In
December 1085, William the Conqueror decided to carry out a comprehensive
survey of his newly acquired kingdom. There were three reasons why
William decided to do this. (1) The information would help William
discover how much the people of England could afford to pay in tax.
(2) The information about the distribution of the population would
help William plan the defence of England against possible invaders.
(3) There was a great deal of doubt about who owned some of the land
in England. William planned to use this information to help him make
the right judgements when people were in dispute over land ownership.
William
sent out his officials to every town, village and hamlet in England.
They asked questions about the ownership of land, animals and farm
equipment and also about the value of the land and how it was used.
When the information was collected it was sent to Winchester where
it was recorded in a book. About a hundred years after it was produced
the book became known as the Domesday Book. Domesday means "day
of judgement".
William's
survey was completed in only seven months. When William knew who the
main landowners were, he arranged a meeting for them at Salisbury.
At this meeting on 1st August, 1086, he made them all swear a new
oath that they would always obey their king.
The
Normans: Classroom Activities
(1)
Richard
FitzNeal,
Dialogue Concerning the Exchequer (c. 1180)
He (William the Conqueror) dispatched the most honest men
in his court on circuit throughout the kingdom. In this manner, and
by these agents, a careful survey was made of the whole country.
(2)
Bishop Robert of Hereford wrote in 1086 about William's survey of
England.
In the twentieth year of William, king of the English...
made a written survey of his lands of the several provinces... A second
group of commissioners followed those first sent, and those were strangers
to the neighbourhood.
(3)
Florence of Worcester was an English monk. He wrote this account of
the Domesday survey in about 1125.
King William caused all England to be surveyed... how many
ploughs, villeins, animals and livestock, each one possessed in his
kingdom from the greatest to the least... And as a consequence the
land was vexed with much violence.
(4)
Anglo-Saxon
Chronicles, Version E, entry for
1086.
The king sent his men over all England into every shire and
had them find out what land and cattle the king himself had in the
country... Also he had a record made of how much land his archbishops
had, and his bishops, and his abbots and his earls... what or how
much everybody had who was occupying land in England, in land or cattle,
and how much money it was worth.
(5)
Domesday entry for Brooke in Norfolk.
Brooke was held by Earl Gyrth in the time of King Edward
and King William when he first came gave it to the abbey of St Edmund...
There were then 33 villeins - now 38. Then as now 3 slaves. Now 3
ploughs on the demesne, and 6 ploughs belonging to the men. Woodland
for 30 pigs, 9 acres of meadow. Now 5 rounceys, 14 beasts, 40 pigs.
Now 65 sheep and 20 goats.
(6)
Domesday entry for Standon in Hertfordshire.
Rohese, wife of Richard, son of Count Gilbert, holds Standon.
Land for 24 ploughs. 29 villagers with a priest. 15 smallholders,
2 freemen and a Frenchman have 12 ploughs. 9 cottagers and 8 slaves.
5 mills at 45s; meadow for 24 ploughs; pasture for livestock; woodland,
600 pigs. Total value in 1086 £33; before 1066 £34. Archbishop
Stigand held this manor in 1066. In this manor were six freemen.
Last
updated: 20th September, 2002
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