The Battle of Hehil was a battle won by a force of

Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mo ...

, probably against the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

s of

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

around the year 720. The location is unknown, except that it was ''apud Cornuenses'' ("among the Cornish").

Sources

The only direct reference to the battle appears in the ''

Annales Cambriae The (Latin for ''Annals of Wales'') is the title given to a complex of Latin chronicles compiled or derived from diverse sources at St David's in Dyfed, Wales. The earliest is a 12th-century presumed copy of a mid-10th-century original; later ed ...

''. A translation from the original Latin is as follows:

The battle of Hehil among the Cornish, the battle of Garth Maelog, the
battle of Pencon The Battle of Pencon or Pencoed was a battle won by the Britons (historic), Britons (modern Welsh), possibly against the Mercians or against themselves, around the year 720. Accounts The ''Brut y Tywysogion, Chronicle of the Princes'' places th ...
among the South Britons, and the
Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mo ...
were the victors in those three battles.James Ingram, '' The Annals of Wales A'' (London: Everyman Press, 1912)

The ''Annales Cambriae'' are undated but

Egerton Phillimore Egerton Grenville Bagot Phillimore (20 December 1856 – 5 June 1937) was a British antiquarian of Welsh literature, language, and history. He published little but was widely regarded as the greatest living expert on Welsh placenames. Early li ...

placed the entry in the year 722.Everton Phillimore, ''Y Cymmrodor'' 9 Harleian MS. 3859 (1888), pp. 141–83 Although the source does not name the Anglo-Saxons as the enemy in any of the three battles, it has been claimed that the failure to specify the enemy was simply because this was so obvious to all, and that any other opponents would have been clearly named. The battle is not mentioned in the ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the 9th century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alf ...

'', and

H. P. R. Finberg Herbert Patrick Reginald Finberg (1900–1974) was an English historian, typographer and publisher. After working at several publishing companies and founding his own (Alcuin Press), he joined the faculty of Leicester University in 1952. He became ...

has speculated that this is because Wessex was defeated.H. P. R. Finberg, "Sherborne, Glastonbury, and the Expansion of Wessex", in ''Transactions of the Royal Historical Society'', volume 5 (1953), issue 3, p. 110, jstor 3678711

Battlefield

The location of Hehil is not known, but many scholars have tried to identify it. In 1916 the Celtic scholar

Donald MacKinnon Donald Mackinnon (29 September 1859 – 25 April 1932) was an Australian politician. Early life Born at Marida Yallock near Boorcan in Victoria to grazier David Mackinnon and Jane Kinross, both Scottish-born, he was educated at Geelong ...

was not willing to say more than that it was on "the Devonian peninsula". In 2003

Christopher Snyder Christopher Allen Snyder is the Dean of Shackouls Honors College at Mississippi State University, in Starkville, Mississippi. He was previously a professor of European history and director of the Honors Program at Marymount University, in Arli ...

simply stated that "722 The ''Annales Cambriae'' record a British victory at Hehil in Cornwall". Based simply on the place name,

Frank Stenton Sir Frank Merry Stenton, FBA (17 May 1880 – 15 September 1967) was an English historian of Anglo-Saxon England, and president of the Royal Historical Society (1937–1945). The son of Henry Stenton of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, he was edu ...

suggested that the battle was at

Hayle Hayle ( kw, Heyl, "estuary") is a port town and civil parish in west Cornwall, England. It is situated at the mouth of the Hayle River (which discharges into St Ives Bay) and is approximately seven miles (11 km) northeast of Penzance. ...

in west Cornwall.Cited in: Robert Higham, ''Making Anglo-Saxon Devon'' (Exeter: The Mint Press, 2008, ), p. 30 In 1987

Leslie Alcock Leslie Alcock (24 April 1925 – 6 June 2006) was Professor of Archaeology at the University of Glasgow, and one of the leading archaeologists of Early Medieval Britain. His major excavations included Dinas Powys hill fort in Wales, Cadbury Ca ...

noted that the most obvious interpretation of 'Hehil among the Cornish' is the

River Hayle A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wa ...

in west Cornwall, but referred to Ekwall's identification of the name with the

River Camel The River Camel ( kw, Dowr Kammel, meaning ''crooked river'') is a river in Cornwall, England. It rises on the edge of Bodmin Moor and with its tributaries its catchment area covers much of North Cornwall. The river flows into the eastern Cel ...

