The Cornish Foreshore Case was a case of arbitration between the Crown and the Duchy of Cornwall between 1854 and 1858.[1][2] Officers of the Duchy successfully argued that the Duchy enjoyed many of the rights and prerogatives of a county palatine and that although the Duke of Cornwall was not granted Royal jurisdiction, was considered to be quasi-sovereign within his Duchy of Cornwall. The arbitration, as instructed by the Crown, was based on legal argument and documentation which led to the Cornwall Submarine Mines Act 1858.[3] The Arbitrator was Sir John Patteson who communicated with the appropriate officers of the Crown and Duchy. The law officer representing the Duchy was the Rt. Hon. Thomas Pemberton Leigh, Baron Kingsdown.
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The problem which gave rise to the dispute was explained by the Solicitor-General during Parliamentary debates on the Cornwall Submarine Mines Bill, on 19 July 1858:
"very large grants were made of the soil and shore to the Prince of Wales in the time of Edward III. by charters, and great difficulty had always arisen with regard to the construction of those charters. That doubt had been further increased by innumerable dealings which had since taken place between the Crown and the Prince of Wales in the shape of statutes, other charters, and deeds of various kinds. In consequence it had in recent times become matter of extreme uncertainty whether, as regarded the soil between high and low-water mark, and even below low-water mark, in the Duchy of Cornwall, the rights to minerals was in the Crown or the Duchy. In the year 1856 it was considered desirable that these doubts should be resolved, for it was found that the existence of doubts had had the effect of putting an end to various kinds of improvement, and checking mining operations."[4]
The Cornwall Foreshore Dispute culminated in the "Articles of Agreement" between the Crown and the Duchy in the Cornwall Submarine Mines Act 1858 which reveals: "All mines and minerals within Cornwall under the seashore, estuaries and tidal rivers and other places (below high-water mark) are part of the soil and 'territorial possessions' of the Duchy".[5] "Foreshore" is not mentioned in the Duchy Charters, but the intent of the Charters to recognise Cornwall as a "territorial possession" is confirmed by the 1858 Act, the "general law" of the Duchy and the ruling in "The Prince's Case 1606", that "all Cornwall is the Duchy of Cornwall". Minerals are, therefore, only of constitutional interest to the Duke in his political capacity.
Although the Duchy had been shown to be extra-territorial to England in 1858, it has been claimed by Cornish historians that sometime between 1858 and 1888, a covert coup d’etat attempted to gerrymander the malignant constitutional discrepancy, wrest Cornwall from the de jure jurisdiction of the Duchy of Cornwall and place it firmly within England. Several Acts of Parliament were made to disappear. The pre-1st charter Letters Patent and the last two Duchy charters were shredded. The English translation of the remaining 1st duchy charter was altered from the original translation.[6]
These actions possibly took place after 1858 and prior to the UK Parliament passing the Local Government Act 1888 which created county councils. These actions were kept secret and the people of Cornwall were never consulted. The 1st duchy charter (Constitutional Law 10) is still on the statute books but is marked by government as being ‘revised’ again in 1978.
It is claimed that the co-conspirators in the coup d’etat were the Government of the Duchy of Cornwall and the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The arrangement was as follows: the Duke would forgo his charter rights, but the UK Parliament would ensure that these same rights were re-granted by dozens of unprecedented and entirely unique Acts of Parliament that acknowledged and secured the dukes status as a Head of State (complete with royal prerogatives and immunity from prosecution etc) alongside that of the Head of State of the UK.
Part of the compact involved the UK Parliament fabricating, and then maintaining, an elaborate hoax that would recast the Duchy of Cornwall as a commercial organisation, portray the Duchy of Cornwall Crown dependency government as a ‘management board’, and the duke as Head of State of a ‘private estate’.[7]
Today the Duchy of Cornwall describes itself as a private estate funding the public, charitable and private activities of The Prince of Wales and his family. It has been claimed that at some point after 1858, the officers of the Duchy, with the support of members of the UK Government, developed a plan to portray the Duchy of Cornwall as a 'private estate'.[8]
Many Cornish people today claim that this arbitration in favour of the Duchy shows that Cornwall is a territorial possession distinct both from England and the Crown.[9] They also quote the Act of the Council of the first Duke in 1351 that sought proper clarification of persons in "Cornwall and England".
As the UK government was forced to concede Duchy independence in 1858, it also acknowledged that Cornwall was co-terminus with the Duchy of Cornwall, and that Cornwall was the soil and territorial possession not of the Queen in right of the Crown of the United Kingdom, but the Duke of Cornwall in right of the Duchy of Cornwall.[10]
As the presumptive, absolute and ultimate owner of the whole of Cornwall, the leaseholders and freeholders of Cornwall hold their land from the government of the Duchy of Cornwall. East of the Tamar, citizens hold their land from the Crown. The original Act of 1858 reveals that the Act restricts UK government jurisdiction to Cornwall’s offshore waters.[11]
In August 2008 it was announced by Cornwall 2000 that they proposed to lodge a case for the proposed inclusion of the Cornish into the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities with the European Court of Human Rights and they started a 'Cornish Fighting Fund'.[12] They also claim that Cornish people’s territory and status has been altered/downgraded without their knowledge or approval and claim that the main reason the Cornish are being denied recognition of their identity is to prevent any public debate or official enquiry into the constitutional status of Cornwall regarding the Duchy of Cornwall, sometimes referred to as the "Cornish Question".[13]
Many additional details of the case of arbitration and the aftermath can be found in John Angarrack's books Breaking the Chains, Our Future is History and Scat t’Larrups?.
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   | Tyr Gwyr Gweryn - The Cornish Foreshore Case - Tyr-Gwyr-Gweryn |
| | Cornish Stannary Parliament - Cornish Stannary Parliament Archives - England rejects "Equality" |
| | The UK Statute Law Database - Cornwall Submarine Mines Act 1858 (c.109) - Statute Law Database |
| | Duchy of Cornwall history - The Duchy of Cornwall |
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