Huwal is recorded just once in the entry for 926 in manuscript D of the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as "Huwal king of the West Welsh" ("Huwal West Wala cyning"). The only other reference to him is a duplicate of this entry in
John of Worcester's early 12th-century work
Chronicon ex chronicis. In the
Chronicle, Huwal is one of several kings who signed a treaty at
Eamont Bridge accepting King
Æthelstan of England as their overlord. "
West Welsh" is usually an English term for the southwestern Britons, the
Cornish or Dumnonians, and some historians believe this Huwal to be an otherwise unrecorded Cornish leader. According to
Philip Payton of the
Institute of Cornish Studies, Huwal is "generally recognised as the last in a line of independent (or semi-independent) Cornish (Dumnonian) kings". As such the final submission of Cornwall to
Wessex may be attributed to him. However, most historians identify the Huwal of the
Anglo-Saxon Chronicle with
Hywel Dda of
Deheubarth, whose kingdom was located in south-west Wales. Hywel was one of a number of rulers from western and northern Britain who witnessed Æthelstan's charters in the 920s and 930s. While noting an otherwise unknown Cornish Huwal is possible, historian
John Edward Lloyd believed that Hywel Dda is intended and that "West Wales is used in this passage in an unusual sense". ==References==