CORNOUAILLE

'Cornouaille' is an historic region in Brittany, in northwest France. "Les ", however, is the French for Cornwall in Great Britain. It is certain that the name Cornouaille descends from the region of the British Isles. (This happened for Devon, formerly called Dumnonia in Latin, ''la Domnonée'' becoming the name of the equivalent region in Brittany in the early Middle Ages. This could be the case as well for the region "Gwened", which is sometimes said to be descended from Welsh "Gwynedd", but another opinion is that this region is called after its iron-age inhabitants, the "Veneti" (in Breton "Weneted").
The Germanic name of Cornwall or (''Corn-whealas'') has been supposed to mean "the corner of foreigners" [lit. Horn - being a geographic description of the Armorican land mass - of Welsh] in reference to the resettling of the Celts from 'Great Britain' as opposed to 'Lesser Britain', the difference between 'La Grande Bretagne' - Great Britain - and 'La Bretagne', Brittany. However, the basic stem of the name, Cornwall, must come from the name of the Welsh peoples who populated the area after migrating there from other Welsh areas, the 'Kernow'. The myth that these people fled over the English Channel because of pressure from Anglo-Saxon invaders is fanciful and basically untrue. The origins of the Welsh settlement of modern-day Brittany, and hence the place-names being the same on both sides of the Channel, harks from the end of the Roman period. Native British troops were hired to support the ailing Western Empire during the fifth century. When returning through Gaul, they passed through Armorica, the nearest point of continental Europe to Cornwall and Wales. When passing through there, they found it a rich land, led by two Welsh generals or tribal leaders, returned to Wales, gathered others and then returned to Armorica to settle it. One of the generals is recorded as 'Geraint' or 'Gerontius' in the Latin texts of the time.
The region was first mentioned by this name between 852 and 857 when the Bishop of , Anaweten, took over "Cornugallensis".
The existence of a district of ancient Anjou called "La Cornuaille" has led to the hypothesis that it was a geographical or military label for all of southern Brittany as far as the northern shore of la Domnonée in the 6th or 7th century.
At the origin of this feudal county, the reigning dynasty acceded to a dukedom of the region, which then passed to the bishop of Quimper.
The name ''Cornouaille'' signifies the diocese of Quimper which persisted until the French Revolution. The diocese covered more than half of the south of Finistère, and extended over part of Morbihan and the Côtes-d'Armor. There were two arch-deacons, one for Cornouaille and one for Poher. There were also a cantor, a treasurer, a theologian and twelve canons. This episcopal division was the poorest in Brittany.
After the French Revolution, the new constitution created a diocese of Finistère, erasing that of Kerne/Cournouaille; most of the old diocese was absorbed into the new.
In Breton, the region is known as "Kernev" or "Bro-Gernev", and in Latin as "Cornugallia" or "Cornubia".