Cadoc of Cornwall

Cadoc may have been born in St Clement, according to William Hals, or perhaps lived there;[1] Hals also associates the Intsworth peninsula in St Anthony parish,[2] and the Condura and Tregarne manors in St Keverne parish with Cadoc.[3] Cornish historian Richard Polwhele calls Launceston, Tintagel, and Trematon castles the residences of Cadoc and the ancient earls of Cornwall.[4] William of Worcester, writing in the 15th century, said that Cadoc was a survivor of the Cornish royal line,[5] which William Borlase supports, saying he was "descended from a long train of Ancestors, sometime called Kings, sometime Dukes, and Earls of Cornwall".[6] Modern sources connect Cadoc with the last recorded king of Cornwall, Donyarth (died 875), suggesting Cadoc was his direct descendant.[7]

Worcester says that Cadoc was briefly appointed as the first Earl of Cornwall by William the Conqueror after the Norman Conquest of England, and antiquaries Richard Carew and John Williams write that he paid homage to William for his earldom at the time of the Conquest.[8] Hals suggests that Cadoc may have supported the rebels at the Siege of Exeter in 1068 and lost his earldom as a result; William did travel to Cornwall following the seige to show his strength.[1][9][10] Brian of Brittany fought for the Normans at the seige, and was rewarded with lands in Devon and Cornwall; The Complete Peerage states that he received Cornwall and west Devon when they were taken by the Normans. Brian "is often considered to have been Earl of Cornwall" though the first record of this claim is in 1140 by his nephew Alan, which may just have been to strengthen the legitimacy of his own claim to the title.[11][12] Brian was probably deposed after the revolt of the Earls in 1075, and his lands in Cornwall given to William's half-brother Robert, Count of Mortain who owned virtually all of Cornwall by the time of Domesday in 1086; he was often referred to informally as Earl of Cornwall, but was never given the title.[12]

When Robert's son William, Count of Mortain rebelled against King Henry I in 1104 his lands were stripped, and, according to McKenzie, Woolwater, and Pohwele, they may have been restored to Cadoc's son.[4] Carew, Williams and Hals write that Cadoc's son had one daughter and heir, called Agnes, Avicia or Beatrix, who married Reginald de Dunstanville. Williams and Hals say that through her, Reginald claimed the title Earl of Cornwall, which he was later formally invested with by his half-sister Empress Matilda, after it was taken by Alan of Richmond during the Anarchy.[8][9][1][13][14] According to Caunter, John the Chanter, Bishop of Exeter from 1184–1190, was said to be a great-grandson of Cadoc.[15]

Cadoc's name is not certain, with Carew giving both his and his son's names as Condor, but noting that Camden referred to him as Cadoc.[8] Camden actually gave his name as "Candorus, call'd by others Cadocus".[16] Williams gives both his and his son's names as Candor.[9] Hals gives his name as Cundor or Condor, and Condorus/Condurus/Condura in Latin, and his son as Cad-dock/Caddock or Condor the Second.[1]

John Bannister says that the name Cadoc derives from cadwg 'warlike', William Pryce gives Cad 'war', Cadwr 'a soldier' or 'a champion', and Cadgur 'a man of war', Craig Weatherhill gives the meaning of Cadoc as 'man of battle', while Hals translates it as to 'bear or carry-war'.[17][18][5][1]

Hals wrote that the name Condor was in all probability taken from a place in St Clement called Conor or Condura, which Davies Gilbert says means 'the King or Prince's Water'.[1] Richard Charnock found this less likely than Pryce's suggestion that Condurra or Condourra comes from con-dower 'the neck of water'.[19] Bannister gives Condora as possibly being from 'the head' (cean) 'between the two waters' (dourau), and Condurra/Condurrow as 'druid's down', 'the neck of water', or possibly 'oak' (deru) 'down' (goon).[17]

Attributed arms of Cadoc's son, from Hals' History of Cornwall (c. 1750)

In Britannia (1586–1610), William Camden wrote:

As to the Earls: Candorus, call'd by others Cadocus, is mention'd by modern writers as the last Earl of Cornwall of British extraction: his Arms (as the Heralds tell you) were 15 besants, in a field sable.[16]

In his Survey of Cornwall (1602), the antiquary Richard Carew wrote:

What time William the bastard subdued this Realme, one Condor possessed the Earledome of Cornwall, and did homage for the same: he had issue another Condor, whose daughter and heire Agnes, was maried to Reignald Earle of Bristowe, base sonne to King Henry the first. This note I borrowed out of an industrious collection, which setteth downe all the noble mens creations, Armes, and principall descents, in euery Kings dayes since the conquest: but master Camden, our Clarentieulx, nameth him Cadoc, and saith farther, that Robert Morton, brother to William Conquerour, by his mother Herlot, was the first Earle of Norman blood, and that his sonne William succeeded him; who taking part with Duke Robert, against Henry the first, thereby got captiuity, and lost his honour, with which that King inuested the forementioned Reignald.[8]

In the Book of Baglan (1600–1607), John Williams wrote:

Candor, a brittan, was at the Conq. tyme E. of Cornewal and did homag to the conq. w^m for his Earldom, and had issue a sone named Candor who was 2 E. of Cornwall next after the Conquest. Candor had a da. & h. called Avicia ma. to Raynold, E. of Bristow, and in her right was E. of Cornewall; beareth S., 10 beausants o., 4, 3, 2, 1.[9]

William Hals subsequently wrote:

In this church town [St Clement's] is the well-known place of Conor, Condura, id est, the King or Prince's Water (viz. Cornwall), whose royalty is still over the same, and whose lands cover comparatively the whole parish; from which place in all probability was denominated Cundor or Condor, in Latin Condorus, i. e. Condura, Earl of Cornwall at the time of the Norman Conquest, who perhaps lived, or was born here. And moreover, the inhabitants of this church town and its neighbourhood will tell you, by tradition from age to age, that here once dwelt a great lord and lady called Condura.

