In 1085, determined to understand just what he controlled after he became king of England, William the Conqueror ordered an inquest be made in every shire into the landed and fiscal resources of the realm so that he could know what he owned and what taxes were due him. A contemporary Englishman observed bitterly, “that there was not one single hide, not one yard of land, not even (it is shameful to tell) one ox, not one cow, not one pig left out.”
The Domesday Book hasn’t been used as evidence in disputes since the 1960s, but local historians and genealogists continue to look to it for information about the early history of English villages and family lines. Samuel Collins, professor of history at George Mason University, explores how and why this extraordinary document came to be and what it reveals about the governance and economy of late eleventh-century England and the impact of the Norman Conquest.
General Information
