comment number 9.

    Peter. Setting aside your vituperation - there is no aggression, merely the pursuit of clarity - please provide your evidence that The Duchy Of Cornwall (territorial entity) is an 'English county'.

  • Comment number 10.

    All the so called unique laws creating the two duchies are designed to afford the air to the throne full sovereignty over the region as a training ground rather than a unique location aside from the UK, the duchy has in fact become more merged with the crown over the years and now the crown handles almost all matters of law. The duchy does not share the same boundaries as the English county and 50% of the land is within Devon.

    The Duchy is a title and land, the extraordinary legal rights afforded to the duchy which creates a unique distintinction separate from the crown including the right of wreck on the Cornish shores but the duchy estates are separate from what many call the duchy. The laws cutting the crown do so to delegate full power to the Duchy rather than create a unique Country; Cornwall has always been part of the UK, since the Entire south west a Brythonic kingdom called Dumnonia a fact many Cornish nationalists opt to overlook as this would include Devon and much of Somerset and Dorset, the links between Cornwall and Devon are unavoidable given our shared history and remoteness from the seat of power

    I agree with Peter the Duchy is nothing to be feared or even considered it is meaningless to every day folk now the crown more or less has full power over our everyday laws

  • Comment number 11.

    @Peter Tregantle: Even after a comment that states you offer no sources or proof of what you are saying, you still continue to post the same mis-informed arguments and still offer no proof/sources/articles/whatever.

    It matters to more than one person (The Duke) unless you think all the other posters on here and other sites are just the Duke having a laugh trolling as many sites as he can ( I quite like that image though :D ).

    While I don't doubt Simon Davis' existence, it would be nice to know where you are quoting from.
    Also that quote is opinion not fact. It is, ironically, quite bigoted and racist to assume that everyone that cares for Cornwall's true status is bigoted and racist.
    The only merit to the remark is in stating that they are being racist he at least acknowledges a difference of race between them and those they direct their comments to.

  • Comment number 12.

    @Andrew Jacks

    During the 1858 Cornish Foreshore Case the Duchy *successfully* argued that it owned the Cornish Foreshore; that the Duchy was (is) a territorial Duchy covering the area of the county of Cornwall. It cannot be that *and* a private estate at the same time - the current description it provides of itself is wrong, either through ignorance of *the constitution* or deception.

    What the private estate says the Duchy is doesn't matter. What matters is what it actually is.

    I quote you the Foreshore Case of 1858:

    "The Duchy Charters have always been construed and treated, not merely by the Courts of Judicature, but also by the Legislature of the Country, as having vested in the Dukes of Cornwall the whole of the territorial interest and dominion of the Crown in and over the *entire* County of Cornwall".

  • Comment number 13.

    "Cornish people — people who would describe their ethnicity as Cornish rather than only English or anything else — do not see a necessary link between their being Cornish and celebrating that identity on the one hand and political nationalism on the other, a point that some nationalists apparently have difficulty with. I believe people do understand what it means to be Cornish in a new way which does not require old-fashioned political nationalism. Being Cornish is now a personal and cultural identity; it does not necessarily or usually mean being a political nationalist. A Cornishman, confident about who he is, justly proud and happy in his Cornish identity, proud of Cornwall and its past and present achievements, aware of its joys and difficulties, can wave a flag, enjoy a festival, and support his local rugby team and not vote nationalist. It’s clear that is so for most."

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