What was the Domesday Survey?

Answer 1

The Domesday Book was the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England, or 'William the Conqueror'. The survey was similar to a census by a government of today. While spending Christmas of 1085 in Gloucester, William "had deep speech with his counsellors and sent men all over England to each shire ... to find out ... what or how much each landholder had in land and livestock, and what it was worth" (Anglo-Saxon Chronicle). One of the main purposes of the survey was to determine who held what, and what taxes had been liable under Edward the Confessor; the judgment of the Domesday assessors was final-whatever the book said about who held the material wealth, or what it was worth, was the law, and there was no appeal. It was written in Latin, although there were some vernacular words inserted for native terms with no previous Latin equivalent, and the text was highly abbreviated. The name Domesday comes from the Old English word dom (of which the Modern English doom is descended), meaning accounting or reckoning. Thus domesday, or doomsday, is literally a day of reckoning, meaning that a lord takes account of what is owed by his subjects. In August 2006, a complete online version of Domesday Book was made available for the first time by the UK's National Archives. The Domesday Book is a record of an enormous survey carried out in England for King William I (the Conqueror), and it was completed in the year 1086. It was similar to a census as carried out nowadays and its main purpose was to have a record of all land, property and people in the country so that taxes could be raised. It is extremely useful to modern day historians because it lists towns and villages which existed at the time and so gives an idea of how old some of them are