The Kingdom of Kernow, or Cornwall, emerged in the Sixth Century as a breakaway state or sub-kingdom of the Kingdom of Dumnonia. The Saxons called it "West Wales". By the late Ninth Century the kingdom was coming under the dominion of Wessex, and much of its land was owned by West Saxon priests. The gradual Saxon takeover of the little country was halted by the Vikings' conquest of England in the 870s.