1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:14,080 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly 3 00:00:14,120 --> 00:00:17,480 Speaker 1: Frye and I'm Tracy D Wilson. So back when we 4 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 1: talked about old and ancient roads, one of the pieces 5 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:23,800 Speaker 1: that I read about the Ridgeway mentioned the Doomsday Book 6 00:00:23,880 --> 00:00:26,520 Speaker 1: as a reference for the age of the historical site there, 7 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:29,040 Speaker 1: and I thought, have we ever talked in detail about 8 00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:30,920 Speaker 1: the Doomsday Book on the show? Like I knew it 9 00:00:30,960 --> 00:00:32,880 Speaker 1: had come up before, but I was like, I don't 10 00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:35,960 Speaker 1: know that we've ever actually discussed the whole thing and 11 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:39,360 Speaker 1: why it existed. And then I kept finding myself just 12 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:41,879 Speaker 1: looking things up about it as a curiosity, and I 13 00:00:41,920 --> 00:00:44,560 Speaker 1: was like, well, that's gonna have to happen. So here 14 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:48,879 Speaker 1: we are to contextualize all of this and really explain 15 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:51,880 Speaker 1: the scope of this thing. The BBC wrote of the 16 00:00:51,920 --> 00:00:55,640 Speaker 1: Doomsday Book project quote, it was an exercise unparalleled in 17 00:00:55,720 --> 00:00:59,560 Speaker 1: contemporary Europe and was not matched in its comprehensive coverage 18 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:03,600 Speaker 1: of the cunt until the population censuses of the nineteenth century. 19 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:07,640 Speaker 1: Although Doomsday itself is not a full population census and 20 00:01:07,680 --> 00:01:10,320 Speaker 1: the names that appear in it are mainly only those 21 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:13,520 Speaker 1: of people who owned the land. So it's a big 22 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:18,080 Speaker 1: old project, big old data gathering project. Yeah. So the 23 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:24,200 Speaker 1: Doomsday Book, which looks like it should be pronounced Domesday 24 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:28,559 Speaker 1: but is not. If you're like, what's the Doomsday Book, 25 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:31,959 Speaker 1: it's a survey like a census and a property record, 26 00:01:32,600 --> 00:01:37,720 Speaker 1: much less ominous than the doomsday that its name might suggest. 27 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:41,399 Speaker 1: It wasn't called the Doomsday Book by its originator. It 28 00:01:41,440 --> 00:01:43,720 Speaker 1: didn't really have a name at that point. It was 29 00:01:43,800 --> 00:01:47,200 Speaker 1: just called the Description of England, with some of the 30 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:50,400 Speaker 1: documents prepared as part of its assembly each having their 31 00:01:50,440 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 1: own names, and the whole project was initiated by William 32 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 1: the First, also known as William the Conqueror and even 33 00:01:57,840 --> 00:02:01,120 Speaker 1: less flatteringly, William the Bastard. We're going to give you 34 00:02:01,160 --> 00:02:03,680 Speaker 1: the broad strokes on his rise to power because it 35 00:02:03,720 --> 00:02:08,040 Speaker 1: makes clear exactly why he wanted this survey completed. William 36 00:02:08,160 --> 00:02:11,400 Speaker 1: was born in Falaise, Normandy, most likely in ten twenty eight. 37 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:15,080 Speaker 1: His father was Robert, the first Duke of Normandy, and 38 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:18,840 Speaker 1: his mother was a woman named Erleva, she sometimes noted 39 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:23,120 Speaker 1: as being called Arlette, and she was the king's concubine. 40 00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:28,520 Speaker 1: Thus his less than flattering nickname. William was Robert's only son, 41 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:31,160 Speaker 1: and he was just seven when his father became ill 42 00:02:31,320 --> 00:02:34,640 Speaker 1: and died while traveling home from a trip to Jerusalem, 43 00:02:34,960 --> 00:02:37,960 Speaker 1: and at that point William, who Robert had named as 44 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:42,520 Speaker 1: an heir, became William the Second of Normandy. William's life 45 00:02:42,639 --> 00:02:46,080 Speaker 1: after he inherited the title of Duke of Normandy was 46 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:51,080 Speaker 1: marked by constant challenges, intrigues, and loss. His own family 47 00:02:51,160 --> 00:02:54,639 Speaker 1: was pretty apathetic about a situation because they were all 48 00:02:54,760 --> 00:02:58,200 Speaker 1: jockeying for power, and they knew if he died or 49 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:02,440 Speaker 1: was murdered, they would stay to benefit from that. Because 50 00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:04,680 Speaker 1: he was just a child, a lot of people assumed 51 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:07,480 Speaker 1: that they could really do whatever they wanted without any 52 00:03:07,520 --> 00:03:12,280 Speaker 1: real repercussions from authorities, and really they weren't wrong. Without 53 00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:15,600 Speaker 1: a strong leader, some people felt comfortable just laying claim 54 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:18,800 Speaker 1: to their own power. They would build new castles with 55 00:03:18,840 --> 00:03:22,040 Speaker 1: which to defend their claims, and this led to a 56 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: lot of violent conflict. Yeah, theoretically, you were supposed to 57 00:03:26,040 --> 00:03:30,160 Speaker 1: get permission to build a new castle that was not happening, 58 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:33,600 Speaker 1: and then to make matters worse, the adults who were 59 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:37,080 Speaker 1: supposed to be supporting William and were were often attacked. 