What is the Domesday Book?
In 1066, Edward the confessor passed away, and Harold Godwinson took the throne of England on the 5th of January, the same year. Upon his coronation, he thought to himself, “my reign will be long, peaceful, and certainly no Viking nor Norman will challenge me.” Unfortunately, both of those things happened within the year. In the north, Harold Hardrada landed a force of Vikings and claimed the English crown. Quickly the city of York surrendered to him, and at all speed, Godwinson travelled north and defeated Hardrada at the Battle of Stamford Bridge. “Great work!” Godwinson thought, “I have defeated the last Viking invasion of England; I sure do hope no Normans arrive in the south.” Unfortunately, William the Bastard from Normandy invaded from the south. In all haste, he force-marched his army down to Hastings where, according to legend, he was promptly shot in the eye and died. The last of the Anglo-Saxon kings of England died, and William, the Bastard, became William the Conquerer.
William naturally owed much of his victory to his loyal retainers and, as such, needed to reward them. As well as this, William had conquered a foreign people and culture with the nobility of the time being Anglo-Saxon. Over time this old nobility was replaced by Normans under William. Rebellions in 1096 & 75 catalysed this process.
In 1085 under the threat of invasion by King Cnut IV from Denmark, King William commissioned that a vast survey was to be carried out, through which all revenue and resource under his control could be documented. This work listed all ownership under Edward the Confessor & who owned the property in 1085 under William. William also took all land belonging to Godwinson, declaring that he was a usurper to the throne as William thought himself the rightful heir to Edward the Confessor, not Godwinson.
By 1087 William owned 17% of land in England, and only two Saxon noblemen remained; Thorkill of Warwick & Coleswain of Lincoln, because they had been loyal to the Norman king. The book gave complete and detailed documentation of the entire replacement of the ruling class of England. The book was compared to Gods judgement and in the 1180s gained its infamous nickname: The Domesday Book. The book was also the closest thing to an English census until 1801, of which I have recently filled in the 2021 census 934 years after the Domesdays book writing.
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