William, the Conqueror and Domesday Book

William I, the Conqueror (1066-1087) organized the political and social structures of England. He imposed a hug control on his land. That’s clear in the survey he ordered in 1086, collected in the famous Domesday Book, a description of the kingdom.
He also promoted a religious change in the monasteries and he erected himself as the defender of the Catholicism. In that point, he was a good strategist as he was able to choose the bishops for the Episcopal and controlled them ad their decisions.
After the conquest, William I shared out the land among the ones who had helped him in the battle. He only respected the Church properties. These pieces of land were given as a system of land tenure, but the king was the real owner of them. It was called omnis terra a rege tenetur. Again, that was another way to keep the kingdom under his completed control. That made the English feudalism was a deep centralist system.
William I gave the fiefs to his barons but he ordered the exact number of knights they could have in them. That was a good way to known by heart the military support that the king could have in case of war. The Normand nobility was formed by 180 barons.

Domesday Book

Domesday Book is a detailed survey of the land held by the King and his tenants in 1086. There isn't any document as it, until the censuses of the 19th century.

But, why did William the Conqueror commission that survey? The King wanted to know how many resources he had.  He also wanted to discover who owned the manors and how much they had to pay as taxes, rents and military services (bringing their knights when the King asked). So, Domesday Book is a tax record, but also a collection of the identities of the King's barons and churchmen and the owners of the manors in England.

The name of Domesday may refer to the Bible, when Christ will judge the humans. It’s supposed that nobody appeal to the evidence of legal title to land, just as happened to Christ’s decisions. It was called Domesday by 1180. It was written in Latin with lots of abbreviations.

There were three or four royal commissioners to do the survey in each circuit. After collecting the information, it was verified by some Jurors. Some of the information was just oral testimony but some other was got in written documents as church payment lists. The commissioners asked for the same information in three different periods of time:  1066, in the time of King Edward, 1066 when William gave it, and now, 1086.

Domesday Book provides details of:

·         13.418 places

·         48 castles

·         112 boroughs

·         60 major religious house

·         6000 mills

·         45 vineyards

·         Markets, woodlands, fisheries, mints, industry

·         Names of landholders

·         Names of sub-tenants

·         Customs

·         Number of freemen, unfree peasants and slaves.

So, Domesday Book reveals an elaborate feudal structure of landholding from the King down.

1. What is the Domesday Book?
2. Why is it called "Domesday"?
3. Why is so important?
4. Explain the questions in the survey.
5. What information did we know with the interpretation of Domesday Book?