60 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:40,920 Speaker 1: His personal tutor was murdered, as were three of his guardians, 61 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:44,839 Speaker 1: and over the years, various historians have theorized that all 62 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:48,960 Speaker 1: of this instability in his early years really catalyzed William's 63 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:54,040 Speaker 1: later hardline positions regarding law and order. After being knighted 64 00:03:54,120 --> 00:03:56,760 Speaker 1: at the age of fifteen, William went hard trying to 65 00:03:56,800 --> 00:03:59,840 Speaker 1: prosecute and punish people who had overstepped and taken in 66 00:04:00,000 --> 00:04:03,080 Speaker 1: advantage of the chaos of his early years as duke, 67 00:04:03,600 --> 00:04:07,880 Speaker 1: and that led to more conflict. Most of the people 68 00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 1: he was trying to reclaim land from had held it 69 00:04:10,400 --> 00:04:12,600 Speaker 1: for years at that point, so they felt it was 70 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:16,120 Speaker 1: very much theirs, and they had no intention of paying 71 00:04:16,160 --> 00:04:20,320 Speaker 1: any back taxes levied on it. Numerous rebellions were mounted 72 00:04:20,360 --> 00:04:22,680 Speaker 1: because of all of this, and while there was mixed 73 00:04:22,800 --> 00:04:26,120 Speaker 1: success for William in terms of these conflicts, he did 74 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:29,160 Speaker 1: learn a lot about battle and he developed his style 75 00:04:29,200 --> 00:04:33,960 Speaker 1: as a commander, which was direct and pragmatic. Also during 76 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:36,640 Speaker 1: this time, William got a good bit of help from 77 00:04:36,800 --> 00:04:39,640 Speaker 1: King Henry the First of France, who took the throne 78 00:04:39,760 --> 00:04:43,760 Speaker 1: in ten thirty one. After things settled down for William 79 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:47,880 Speaker 1: in Normandy, he supported Henry's efforts elsewhere, especially when it 80 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:52,240 Speaker 1: came to expanding France's territory in the south. In ten 81 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:56,599 Speaker 1: fifty three, William married Matilda of Flanders after negotiating for 82 00:04:56,680 --> 00:04:59,200 Speaker 1: her hand as part of an alliance with her father, 83 00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:04,080 Speaker 1: Baldwin the f fifth. This was actually a problematic marital 84 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:07,000 Speaker 1: alliance in the eyes of the church. Pope Leo the 85 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:10,400 Speaker 1: ninth had stated that because the two were third cousins 86 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:13,920 Speaker 1: once removed, the marriage was incestuous and should not happen. 87 00:05:14,640 --> 00:05:17,000 Speaker 1: But they got married anyway, and it seems to have 88 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:19,560 Speaker 1: been a pretty good match. They had nine children that 89 00:05:19,640 --> 00:05:23,599 Speaker 1: lived to adulthood, and Matilda ruled Normandy when William was away. 90 00:05:24,440 --> 00:05:28,440 Speaker 1: Regarding their choice to ignore the pope, that was pretty serious. 91 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:31,599 Speaker 1: It was also a little surprising because William was known 92 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:34,960 Speaker 1: to be very religious. But six or seven years into 93 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:37,880 Speaker 1: the marriage he reconciled with the church, and he made 94 00:05:37,920 --> 00:05:41,960 Speaker 1: amends by agreeing to build two monasteries at cont one 95 00:05:42,000 --> 00:05:45,880 Speaker 1: in his name and one in Matilda's. This penance enabled 96 00:05:45,920 --> 00:05:49,640 Speaker 1: the papacy to officially sanction their marriage, and that bolstered 97 00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:54,880 Speaker 1: William's position during another period of upheaval in Normandy. William 98 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:57,320 Speaker 1: made a deal with Edward the Confessor, who was the 99 00:05:57,400 --> 00:06:01,839 Speaker 1: King of England and also William's cousin. Edward had no heir, 100 00:06:02,120 --> 00:06:05,080 Speaker 1: and William thought that he could be Edwards named Air 101 00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:08,320 Speaker 1: and this was likely something that was possible because he 102 00:06:08,400 --> 00:06:12,200 Speaker 1: had allied with Flanders through marriage, and as this agreement 103 00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:15,479 Speaker 1: seems to have happened even before the marriage took place, 104 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:18,680 Speaker 1: but after William had made his deal with Baldwin the Fifth, 105 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:21,400 Speaker 1: so he was in a good position to be like, hey, 106 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:25,200 Speaker 1: I could handle this kind of power. That deal became 107 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:29,240 Speaker 1: important because William had fallen out of favor with King Henry. 