TINTAGEL, or TREVENA  , a village in the Launceston parliamentary division of Cornwall, England, on the north coast, 41 M. from Camelford . Pop . (19o1), 868 . It stands on a bare upland, close to the sea; and below it is Tintagel Haven, or Porth, a small cove surrounded by cliffs of almost black slate . The scanty ruins of a castle are built partly on the mainland, partly on a rugged promontory spoken of as the Island, but united by a narrow peninsula to the shore . They have been celebrated as the birthplace of King Arthur, or as the stronghold of King Mark, in a host of medieval romances, and in the poems of Tennyson and Swinburne . The Norman walls are so darkened and weathered that, from a little distance, they seem a part of the rock itself . Portions of a chapel remain, dating from the 13th century, and including a porch and a stone altar; while beside it are traces of a tomb hewn out of the slate, and of some domestic building which had a staircase and a pointed arch above the door . The cruciform parish church of St Marcelliana stands on a high cliff, west of the castle . Although it has been restored, there remain traces of Saxon workmanship in the chancel, besides two Norman doorways, a font of the same period, a stone altar bearing five crosses and a fine 15th-century brass . In the churchyard the graves are buttressed, storms being frequent and violent on this unprotected coast . For a time the church belonged to Fontevrault Abbey in Normandy; but it was made over by Edward IV. to the collegiate church of Windsor .

A 9th-century roodstone stands in the village . Portions of the vicarage date from the 14th century, and in its

garden there is a stone dovecote of great age . A little slate is quarried, being taken from the rocks below the church, and exported in the small vessels which can visit Tintagel Haven in calm weather . The magnificence of the coast has inspired more than one famous painting . Tintagel (Tintajol, Dundagel) is a parish a portion of which appears in the Domesday Survey as Bossiney (Botcinnu) . The latter was held in the time of the Confessor by a thegn of St Petrock and at the time of the survey by Robert, count of Mortain, of the same saint . The castle probably existed in pre-Saxon times . Under the Norman earls of Cornwall this was rebuilt, embattled and furnished with munitions of war . Its officers included a constable and a chaplain . It was in a ruinous condition in Leland's time (c . 154o) . Queen Elizabeth abolished the office of constable .

In the parish of Tintagel is the

hamlet of Bossiney which under the name of Tintagel received a charter (undated) from Richard king of the Romans, granting freedom to the borough and to the burgesses freedom from pontage and stallage throughout Cornwall, a market on Wednesdays and a three days' fair at Michaelmas . This charter was con-firmed in 1386 . In 1333 the burgesses, those who held tenements within the borough, numbered too . The borough, which apparently owed its existence to the castle, shared its fortunes . Leland calls attention to the decay of a great number of houses . Its charter was surrendered to Charles II. and a new one obtained from his brother in 1685 . Under the latter a mayor, recorder, six common councillors, a coroner, six freemen and a common clerk were to constitute the corporation . For supplying vacancies in it the votes of those only who were members of it were required . Provision was made for the administration of the borough . Bossiney acquired the right of electing two members of parliament in 1553, the franchise being originally vested in the freeholders within the borough . By the middle of the 18th century the franchise had become restricted to the freemen or burgesses . In 1784 the vicar of Tintagel, as mayor and only qua' hied elector, enjoyed the probably unique privilege of returning two members to the House of Commons .

In 1832 there were ten

resident legal voters within the borough and nine out-voters . The Reform Act transferred their votes to the county . There is now no market, and the only fair is held on the 21st of October . See Victoria County History: Cornwall; Sir J . Maclean, History of Trigg Minor .