Domesday Book
Overview
The great survey of England ordered by William the Conqueror at Christmas 1085 and largely completed in 1086. Royal commissioners recorded who held each manor, with its ploughs, mills, livestock and value, covering more than 13,000 places. Written in abbreviated Latin in two volumes, Great Domesday and Little Domesday, its verdicts were so final that the English likened it to the Day of Judgement. It served as legal evidence of land title for centuries.
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