108 00:06:29,880 --> 00:06:33,240 Speaker 1: In the meantime, Henry and Jeffrey Martel also known as 109 00:06:33,279 --> 00:06:37,240 Speaker 1: Jeffrey the second Count of Anjous, had reconciled after their 110 00:06:37,279 --> 00:06:40,320 Speaker 1: own falling out, and they had joined forces to launch 111 00:06:40,360 --> 00:06:44,680 Speaker 1: an attack on William's Normandy, which happened as multiple rebellion 112 00:06:44,720 --> 00:06:50,040 Speaker 1: efforts were all happening within Normandy. William managed to regain 113 00:06:50,120 --> 00:06:53,440 Speaker 1: control of Normandy, and then, regarding his conflict with the 114 00:06:53,480 --> 00:06:56,680 Speaker 1: Crown and the Count of Anjous, he got lucky. King 115 00:06:56,720 --> 00:06:59,720 Speaker 1: Henry died on August fourth, ten sixty and his eight 116 00:06:59,800 --> 00:07:02,279 Speaker 1: years year old son, Philip the First took the throne, 117 00:07:02,600 --> 00:07:06,680 Speaker 1: with widowed Queen Anne of Kievs serving as regent. Just 118 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:10,280 Speaker 1: a few months later, on November fourteenth, Jeffrey Martel also 119 00:07:10,560 --> 00:07:14,560 Speaker 1: died and his title went to his nephews. So William's 120 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:18,800 Speaker 1: two strongest limiters to his success in expanding Norman lands 121 00:07:18,840 --> 00:07:22,080 Speaker 1: were no longer on the board, and their successors were 122 00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:25,920 Speaker 1: neither as strong nor as driven to stop him. Okay, 123 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:28,400 Speaker 1: so now we have to go back to Edward the Confessor, 124 00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:31,360 Speaker 1: and we are reaching a point where there are two 125 00:07:31,520 --> 00:07:36,080 Speaker 1: different narratives of what happened next. According to the Norman version, 126 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:40,480 Speaker 1: Edward sent Harold, Earl of Wessex from England to Normandy 127 00:07:40,840 --> 00:07:44,120 Speaker 1: to confirm the agreement that Edward would name William as 128 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:47,880 Speaker 1: his heir. Harold was shipwrecked and he was captured by 129 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:52,440 Speaker 1: one of William's vessels, Gui, the first of Ponthieu. William 130 00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:55,960 Speaker 1: intervened to free Harold, and Harold told William that yes, 131 00:07:56,600 --> 00:08:00,679 Speaker 1: Edward was ready to confirm their bequest agreement. This involved 132 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:03,800 Speaker 1: the swearing of an oath on Harold's part. Again, that's 133 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:07,280 Speaker 1: according to Norman sources. Some of those sources include the 134 00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:11,440 Speaker 1: bio tapestry, which features an image of Norman's swearing fealty 135 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:16,160 Speaker 1: to William. The alternate version suggests that Harold's mission was 136 00:08:16,320 --> 00:08:20,720 Speaker 1: not about confirming that agreement, because Edward named Harold as 137 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:24,080 Speaker 1: his heir while he was on his deathbed, so either 138 00:08:24,120 --> 00:08:26,840 Speaker 1: he sent Harold for a different reason or he changed 139 00:08:26,880 --> 00:08:30,480 Speaker 1: his mind. But when Edward died on January fifth, ten 140 00:08:30,600 --> 00:08:33,880 Speaker 1: sixty six, the throne went to Harold after the nobility 141 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:39,520 Speaker 1: confirmed him. Unsurprisingly, this was not something that delighted William, 142 00:08:39,640 --> 00:08:42,520 Speaker 1: and it also brought conflict from other places, because William 143 00:08:42,600 --> 00:08:45,800 Speaker 1: wasn't the only person that thought he should inherit from Edward. 144 00:08:46,440 --> 00:08:49,080 Speaker 1: Before William could even get his affairs in order to 145 00:08:49,200 --> 00:08:53,080 Speaker 1: bolster his standing and get ready to attack England, Harold's 146 00:08:53,080 --> 00:08:57,880 Speaker 1: brother Tostig and Harold the second Hardrod of Norway invaded 147 00:08:57,920 --> 00:09:02,000 Speaker 1: England to wrest power from Harold. They were unsuccessful, but 148 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:06,240 Speaker 1: left Harold weakened and low on troops. William was able 149 00:09:06,280 --> 00:09:09,000 Speaker 1: to take advantage of this, and was of course victorious 150 00:09:09,040 --> 00:09:12,640 Speaker 1: at the Battle of Hastings, during which King Harold was killed. 151 00:09:12,920 --> 00:09:17,240 Speaker 1: There's a particularly grizzly and famous account of that death 152 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:20,520 Speaker 1: where he gets shot right in the eye, which sounds awful. 153 00:09:20,840 --> 00:09:23,840 Speaker 1: But William became William the First of England on December 154 00:09:23,880 --> 00:09:27,640 Speaker 1: twenty fifth, ten sixty six. Yeah, we have old episodes 155 00:09:27,679 --> 00:09:32,200 Speaker 1: about the Battle of Hastings and about the Tapestry all 156 00:09:32,240 --> 00:09:35,760 Speaker 1: hanging out there in the archive. With William finally on 157 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:38,680 Speaker 1: the throne of England's we can finally start talking about 158 00:09:38,679 --> 00:09:41,240 Speaker 1: the Doomsday Book, and we will get into it after 159 00:09:41,280 --> 00:09:53,560 Speaker 1: we first pause for a sponsor break. Been to twenty 160 00:09:53,640 --> 00:09:56,839 Speaker 1: years after William became King of England, his leadership was 161 00:09:56,880 --> 00:09:59,400 Speaker 1: as tumultuous as it had been as Duke of Normandy 162 00:09:59,440 --> 00:10:03,040 Speaker 1: in France. He went home to Normandy in ten sixty seven, 163 00:10:03,120 --> 00:10:05,880 Speaker 1: but he had to return to England almost immediately to 164 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:08,680 Speaker 1: deal with a series of rebellions, and he became rather 165 00:10:08,840 --> 00:10:12,400 Speaker 1: ruthless in putting such rebellions down over the next several years. 