Charlotte Dujardin won Britain's second dressage gold medal of London 2012 with a remarkable individual victory.
British duo Laura Bechtolsheimer and Carl Hester finished third and fifth.
GB's equestrian team end with three Olympic titles - two in dressage and a showjumping team gold. These are GB's first-ever individual dressage medals.
Bechtolsheimer, Dujardin and Hester had combined for the team dressage title earlier in the week, also a first.
Gloucestershire's Bechtolsheimer, 27, scored 84.339 with Mistral Hojris to guarantee Britain a medal before Hester posted 82.857 to sit behind Germany's Helen Langehanenberg.
However, penultimate rider Cornelissen upped the ante spectacularly with a huge score of 88.196 on Parzival, throwing a dramatic gauntlet down for Dujardin as the last rider into the Olympic arena.
Competing under a cloudless sky and picked out against the London skyline, Dujardin scored 90.089 to take gold.
Unprecedented success at London 2012 marks the beginning of a new era for British dressage, but also the end of one for the riders involved.
Hester's Uthopia and Dujardin's Valegro are both now due to be moved on by their owners, so the pair will have to find new rides if they plan to defend their titles at Rio 2016. Bechtolsheimer's Mistral Hojris may be retired - she says she will give him time before making a decision.
"I was hoping Alf would come home with a medal today for that performance," said Bechtolsheimer.
"He's 17 years old and he's given me so much. He was just beautiful to ride, so powerful to ride. He was doing it for me.
"At the end of the day it's not a bike, it's not a tennis racquet, it's a living animal that you've worked tremendously hard to have a partnership with."
Fifth-placed Carl Hester said: "It's been an emotional and long year for us to keep the horses going. Without the horse, we're nothing. To keep two horses in this peak, to finish the top five at the Olympics is very hard and takes a lot of management.
"Every morning you walk out into the yard and think please, please, they'll be alright.
"We've had so much back-up. Thank goodness for the world-class team behind us and the lottery that helped us keep this thing going. We treat them as super athletes and I think they've repaid everybody with what they've done.
"I always said that she was the gold medallist. He is the best horse in the world. Uthopia doesn't quite have the energy for the last day; Valegro is just the consummate professional."
Charlotte Dujardin's mother said immediately afterwards: "All the pressure was really on her, what can I say? I'm just so proud.
"We never had the financial backing at all. When my mum died I was lucky enough to have some inheritance money, and I knew I had to buy Charlotte a horse. She could make a donkey do anything. I managed to get hold of Carl and put her in the right hands from there on in.
"Everybody expects it - that's the thing, when you know she can do it, the combination of horse and rider, it's just phenomenal. We talked about using some patriotic music on home ground and Tom Hunt did a fantastic job."
bbc
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