Domesday Book (/ˈduːmzdeɪ/ or US /ˈdoʊmzdeɪ/; Latin: Liber de Wintonia) is a manuscript record of the great survey, completed in 1086 on orders of William the Conqueror, of much of England and parts of Wales: "While spending the Christmas time 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). In Latin (though highly abbreviated, and with some vernacular for native terms without Latin equivalent), the survey's key purpose was to determine what taxes had been owing under Edward the Confessor. The assessors' reckoning of a man's holdings and their value, as given in the Book, was dispositive and without appeal, and thus the name Domesday Book (Middle English for Doomsday Book) came into use in the 12th century. As Richard FitzNigel wrote around 1179: for as the sentence of that strict and terrible last account cannot be evaded by any skilful subterfuge, so when this book is appealed to ... its sentence cannot be quashed or set aside with impunity. That is why we have called the book 'the Book of Judgement' ... because its decisions, like those of the Last Judgement, are unalterable. The manuscript is held at The National Archives, London. In 2011, the Open Domesday site made the manuscript freely available for the first time. No survey approaching the scope and extent of the Domesday Book was attempted until the 1873 Return of Owners of Land (sometimes termed the "Modern Domesday")which presented the first complete, post-Domesday picture of the distribution of landed property in the British Isles. Domesday Book is really two independent works: Little Domesday (covering Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex) and Great Domesday (covering much of the remainder of England and parts of Wales—​except for lands in the north which later became Westmorland, Cumberland, Northumberland, and the County Palatine of Durham). There are no surveys of London and Winchester, probably due to their tax-exempt status, and some other towns. Most of Cumberland and Westmorland are missing because they had yet to be conquered at the time, and County Durham is lacking because the Bishop of Durham (William de St-Calais) had the exclusive right to tax it; parts of northeast England were covered by the 1183 Boldon Book, which listed those areas liable to tax by the Bishop of Durham. The omission of the other counties is not fully explained. Despite its name, Little Domesday was larger and far more detailed—​down to numbers of livestock—​than its companion. Possibly it represented a first attempt, leading to a decision not to attempt Great Domesday at the same level of detail. Both volumes are organized by fiefs (manors, under the names of the landholders—​tenentes—​who held the lands directly of the crown in fee) rather than by geography (e.g. by hundred or by township). It was for the most part a large-scale tax return yet it was significantly unpopular. Each county's list opened with the king's holdings (which had possibly been the subject of separate inquiry). Then followed the holdings of churchmen and religious houses (in order of status—​the Archbishop of Canterbury, for example, always appearing before other bishops); then lay tenants-in-chief (aristocrats—​again in approximate order of status); and lastly the king's serjeants (servientes) and English thegns who retained land. In some counties, one or more principal towns formed the subject of a separate section: in some the clamores (disputed titles to land) were similarly treated separately. This principle applies more specially to the larger volume: in the smaller one, the system is more confused, the execution less perfect. Domesday names a total of 13,418 places. Apart from the wholly rural portions, which constitute its bulk, Domesday contains entries of interest concerning most of the towns, which were probably made because of their bearing on the fiscal rights of the crown therein. These include fragments of custumals (older customary agreements), records of the military service due, of markets, mints, and so forth. From the towns, from the counties as wholes, and from many of its ancient lordships, the crown was entitled to archaic dues in kind, such as honey. (In a parallel development, around 1100 the Normans in southern Italy completed their Catalogus Baronum based on Domesday Book.) Of most general interest is Domesday's sporadic information on political, personal, ecclesiastical, and social history, used by E. A. Freeman for his work on the Norman Conquest. Survey

• published: 05 May 2014
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