166 00:10:13,040 --> 00:10:16,800 Speaker 1: William is known for introducing a lot of Norman governing 167 00:10:16,960 --> 00:10:21,840 Speaker 1: structures to England. Some of these were literal structures, including 168 00:10:21,880 --> 00:10:25,120 Speaker 1: the Tower of London and other castles, that were intended 169 00:10:25,120 --> 00:10:29,400 Speaker 1: to give Norman lords central strongholds from which they could 170 00:10:29,400 --> 00:10:34,320 Speaker 1: control the surrounding lands. Those Norman lords had replaced members 171 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:38,560 Speaker 1: of England's aristocracy as part of William's restructuring, and he 172 00:10:38,640 --> 00:10:43,520 Speaker 1: had instituted a landholding policy that required promises of military 173 00:10:43,600 --> 00:10:48,200 Speaker 1: service to the lords that oversaw them. William traveled between 174 00:10:48,240 --> 00:10:51,680 Speaker 1: Normandy and England throughout his reign, sometimes returning to his 175 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:55,520 Speaker 1: original home for years before something like a rebellion would 176 00:10:55,559 --> 00:10:59,080 Speaker 1: bring him back to England to assert his authority. And 177 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:03,040 Speaker 1: as he faced both within and without his kingdom, that 178 00:11:03,240 --> 00:11:06,440 Speaker 1: system of landholding that he established became more and more 179 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:10,040 Speaker 1: important to him. William the First wanted to make sure 180 00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:13,720 Speaker 1: that he understood completely who owned what and thus who 181 00:11:13,760 --> 00:11:17,200 Speaker 1: owed him military service as well as money, and so 182 00:11:17,360 --> 00:11:19,560 Speaker 1: he decided at the end of ten eighty five that 183 00:11:19,640 --> 00:11:23,080 Speaker 1: he needed a survey assessing who was on what land 184 00:11:23,520 --> 00:11:28,080 Speaker 1: and details of any estates. This survey would ultimately yield 185 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:32,360 Speaker 1: what became known as Doomsday Book. Doomsday Book is sometimes 186 00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:36,760 Speaker 1: described as the way William the First assessed his new kingdom, 187 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:40,840 Speaker 1: but it was almost twenty years before he initiated the project, 188 00:11:40,920 --> 00:11:45,319 Speaker 1: so obviously that is not accurate. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle, 189 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:47,800 Speaker 1: which is a history that was started in the late 190 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:51,480 Speaker 1: ninth century and was updated in fits and starts until 191 00:11:51,520 --> 00:11:55,360 Speaker 1: eleven fourteen. That mentions the moment that William made his 192 00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:59,000 Speaker 1: decision to have the survey done, describing it this way quote. 193 00:11:59,640 --> 00:12:02,920 Speaker 1: After this had the King a large meeting and very 194 00:12:02,920 --> 00:12:06,679 Speaker 1: deep consultation with his council about this land, how it 195 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:10,600 Speaker 1: was occupied, and by what sort of men. Then he 196 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:15,480 Speaker 1: sent his men all over England into each shire, commissioning 197 00:12:15,520 --> 00:12:18,480 Speaker 1: them to find out how many hundreds of hides were 198 00:12:18,480 --> 00:12:21,760 Speaker 1: in the shire, what land the King himself had, and 199 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:24,760 Speaker 1: what stock upon the land, or what dews he ought 200 00:12:24,760 --> 00:12:28,320 Speaker 1: to have by the year from the shire. Also he 201 00:12:28,320 --> 00:12:32,040 Speaker 1: commissioned them to record in writing how much land his 202 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:36,320 Speaker 1: archbishops had, and his diocesan bishops, and his abbots, and 203 00:12:36,360 --> 00:12:40,040 Speaker 1: his earls, And though I may be prolix and tedious, 204 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:43,559 Speaker 1: what or how much each man had who was an 205 00:12:43,559 --> 00:12:46,840 Speaker 1: occupier of land in England, either in land or in stock, 206 00:12:47,120 --> 00:12:51,000 Speaker 1: and how much money it were worth. So very narrowly, indeed, 207 00:12:51,000 --> 00:12:53,360 Speaker 1: did he commission them to trace it out that there 208 00:12:53,400 --> 00:12:56,240 Speaker 1: was not one single hide, nor a yard of land 209 00:12:56,440 --> 00:12:59,000 Speaker 1: name or over. It is shameful to tell, though he 210 00:12:59,120 --> 00:13:02,080 Speaker 1: thought it no shame to do it, Not even an 211 00:13:02,080 --> 00:13:05,199 Speaker 1: ox or nora, a cow, nor a swine was there 212 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:09,480 Speaker 1: left that was not set down in his writ and 213 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:14,640 Speaker 1: all the recorded particulars were afterwards brought to him. Incidentally, 214 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:19,040 Speaker 1: hides here is not referencing animal hides. It is a 215 00:13:19,160 --> 00:13:24,000 Speaker 1: measurement of land. So Doomsday Book was actually two books, 216 00:13:24,080 --> 00:13:26,559 Speaker 1: and it still exists, but not quite in that form, 217 00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:29,120 Speaker 1: and we're going to talk about that later. The first 218 00:13:29,200 --> 00:13:32,320 Speaker 1: volume is called Great Doomsday and the second is called 219 00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:36,720 Speaker 1: Little Doomsday. There are also additional supporting pieces of writing, 220 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:41,079 Speaker 1: many of which were summarized in Great Doomsday. Great Doomsday 221 00:13:41,160 --> 00:13:44,520 Speaker 1: is written in an abbreviated form of Latin on parchment 222 00:13:44,600 --> 00:13:47,680 Speaker 1: that's made of sheepskin. Most of the ink in it 223 00:13:47,840 --> 00:13:51,840 Speaker 1: is black, although red ink was used for page headers, corrections, 224 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:56,959 Speaker 1: and addendums. This total's four hundred and thirteen pages. Great 225 00:13:56,960 --> 00:14:00,480 Speaker 1: Doomsday includes most of the records collected about all of 226 00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:04,599 Speaker 1: the county surveyed, with the exception of Norfolk, Essex, and Suffolk. 227 00:14:05,040 --> 00:14:08,920 Speaker 1: Those are included in Little Doomsday, but not as summaries. 