, previously known as the ''Heil'', and concluded that this "more easterly attribution may be preferable". Other scholars preferring the River Camel include W. G. Hoskins, who put Hehil at

Egloshayle Egloshayle (pronounced "eglos-hale" kw, Eglosheyl – meaning church and ''heyl'' meaning estuary) is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is beside the River Camel, southeast of Wadebridge. Th ...

on that river; Leonard Dutton, who suggested in 1993 "at or near the spot where the fifteenth century bridge at

Wadebridge Wadebridge (; kw, Ponswad) is a town and civil parish in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The town straddles the River Camel upstream from Padstow.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 200 ''Newquay & Bodmin'' The permanent populat ...

crosses the Camel"; and

Philip Payton Philip John Payton is a Cornish-Australian historian and Emeritus Professor of Cornish and Australian Studies at the University of Exeter and formerly Director of the Institute of Cornish Studies based at Tremough, just outside Penryn, Corn ...

who in 2004 located it "probably tthe strategically important Camel estuary".

Malcolm Todd Malcolm Todd (27 November 19396 June 2013) was an English archaeologist. Born in Durham, England, the son of a miner, Todd was educated in classics and classical archaeology at St David's College, Lampeter and Brasenose College, Oxford. He s ...

took the view in 1987 that these sites were "too far west to be taken seriously", and made two suggestions. The first was Hele at

Jacobstow Jacobstow ( kw, Lannjago) is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The village is located east of the A39 road approximately seven miles (11 km) south of Bude.Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 190 ''Bude ...

in north Cornwall,

, ''The South West to AD 1000'' in series ''A Regional History of England'' (London: Longman, 1987, ), pp. 272–273 a place which had been mentioned as a possibility in 1931 in the introduction to ''The Place-Names of Devon'', and was also supported by the landscape archaeologist

Della Hooke Della Hooke, (born 1939) is a British historical geographer and academic, who specialises in landscape history and Anglo Saxon England. On 5 May 1990, she was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London A fellow is a concept whos ...

in 1994. Todd's other suggestion was Hele in the Culm Valley in east Devon. In 2022 John Fletcher explained why he thought that the village of Merton, north of Okehampton, has "potentially excellent credentials as the site for the historic Hehil".

Significance

The British victory at Hehil in 722 may have proved decisive in the history of the West Britons: it was not until almost a hundred years later (in 814) that further battles are recorded in the area, a period which

Nicholas Orme Nicholas Orme (born 1942) is a British historian specialising in the Middle Ages and Tudor period, focusing on the history of children, and ecclesiastical history, with a particular interest in South West England. Orme is an Emeritus Professor ...

sees as probably consolidating the division between Cornwall and Devon. In 2013 T. M. Charles-Edwards, noting that the battle came "not long after

Geraint Geraint () is a character from Welsh folklore and Arthurian legend, a valiant warrior possibly related to the historical Geraint, an early 8th-century king of Dumnonia. It is also the name of a 6th-century Dumnonian saint king from Briton hagi ...

was last attested as king of Dumnonia", suggested that it might indicate that Dumnonia had fallen by 722 and that the victory of Hehil had secured the survival of the kingdom of Cornwall for another 150 years.T. M. Charles-Edwards, ''Wales and the Britons, 350-1064'' (

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2013, ), p. 429

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hehil 720s conflicts Battles involving the Cornish Battles involving Wessex Battles involving the Britons 8th century in England