Domesday
Book: A Complete Translation.
Penguin, 2002. 1456pp.
Hardback ISBN
0141005238.
Publisher's
recommended price £30.00
Domesday
Book
is where English local history starts. This is the nearest to a
complete
translation of Domesday Book ever issued in a single volume
aimed
at the popular market, and includes an index of places and a glossary
of
terms used.
Domesday
was compiled in a matter of months in 1086, just at the end of William
the Conqueror's life. According to a first-hand account by Robert,
Bishop
of Hereford, those sent out by the king '…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 or land; of ploughs, horses and
other animals; of the services and payments due from each and every
estate'.
The detailed picture of the English landscape it offers is unparalleled
in any country. David Hume, writing in the eighteenth century, called
it
'the most valuable piece of antiquity possessed by any nation'. It is
valuable
not just in the picture it allows local historians to construct of
their
area in the eleventh century but also as the foundation document of the
national archives. It has also been used down the ages as evidence of
title
to land: remarkably, it was last consulted for legal precedent in 1982.
'This
book is
called by the English Domesday not because it passes judgement
on
any doubtful points raised, but because it is not permissible to
contradict
its decisions, any more than it will be those of the Last Judgement,'
wrote
the treasurer of England (Richard fitzNigel) in the twelfth century.
The
name has stuck and now Domesday Book is one of the most famous
documents
in English history - and arguably, in world history.
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