228 00:14:09,600 --> 00:14:11,800 Speaker 1: It seems like these should have been incorporated into the 229 00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:14,880 Speaker 1: larger first volume at some point, but for reasons unknown 230 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:18,240 Speaker 1: that did not happen. This whole thing also did not 231 00:14:18,360 --> 00:14:22,840 Speaker 1: include the northern areas of England. London, Winchester and Bristol 232 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:27,560 Speaker 1: are also excluded, as are Northumberland and Durham. There may 233 00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:30,080 Speaker 1: have been, and probably were, plans to get to all 234 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:33,240 Speaker 1: of that, but those areas and some other small towns 235 00:14:33,240 --> 00:14:37,160 Speaker 1: and villages that we know existed but weren't included, either 236 00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:39,640 Speaker 1: never got their data collected or we do not have 237 00:14:39,680 --> 00:14:44,160 Speaker 1: the records. Little Doomsday is actually a more detailed work 238 00:14:44,240 --> 00:14:47,920 Speaker 1: than Great Doomsday, and though its cover size is smaller, 239 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:50,800 Speaker 1: it has more pages at four hundred and seventy five. 240 00:14:51,560 --> 00:14:54,440 Speaker 1: It appears that the larger book made use of records 241 00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:59,000 Speaker 1: similar to those than Little Doomsday and condensed and abbreviated them. 242 00:15:00,480 --> 00:15:03,160 Speaker 1: In Great Doomsday appears to have been written by a 243 00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:06,840 Speaker 1: single person, it appears that a second scribe checked the 244 00:15:06,920 --> 00:15:10,800 Speaker 1: work and made some notes. In contrast, Little Doomsday appears 245 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:14,480 Speaker 1: to have had several different people recording information in it. 246 00:15:15,640 --> 00:15:19,320 Speaker 1: Those supporting documents that we mentioned earlier offer their own 247 00:15:19,480 --> 00:15:23,600 Speaker 1: unique insights into this whole project. For example, the document 248 00:15:23,680 --> 00:15:26,720 Speaker 1: known as Inquisition of the County of Cambridge, which has 249 00:15:26,760 --> 00:15:29,000 Speaker 1: a much longer Latin name that I thought I should 250 00:15:29,040 --> 00:15:33,720 Speaker 1: not attempt, includes information on process and procedure for capturing 251 00:15:34,160 --> 00:15:37,320 Speaker 1: all of this data. And it's from this document that 252 00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:39,680 Speaker 1: we know that the whole thing was carried out as 253 00:15:39,680 --> 00:15:43,760 Speaker 1: a series of sworn inquests. So it's believed that major 254 00:15:43,840 --> 00:15:47,840 Speaker 1: landowners initially sent in information who their tenants were, what 255 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:50,480 Speaker 1: manners were part of their land, et cetera, and then 256 00:15:50,560 --> 00:15:55,120 Speaker 1: that information was compared to existing records. Then came the 257 00:15:55,160 --> 00:15:58,600 Speaker 1: part where William sent his men all over England, as 258 00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:01,560 Speaker 1: described in the quote that Tracy read earlier, to hold 259 00:16:01,560 --> 00:16:06,400 Speaker 1: these inquests and get confirmation and additional details about land holdings. 260 00:16:07,080 --> 00:16:11,000 Speaker 1: The commissioners conducted the proceedings at assigned circuits, each of 261 00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:17,080 Speaker 1: which was divided into counties and then subdivided into Feif's hundreds, vills, manners, 262 00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:21,720 Speaker 1: and sub manners, with some circuits subdividing even further. There 263 00:16:21,720 --> 00:16:24,800 Speaker 1: were seven circuits in total, with three to four commissioners 264 00:16:24,840 --> 00:16:28,080 Speaker 1: assigned to each, and the juries that were assembled for 265 00:16:28,160 --> 00:16:31,720 Speaker 1: these inquests were made up of Norman and Anglo Saxon 266 00:16:31,760 --> 00:16:35,080 Speaker 1: members to avoid bias, and then witnesses were called to 267 00:16:35,240 --> 00:16:39,680 Speaker 1: verify the information that the landowners, which were literal landlords, 268 00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:44,560 Speaker 1: had provided. The questions asked at the inquests also appeared 269 00:16:44,560 --> 00:16:48,440 Speaker 1: in the supplemental documents. There are eighteen of them. What 270 00:16:48,640 --> 00:16:51,120 Speaker 1: the manner was called? Who held it at the time 271 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:54,520 Speaker 1: of King Edward? Who holds it now? How many hides 272 00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:57,640 Speaker 1: there are? How many plows held by the lord, and 273 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:01,720 Speaker 1: how many belonging to the peasants? How many villains those 274 00:17:01,760 --> 00:17:06,520 Speaker 1: were wealthy sort of in quotation marks indentured peasants. They 275 00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:10,120 Speaker 1: would not have been wealthy at all. It was relatively 276 00:17:10,800 --> 00:17:15,320 Speaker 1: more prosperous. How many cotters those are indentured peasants, who 277 00:17:15,320 --> 00:17:19,400 Speaker 1: owned land totaling less than five acres? How many slaves? 278 00:17:19,480 --> 00:17:22,640 Speaker 1: How many freemen? How many soakmen? Those were freemen who 279 00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:26,800 Speaker 1: owed dues to their lord? How much woodland? How much meadow? 280 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:31,080 Speaker 1: How much pasture? How many mills, how many fisheries? How 281 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:34,240 Speaker 1: much had been added or taken away from the estate? 