The Domesday Book is, in fact, two books (Great Domesday and Little Domesday) in which are recorded the results of the survey of England ordered in 1086 by William I (the Conqueror). Primarily meant as a record for assessing land tax and other dues and to ascertain the value of crown lands, it also allowed William to estimate the power of his baron vassals.
Certain places were ommited from the survey; Northumberland and Durham, as were
the twin capitals of London, Winchester, and certain other towns.
The two volumes of the book, written in
Norman French, are often
invaluable to historians seeking to establish the early history of many places in England.
The name of the 'book', which it firmly acquired within a century of its
compilation,
derives from the belief that it was as final as Doomsday itself. It is, in fact, two
volumes which are preserved at the Public Record Office, London; Little Domesday covers the
three East-Anglian counties of Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk, the remainder appearing in
Great Domesday.
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This book is metaphorically called by the native English, Domesdai, the Day of Judgement. For as the sentence of that strict and terrible last account cannot be evaded by any subterfuge, so when this book is appealed to on those matters which it contains, its sentence cannot be quashed or set aside with impunity.
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- Richard Fitz-Nigel, treasurer under king Henry II (1154-1189)
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We are fortunate in that several other contemporary documents
connected with the compilation of the Domesday Book have survived with which the main
volumes can be studied.
| Commissioning of the Survey |
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After this the king had important deliberations and exhaustive discussion with his Council about this land and how it was peopled, and with what sort of men. Then he sent his men all over England into every Shire to ascertain how many Hundreds of �hides� of land there were in every Shire, and how much land and livestock the king himself owned in the country and what annual dues were lawfully his from each Shire. He also had it recorded how much land his archbishops had and his diocesan bishops had, his abbots and his earls and � though I may be going into too much detail � what or how much each man who was a landowner here in England had in land or livestock, and how much money it was worth. So very thoroughly did he have the enquiry carried that there was not a single �hide, not one virgate of land, not even � it is shameful to record it, but it did not seem shameful to him to do it � not even one ox, nor one cow, nor one swine which escaped notice in the survey. And all the Surveys were subsequently brought to him.
| | - Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, 1085 |
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In the twentieth year of William, King of England, at whose command in this year was made a written survey of the lands of the several provinces, of the possessions of each magnate, of his fields, his farms and manors, of his men, both serfs and free, of cottagers as well as those possessing houses and fields, of ploughs, of horses and other animals, of the services and rent of the whole land and everyone. A second group of commissioners followed the first sent, and these were strangers to the neighbourhood, in order that they should find fault with their report and charge them before the king. And the land was troubled by many calamities arising from the collection of money for the king.
| | - Bishop Robert of Hereford, 1086 |
William I (the Conqueror) of England must have been very pleased to discover that the newly-conquered country had a tradition of imposing more-or-less regular land taxes, the gelds or Danegelds - particularly as, when levied, these taxes are recorded as having raised vast sums.
During the depths of midwinter in 1085, King William held court at Gloucester and, after considerable council with his advisors, ordered that his commissioners survey the shires, hundreds and vills of his newly-conquered realm to produce an accurate descriptio by means of which the monarch might accurately levy the land tax on his tennants-in-cheif and assess the rents due from the royal possessions.
For all the revenues raised by the gelds, the assessments had become very outdated. WIlliam I probably saught to re-arrange or scrap alltogether the old assessments and re-assess the realm for land tax; over the decades, many land-owners had gained exemption from the gelds and whilst in many cases, the assessment was far overvalued, it is equally to that in many others it was woefully inadequate. Perhaps such an updating of the assessments was high amongst the reasons which led the monarch to order the compilation of the Domesday Book.
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Despite this, it is doubtful whether either WIlliam I or his
successors succeeded in reforming the system for the assessment of the
gelds.
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Although the compilation of the Domesday book is frequently refered to as a 'survey', this
is far from the case. The King's commissioners visited each county and held court in the
county town with juries summoned from each ville in each hundred to deliver the
required information.
The two physical volumes of the Domesday 'Book' were probably compiled in Winchester which
was then (because of its location close to the south coast and King
William's possessions in Normandy) the capital of England,
probably by the Norman precursor to what later became the Exchequer.
We are fortunate in that several other contemporary documents
connected with the compilation of the Domesday Book have survived with which the main
volumes can be studied.
Inquistio Comitatus Cantabrigiae
An imperfect copy of the verdicts delivered by the Cambridgeshire jurors which differs
from the details recorded in the Domesday Book because the compilers of the latter
obviously used other information as well. As an example, the Inquisition records
no information on some of the royal manors in Cambridgeshire.
Inquistio Eliensis
This records details of the estates of the Abbey of Ely in Cambridgshire, Suffolk and
other counties. Based on the verdicts of the jurors, it contains some details which
were subsequently omitted from the Domesday Book itself.
The Exon Domesday
Is, again, based directly or otherwise on the verdicts of the jurors and covers Cornwall,
Devonshire and parts of Dorset and Wiltshire. The document contains details of the stock
held on the various estates which is missing from the the Domesday Book.
The Northamptonshire Geld Roll
Records Northamptonshire fiscal matters as they stood a few years before the compilation
of the Domesday Book.
The Domesday Book is arranged geographically by county and by the tenants-in-chief of
each county although their possessions in the county might be widely dispersed.
It must be rememebered that while the Domesday Book and its report of
1086 is the starting point of many a local history, it was written for one purpose -
to assess liability for tax - and while telling us much, leaves a
great deal to be inferred. As a historical source, it is as restricted as a modern Council
Tax register might be in the information which it contains.
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According to the Anglo-Norman writer Richard Fitz-Nigel, it was traditionally said at Winchester, where the Domesday Book was compiled, that the survey, as well as serving as a survey for taxation, was part of the Conqueror's plan to 'bring the subject people under the rule of written law'. In the turmoil which followed the Conquest and the lack of written records of land transactions under Norman administration, the Domesday Book could also ensure encroachment could be punished by the law.
The term made "leet" made its first apearance in England in the Domesday Book as Ieet, signifying a territorial and jurisdictional area in East Anglia.
Domesday Book: Wiltshire
, ed. John Morris, publisher Phillimore and Co. Ltd., ISBN0850331595 (paperback ISBN0850331609)
Domesday Book and Beyond Three Essays in the Early History of England
by FW Maitland, publisher Collins: The Fontana Library, 1969
First published by Cambridge University Press (1897), issued by Fontana Library in 1960, 1961, 1961, 1969. Maitlands own interest in the Domesday Survey was primarily the development of English Law but the book contains an analysis of the structure of English society in the 11th century.
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