This Condurus, as our historians tell us, in 1016 [sic] submitted to the Conqueror's jurisdiction, paid homage for his earldom, and made an oath of his fealty to him; but this report doth not look like a true one, for most certain it is, in the 3rd year of the Conqueror's reign, he was deprived of his earldom, the same being given to the Conqueror's half-brother, Robert Earl of Morton in Normandy, whose son William for a long time succeeded him in that dignity after his death. Is it not, therefore, more probable that this Earl Condurus confederated with his countrymen at Exeter, in that insurrection of the people against the Conqueror in the 3rd year of his reign, and for that reason was deprived of his earldom? Be it as it was, certain it is he married and had issue Cad-dock (id est, bear or carry-war), his son and heir, whom some authors call Condor the Second, who is by them taken for and celebrated as Earl of Cornwall.

But what part of the lands or estate thereof he enjoyed (whilst Robert and William, Earls of Morton aforesaid, his contemporaries, for thirty years were alive, and doubtless possessed thereof, as well as his title and dignity) hath not yet appeared to me. His chief dwelling and place of residence was at Jutsworth, near Saltash and Trematon, where he married and had issue one only daughter named Agnes, as some say, others Beatrix, who was married to Reginald Fitz-Harry, base son of King Henry I., by his concubine Anne Corbett, in whose right he was made Earl of Cornwall, after William Earl of Cornwall aforesaid had forfeited the same, by attainder of treason against the Conqueror and his sons, and was deprived thereof.

This Earl Caddock, or Condor the 2nd, departed this life 1120, and lies buried in the chancel of St. Stephen's Church, by Saltash, and gave for his arms, in a field Sable, 15 bezants palewise, 4, 4, 4, 2, 1.[1]

William Borlase wrote in The Antiquities of Cornwall (1754):

For when the Conquerour came in, the last Earl of Cornwall of British blood (by some called Candorus; by Camden, Cadocus) descended from a long train of Ancestors, sometime called Kings, sometime Dukes, and Earls of Cornwall, was displaced, and his Lands as well as Honours given to Robert Earl of Moreton; and it is natural to think that, where the Residence of those ancient Earls of Cornwall was, there he occasionally fixed his Court, as at Lanceston, Tindagel, and Trematon. Mr. Carew, in his Survey gives us this account of an ancient Monument found in the parish Church of St. Stephen, to which this Castle belongs. "I have received information (he says) from one averring eye witness, that about fourscore years since, there was digged up in the parish chancel, a leaden coffin, which, being opened, shewed the proportion of a very big man. The partie farder told me, how a writing, graved in the lead, expressed the same to be the burial of a Duke, whose heir was married to the Prince, but who it should be, I cannot devise; albeit, my best pleasing conjecture lighteth upon Orgerius, because his daughter was married to Edgar." Now this Orgerius was Duke of Cornwall, A. D. 959 and might probably have lived at Trematon Castle in this parish; but he was buried in the monastery of Tavistock (as W. of Malmsbury says), so that probably the Duke of Cornwall buried here was Cadoc, hereafter mentioned. Farther of this Castle, before the Conquest, I have not yet seen. Under Robert, Earl of Moreton and Cornwall, it appears by the Exeter Domesday, that Reginald de Valletorta held the Castle; but the inheritance came to William Earl of Cornwall, from whom it passed by attainder to the crown, with his other lands and dignities; then, as some think, Cadoc, son of the Condorus above-mentioned, was restored to the Earldom of Cornwall, lived and died at the Castle of Trematon, leaving one only daughter and heir, Agnes, married to Reginald Fitz-Henry, natural son to Henry I. I conjecture, therefore, that this Cadoc must be that Duke (or rather Earl) of Cornwall, whose sepulchre was discovered as above, his daughter being married to a Prince of the Royal Blood.[6]

According to the vernacular history of the Cornish and the Bodmin manumissions the descendants of Cadoc lived on in the ancient areas of Pydar and Bodmin in Cornwall and included as a descendant Thomas Flamank, the Bodmin lawyer, who together with Michael An Gof led the uprising that marched against the English all the way to London in 1497 and suffered death when the uprising was defeated.[5] When faced with being sentenced to death Thomas Flamank is recorded in emulation of his legendary forebears, as having stated the immortal words "Speak the Truth and only then can you be free of your chains".

The Liskeard lawyer Frederick Lyde Caunter, in Caunter Family Records, states that 'There has always been a legend in the family that the Devonshire Caunters are descended from Condor, sometimes written "Contor," Earl of Cornwall'. Caunter goes on to cite Charles Broughton, the author of a 19-century manuscript, Origin of the family of Caunter in Devonshire & Canter in Cornwall. Broughton, an Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office and apparently a friend of Richard MacDonald Caunter, wrote that 'the Caunter family part of whom settled in Devonshire & part in Cornwall, are descended from Condor' and that Condor's descendants 'in the direct line settled in that part of the County called 'the South Hams,' & a younger branch retired to a more remote part of the County of Cornwall.' F. Lyde Caunter adds, however, that he himself was unable to find confirmation for Broughton's statements.[15]

• Cornish heraldry