282 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:37,760 Speaker 1: What it used to be worth altogether? And what it 283 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:43,000 Speaker 1: is worth now? These questions were posed in triplicate. One 284 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:45,320 Speaker 1: set of answers was given for the time of Edward 285 00:17:45,359 --> 00:17:48,879 Speaker 1: the Confessor before ten sixty six. One set was to 286 00:17:48,920 --> 00:17:51,840 Speaker 1: capture the situation in the aftermath of William the first 287 00:17:51,880 --> 00:17:55,240 Speaker 1: redistribution of property that was right after he took the throne, 288 00:17:55,680 --> 00:17:58,040 Speaker 1: and then the third set was to reflect the situation 289 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:01,359 Speaker 1: at the time the survey was perfer formed, and the 290 00:18:01,480 --> 00:18:04,280 Speaker 1: answers to all of these questions were then compiled and 291 00:18:04,400 --> 00:18:07,800 Speaker 1: used to create first one set of documents and then 292 00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:12,320 Speaker 1: the summaries that appear in the Great Doomsday. Landowners' names 293 00:18:12,359 --> 00:18:15,159 Speaker 1: and they were generally all Normans with a few exceptions 294 00:18:15,200 --> 00:18:18,520 Speaker 1: were recorded and some of their Anglo Saxon under tenants. 295 00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:22,320 Speaker 1: Once all of these inquests were complete, the commissioners then 296 00:18:22,520 --> 00:18:25,360 Speaker 1: assembled together so that all of their collected data could 297 00:18:25,359 --> 00:18:29,720 Speaker 1: be amassed. So what does all that data show. More 298 00:18:29,760 --> 00:18:33,280 Speaker 1: than thirteen thousand places are mentioned in the Doomsday Book, 299 00:18:33,840 --> 00:18:37,120 Speaker 1: most of them are still around today, although in some 300 00:18:37,200 --> 00:18:41,360 Speaker 1: cases the names have changed. Sprinkled throughout all those places 301 00:18:41,359 --> 00:18:45,720 Speaker 1: are thirty thousand recorded manners. The total value of all 302 00:18:45,760 --> 00:18:48,920 Speaker 1: the properties listed in the book is estimated at seventy 303 00:18:48,920 --> 00:18:53,280 Speaker 1: three thousand pounds calculated by size. Thirty five percent of 304 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:57,080 Speaker 1: the land was deemed arable, twenty five percent was pasture 305 00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:00,480 Speaker 1: or meadow land, with meadow being the dominant, the two 306 00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:04,560 Speaker 1: fifteen percent was woodland, and the remaining twenty five percent 307 00:19:04,640 --> 00:19:09,040 Speaker 1: was listed as other. This clearly shows too, the way 308 00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:13,680 Speaker 1: that William consolidated wealth and power among his followers. Whereas 309 00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:16,600 Speaker 1: two thousand Anglo Saxons had owned the majority of the 310 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:19,760 Speaker 1: surveyed land in the time of Edward the Confessor, by 311 00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:23,320 Speaker 1: ten eighty six, just two hundred people did, all of 312 00:19:23,359 --> 00:19:27,000 Speaker 1: them Normans. Seventeen percent of all of the land in 313 00:19:27,040 --> 00:19:30,080 Speaker 1: England was owned by the king and his family, and 314 00:19:30,119 --> 00:19:33,400 Speaker 1: then the church, bishops and abbots owned twenty six percent, 315 00:19:34,119 --> 00:19:37,560 Speaker 1: Tenants in chief owned fifty four percent, and those two 316 00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:41,200 Speaker 1: thousand Anglo Saxons had largely become under tenants to those 317 00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:44,960 Speaker 1: two hundred Norman landholders. And it showed that ninety percent 318 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:47,960 Speaker 1: of the population lived outside of cities, and that three 319 00:19:48,040 --> 00:19:51,480 Speaker 1: quarters of them were serfs, and it estimated that about 320 00:19:51,560 --> 00:19:55,359 Speaker 1: sixteen thousand troops could be called up from the existing population. 321 00:19:56,359 --> 00:19:59,399 Speaker 1: What you can't get from Doomsday Book is a reliable 322 00:19:59,440 --> 00:20:02,159 Speaker 1: population count, because, as we mentioned in the intro and 323 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:05,040 Speaker 1: then again just a little while ago, it listed only 324 00:20:05,080 --> 00:20:07,800 Speaker 1: the names of landholders, so they would say who was 325 00:20:07,880 --> 00:20:10,400 Speaker 1: under them, but not by names, so you can't really 326 00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:14,320 Speaker 1: reconcile that with accuracy, and Doomsday is the work that's 327 00:20:14,359 --> 00:20:18,600 Speaker 1: still being researched and reinterpreted. In twenty twenty one, a 328 00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:22,960 Speaker 1: paper in English Historical Review shared new insights into the work. 329 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:26,080 Speaker 1: We talked about this and unearthed that year, but we 330 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:30,880 Speaker 1: don't expect anybody to remember that. The study that resulted 331 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:34,680 Speaker 1: in the paper was a collaboration between University of Oxford 332 00:20:34,760 --> 00:20:38,800 Speaker 1: and King's College London, led by doctor Stephen Baxter, Professor 333 00:20:38,840 --> 00:20:43,560 Speaker 1: of Medieval History at Oxford. Their work looked specifically at 334 00:20:43,640 --> 00:20:48,679 Speaker 1: one of the supporting documents, the Exon Doomsday. Its Latin 335 00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:53,600 Speaker 1: name is Liber Exoniensis, and Exon Doomsday is the oldest 336 00:20:53,640 --> 00:20:57,960 Speaker 1: of the manuscripts associated with the project. This particular part 337 00:20:57,960 --> 00:20:59,720 Speaker 1: of the work is not with the rest of the 338 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:04,080 Speaker 1: two main sections. It's at the Exeter Cathedral Library, cataloged 339 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:07,800 Speaker 1: as MS thirty five hundred. Yeah. I should point out too, 340 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:09,880 Speaker 1: I didn't include it in this outline that this also 341 00:21:11,200 --> 00:21:15,080 Speaker 1: was published as a book by Baxter's team. But Baxter's 342 00:21:15,080 --> 00:21:19,560 Speaker 1: team carefully analyzed Exon Doomsday to determine which of the 343 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:24,119 Speaker 1: numerous scribes two dozen who worked on it wrote which sections, 344 00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:27,720 Speaker 1: and then tracked what documents each of them had worked 345 00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,680 Speaker 1: from to do so, and it showed a really impressive 346 00:21:30,760 --> 00:21:35,240 Speaker 1: level of organization and efficiency. Doctor Baxter was quoted in 347 00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:39,000 Speaker 1: the press as saying of doomsday quote. This research shows 348 00:21:39,040 --> 00:21:41,520 Speaker 1: the compilation of Doomsday to be one of the most 349 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:45,040 Speaker 1: remarkable feats of government in the recorded history of Britain. 