What exactly was the Doomsday Book?

Answer 1

The Doomsday Book was like a giant census and a land survey together. It was commissioned by William the Conqueror in 1086 (20 years after his invasion of England) to assess the extent of the land and resouces being owned in England then and how much taxes he could raise. The information was recorded by hand in 2 large books and took about 1 year to complete. William died before it was completed.
It covered basically all of England as it existed in 1086, including a part of what is now Wales, some of Cumbria, but excluded the present-day Northumbria; entries for Winchester and London failed to make it into the book.
The first book, the Great Doomsday, contained 413 pages; the Little Doomsday contained 475 pages.
The Doomsday book included 13, 418 towns and villages, covering 40 of the old counties of England.
It was called the Doomsday Book because it was compared to the Last Judgement mentioned in the Bible.
It was written on sheepskin parchment using black and red ink (red was used for the county titles atop each page and for corrections and alterations. It was written in a short form of Latin by one person and checked by a second scribe.

Answer 2

For more information go to the websites listed below for The Doomsday Book Online.

The Domesday Book was commissioned in December 1085 by William the Conqueror.
The original Domesday Book has survived over 900 years of English history and is currently housed in a specially made chest at London's Public Record Office in Kew, London.

What is the Domesday Book?

The Domesday Book is a great land survey from 1086, commissioned by William the Conqueror to assess the extent of the land and resources being owned in England at the time, and the extent of the taxes he could raise. The information collected was recorded by hand in two huge books, in the space of around a year. William died before it was fully completed.

Answer 3

After William the Conqueror defeated the English in 1066 and became King of England, he needed, in short, to know what he was king of!! ("All the better to tax you with, my dear!!")
The Doomsday/'Domesday' Book was the record prepared of every piece of land, who owned what farm, mill, etc, the towns and the churces, everything, even down to the animals on farms and the rents/taxes paid in the past.
Started - or completed, I can't recall - in 1086.
To many people it was not a good idea, partly because of the destruction God poured out on Israel after King David took a census when he was not meant to; partly because it was a very handy tool for efficient central government; and partly because it was proof William and his Normans were the rulers. It was felt that 'dome'/doom would result when the book was finished, hence the name.

Answer 4

William the Conqueror made a census of all people and land and livestock in England, Most people can trace their familys back to the Doomsday book.

Answer 5

In 1085 England was threatened with invasion, this time from Denmark. William had to pay for the mercenary army he hired to defend his kingdom. To do this he needed to know what financial and military resources were available to him.

At Christmas 1085 he commissioned a survey to discover the resources and taxable values of all the boroughs and manors in England. He wanted to discover who owned what, how much it was worth and how much was owed to him as King in tax, rents, and military service. A reassessment of the tax known as the geld took place at about the same time as Domesday and still survives for the south west. But Domesday is much more than just a tax record. It also records which manors belonged to which estates and gives the identities of the King’s tenants-in-chief who owed him military service in the form of knights to fight in his army. The King was essentially interested in tracing, recording and recovering his royal rights and revenues which he wished to maximise. It was also in the interests of his chief barons to co-operate in the survey since it set on permanent record the tenurial gains they had made since 1066.

Recent research has suggested that William only commissioned the survey (descriptio) in 1085 and never intended the results to be written up into a book. Some say that it was his son and successor, William Rufus, who ordered the production of Domesday Book itself. Whatever the case, the Conqueror threw full weight of his administrative machinery into the initial survey.

Answer 6

The Doomsday Book was basically a census that William I of England executed in 1086. You can read more about it at the Wikipedia link I have included.

Answer 7

Domesday Book is a list of the property of the people of England and the towns, cities and villages of the time. It was drawn up in c1086 by Wm. The Conquerer, otherwise known as William the Bastard or simply bastard Norman.

Answer 8

A census taken in 1085 by William the Conqueror (aka William the Bastard, and not just because he was illegitimate), the Norman who led the Conquest of England in 1066, to take stock of all his newly acquired land.

Answer 9

Domesday Book (also known as Domesday, or Book of Winchester) was the record of the great survey of England completed in 1086, executed for William I of England. The survey was similar to a census by a government of today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomsday_Book

Answer 10

the greatest record (possibly seconded only by Samuel Peeps of Londons diary in 1660) around 1080 that we have today. It is treasured as it is full of first hand experiences of what life in England was like during this time. Like a National survey. It is kept by national Archives. It was ordered by William the Conquerer I think