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Domesday Book (/ ˈ d uː m z d eɪ / DOOMZ-day; the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book") is a manuscript record of the Great Survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 at the behest of King William the Conqueror. [1]
The original Domesday Book is deemed too valuable and fragile to be exhibited in public and so is kept in private at the National Archives - formerly the Public Records Office - in Kew, London (though it is still used on occasions by students and academics interested in its study).
- Why Was Domesday Book Made – and What Was It Used for?
- Why Is It called Domesday Book?
- What Was The Purpose of The Survey?
- Why Did The Barons Accede to It?
- Why Is Domesday Book So Important?
- Does Domesday Book Help Explain The Causes of The Norman Conquest?
- What Does Domesday Book Reveal About The Impact of The Normans in England?
- What Else Can The Survey Tell Us?
The key to understanding why it was produced is establishing howit was made. The first step was to work out logistics. The kingdom was divided into seven ‘circuits’, most with five shires. Commissioners were appointed to conduct the survey in each circuit and, to ensure neutrality, they each served on circuits in which they did not themselves hold ...
During the lifetimes of the Conqueror and his sons, royal officials employed politically correct language when describing Domesday Book. They called it a “descriptio (survey) of all England” (in 1086), a “volumen (volume) kept in the king’s Treasury in Winchester,” the “king’s book,” the “book of the Exchequer,” the “book of Winchester,” and so on....
This remains deeply controversial. Many historians have argued it was all about the land-tax, known as the geld. That is, of course, logical. William desperately needed cash to finance his wars. Tax records from William’s reign reveal that many landholders enjoyed tax breaks and loopholes, so there was a pressing need to make tax collection more ef...
The Domesday survey was completed with astonishing speed – within six months of the Gloucester council. This could not have been achieved without the active co-operation of the nobility. So what was in it for them? Something that they had yearned for throughout the long period during which England had been colonised was security of title. The Domes...
It is the earliest English document preserved by the government that created it. That makes it England’s earliest bureaucratic instrument. But its importance extends well beyond the origins of English red tape. Domesday Book is the most complete survey of a pre-industrial society anywhere in the world. It enables us to reconstruct the politics, gov...
It certainly proves that pre-Conquest England was rich and effectively administered. Two popular misconceptions are that England before the Norman conquest was in the ‘Dark Ages’ – in other words, backward – and that the Normans began the process of bringing it into the light. Forget those ideas. England’s economy was already not so much developing...
It provides irrefutable testimony to the fact that the Normans exploited the windfall of 1066 by displacing the English elite and extorting the peasantry. The English nobility was virtually wiped out. Domesday’s tables of contents list about 500 tenants-in-chief in 1086. Just 13 of them were English. The kingdom was now dominated by a new class of ...
Because Domesday Book has existed for more than 900 years and has been intensively studied for centuries, it might seem reasonable to assume that its potential for research has been exhausted. Nothing could be further from the truth. Exciting new resources are making it more accessible than ever, and have opened up the possibility of addressing new...
- Ellie Cawthorne
The Domesday Book was a complete written record of property ownership across England, and was completed in less than a year. At the time it was called the Winchester Book, but later became...
Oct 15, 2024 · Domesday Book is kept at the National Archives in London. This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen. Domesday Book, the original record or summary of William I’s survey of England.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Why did William need the Domesday Book? Video about the Domesday Book; How was the information gathered? What does the Domesday Book tell us? Consequences of the Domesday Book; Test your...
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Introduction. The Domesday Book - compiled in 1085-6 - is one of the few historical records whose name is familiar to most people in this country. It is our earliest public record, the...