350 00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:49,520 Speaker 1: The survey was brilliantly conceived to generate and structure information 351 00:21:49,680 --> 00:21:53,520 Speaker 1: that would enable the conqueror's regime to maximize his revenue 352 00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:58,840 Speaker 1: from different income streams. The conqueror's regime effectively compiled and 353 00:21:58,920 --> 00:22:02,760 Speaker 1: manipulated a dapt base of England's landed wealth in less 354 00:22:02,800 --> 00:22:07,160 Speaker 1: than nine months, using technologies no more complex than parchment, 355 00:22:07,359 --> 00:22:12,560 Speaker 1: pen and ink and human interaction. Perhaps most mind blowing 356 00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:15,639 Speaker 1: is the research team's determination that the first draft of 357 00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:18,280 Speaker 1: this whole project was done in the course of just 358 00:22:18,400 --> 00:22:22,080 Speaker 1: one hundred days, starting on Christmas Day ten eighty five, 359 00:22:22,160 --> 00:22:25,480 Speaker 1: when William first ordered the survey, and ending on Easter 360 00:22:25,640 --> 00:22:29,159 Speaker 1: ten eighty six, which was April fifth. The work notes 361 00:22:29,200 --> 00:22:32,040 Speaker 1: that taxes were collected at the same time the first 362 00:22:32,040 --> 00:22:35,280 Speaker 1: pass of the survey was done, and that the inquest portion, 363 00:22:35,480 --> 00:22:38,119 Speaker 1: which was more of a fact check, took place in 364 00:22:38,160 --> 00:22:41,440 Speaker 1: the following fifty days, being completed on May twenty fifth. 365 00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:45,040 Speaker 1: From that point to August. First, the information was all 366 00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:49,080 Speaker 1: parsed and reorganized into statistical summaries that would lead to 367 00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:52,600 Speaker 1: the production of the Great Doomsday. It's important to point 368 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:56,320 Speaker 1: out that while this effort was unprecedented in its scope, 369 00:22:56,840 --> 00:22:59,800 Speaker 1: it wasn't as though William the Conqueror conjured the idea 370 00:22:59,840 --> 00:23:02,640 Speaker 1: of the land survey like this out of thin air. 371 00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:06,040 Speaker 1: Quite a few of the counties that were surveyed for 372 00:23:06,119 --> 00:23:09,720 Speaker 1: the Norman King had been surveyed before. Some of that 373 00:23:09,840 --> 00:23:13,880 Speaker 1: documentation was used to model the structure of Doomsday Book, 374 00:23:14,280 --> 00:23:17,520 Speaker 1: and Doomsday Book didn't supplant all those other records either. 375 00:23:18,119 --> 00:23:22,240 Speaker 1: Historian Sally Harvey, who studied the Doomsday Book throughout her career, 376 00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:26,480 Speaker 1: rote in nineteen seventy four, quote, we may emphasize the 377 00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:31,480 Speaker 1: background documentation and treasury practice that enabled the Doomsday survey 378 00:23:31,560 --> 00:23:35,920 Speaker 1: to be taken so quickly. Nevertheless, the enterprise was prodigious 379 00:23:35,960 --> 00:23:41,879 Speaker 1: and indicates that existing documentation was deemed inadequate. Yeah, there 380 00:23:41,920 --> 00:23:45,000 Speaker 1: are also some surveys similar to this that had already 381 00:23:45,040 --> 00:23:48,720 Speaker 1: happened in other parts of Europe. So again, not a 382 00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:52,639 Speaker 1: completely new concept coming up. We're going to talk about 383 00:23:52,680 --> 00:23:55,520 Speaker 1: how all of this information was used, but first, we 384 00:23:55,560 --> 00:23:58,040 Speaker 1: will hear from the sponsors that keep stuff you missed 385 00:23:58,040 --> 00:24:10,240 Speaker 1: in history class going. So you may be wondering what 386 00:24:10,440 --> 00:24:13,080 Speaker 1: did William the First do with all of this information 387 00:24:13,640 --> 00:24:17,919 Speaker 1: that he had commanded to be collected, Well, he actually 388 00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:20,000 Speaker 1: died before he could do a whole lot with it. 389 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:23,199 Speaker 1: It wasn't quite completed when he died in September of 390 00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:25,800 Speaker 1: ten eighty seven. As we noted, some of the major 391 00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:28,280 Speaker 1: cities were not entered in the book, and information in 392 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:32,080 Speaker 1: Little Doomsday and the additional documents was likely intended to 393 00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:35,840 Speaker 1: be incorporated into one main volume, but that seems to 394 00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:39,760 Speaker 1: have fallen to the wayside with William's death. But it 395 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:43,080 Speaker 1: was still used to make decisions about governance and to 396 00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:47,160 Speaker 1: settle disputes long after William the First was gone, as 397 00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:50,520 Speaker 1: evidence of how important the project was. It wasn't until 398 00:24:50,520 --> 00:24:53,760 Speaker 1: almost one hundred years after the record was compiled that 399 00:24:53,840 --> 00:24:58,200 Speaker 1: it got its ominous sounding name the eleven seventy nine 400 00:24:58,359 --> 00:25:01,840 Speaker 1: Dialogue of the Exchequers, where it got the name