Norman Conquest Encyclopedia

The conquest of England took some years. After William the Conqueror'scoronation on Christmas Day 1066 numerous uprisings kept him moving throughout the land to subdue the people. A pattern of castles on sites he chose covers the country to this day. The ultimate expression of control was the great survey ordered at Christmas 1085. It became known as the Domesday Book, as everything was recorded in it as at the crack of doom, the final judgement. A near-contemporary description of its coverage was given by Robert, Bishop of Hereford. He wrote that the king's men "made a survey of all England; of the lands in each of the counties; of the possessions of each of the magnates, their lands, their habitations, their men both bond and free, living in huts or with their own houses and lands; of ploughs, horses and other animals; of the services and payments due from each and every estate. After these investigators came others who were sent to unfamiliar counties to check the first description and to denounce any wrongdoers to the king. And the land was troubled with many calamities arising from the gathering of the royal taxes." The coverage of "all England" was never achieved. By William's death in September 1087 the eastern and southern counties had been surveyed and the details painstakingly written out on the sheets of parchment booklets to provide a wonderfully informative account of the country.