1085–86

Domesday Book

Domesday Book, The National Archives says, is a detailed survey and valuation of landed property in England at the end of the 11th century.⁠¹ The survey was ordered by William the Conqueror at Christmas 1085 and undertaken the following year.⁠¹ William's survey of England, Domesday Book (1086), recorded a land governed by feudal ties.⁠²

It is not a census of the population, and the individuals named in it are almost exclusively land-holders.⁠¹ The survey does not cover London (city), Winchester, Northumberland and Durham or much of north-west England; the only parts of Wales included are certain border areas.⁠¹ Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex are in a separate volume, known as Little Domesday because of its smaller size.⁠¹

Commissioners asked how land had been held on the last day of the reign of Edward the Confessor (5 January 1066) — abbreviated in Domesday as TRE — when it was granted by King William, and as it was in 1086.⁠¹

English Heritage reads Domesday as a picture of a land governed by feudal ties, with every level of society under an obligation of service to the class above. The National Archives is careful about what the book is not: it is not a count of everyone who lived in England, and some places — including London and Winchester — are missing.

Every level of society was under an obligation of service to the class above.⁠²