Doomsday, 401 00:25:02,320 --> 00:25:05,040 Speaker 1: as that writing includes the note quote just as the 402 00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:08,639 Speaker 1: sentence of that strict and terrible last judgment cannot be 403 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:12,840 Speaker 1: evaded by any art or subterfuge. So when a dispute 404 00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:16,720 Speaker 1: arises in this realm concerning facts which are written down, 405 00:25:17,200 --> 00:25:19,679 Speaker 1: and an appeal is made to the book itself, the 406 00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:23,480 Speaker 1: evidence it gives cannot be set at naught or evaded 407 00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:28,199 Speaker 1: with impunity. The name stuck. Even the Public Record Office, 408 00:25:28,240 --> 00:25:30,879 Speaker 1: which was tasked with caring for the book, started to 409 00:25:30,880 --> 00:25:33,920 Speaker 1: call it Doomsday, and it's been known that way since 410 00:25:33,920 --> 00:25:38,160 Speaker 1: the twelfth century. Incidentally, the Public Record Office is now 411 00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:42,720 Speaker 1: the National Archives. According to John MacDonald and gd Snooks, 412 00:25:42,760 --> 00:25:45,680 Speaker 1: writing in the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society in 413 00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:49,160 Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five, quote, during the first few centuries after 414 00:25:49,240 --> 00:25:53,040 Speaker 1: ten eighty six, dB was in constant use in the Exchequer, 415 00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:56,800 Speaker 1: where it held pride of place amongst Treasury documents, and 416 00:25:56,960 --> 00:26:00,359 Speaker 1: was even seriously consulted as late as fifteen seventy three 417 00:26:00,359 --> 00:26:03,679 Speaker 1: by Elizabeth I. As we look at this project and 418 00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:07,920 Speaker 1: its extraordinary collection of information, it's easy to see why 419 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:11,359 Speaker 1: it has fascinated historians and researchers and has been a 420 00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:16,640 Speaker 1: topic of debate for centuries. Once again quoting Sally Harvey, quote, 421 00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:20,959 Speaker 1: Doomsday Book's own monumentality is one of its greatest hazards, 422 00:26:21,359 --> 00:26:24,439 Speaker 1: though it bulks largest as a source of information for 423 00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:27,800 Speaker 1: eleventh century England. It is by no means the sole 424 00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:31,800 Speaker 1: survivor of late Anglo Saxon and of Anglo Norman administration. 425 00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:36,440 Speaker 1: Many of the near contemporary texts have suffered because all 426 00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:40,280 Speaker 1: have been turned into Doomsday satellites, even texts which are 427 00:26:40,359 --> 00:26:43,760 Speaker 1: known to contain figures and arrangements which are not those 428 00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:47,159 Speaker 1: of Doomsday Book. On the other hand, the effort to 429 00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:50,560 Speaker 1: avoid the magnetism of Doomsday has caused a few historians 430 00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:55,679 Speaker 1: of administration to evade its ambit. Altogether, the Doomsday Survey 431 00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:59,960 Speaker 1: had motives and objectives, its findings were acted upon instantly, 432 00:27:00,359 --> 00:27:02,800 Speaker 1: and it remained a reference work for years to come. 433 00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:06,680 Speaker 1: We gain insight into the administration which produced the survey 434 00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:11,359 Speaker 1: and understand how Doomsday's existence affected the character of subsequent 435 00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:16,479 Speaker 1: administrative policy, particularly in the following reign. Harvey notes in 436 00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:19,080 Speaker 1: that writing, which was part of the published transactions of 437 00:27:19,119 --> 00:27:22,679 Speaker 1: the Royal Historical Society, that in some cases the scholarly 438 00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:26,000 Speaker 1: approach to the book kind of distances researchers from its 439 00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:29,120 Speaker 1: very necessity, because it's easy to lose sight of its 440 00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:33,160 Speaker 1: functional need and purpose. But some of the problem lies 441 00:27:33,240 --> 00:27:36,679 Speaker 1: in the fact that different researchers have perceived the function 442 00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:40,520 Speaker 1: and purpose of the work differently. While some have focused 443 00:27:40,520 --> 00:27:43,320 Speaker 1: on it as a financial tool for William the First, 444 00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,960 Speaker 1: others have suggested that its primary purpose was more about 445 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:52,359 Speaker 1: the legal establishment of a new feudalism. Obviously, both of 446 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:55,359 Speaker 1: these things can be true at once, but as historians 447 00:27:55,400 --> 00:27:58,040 Speaker 1: over the centuries have sought to analyze this work and 448 00:27:58,080 --> 00:28:01,440 Speaker 1: its true purpose, sometimes one or the other and even 449 00:28:01,480 --> 00:28:06,040 Speaker 1: other motivations have gotten lost. We don't actually know the 450 00:28:06,080 --> 00:28:10,000 Speaker 1: exact reason or reasons that William called for this extensive survey, 451 00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:13,240 Speaker 1: and it seems most likely there were multiple factors, like, 452 00:28:13,320 --> 00:28:15,840 Speaker 1: for example, we don't have any document where he says 453 00:28:16,880 --> 00:28:19,200 Speaker 1: to determine the nature of my lands, like we don't 454 00:28:19,240 --> 00:28:22,560 Speaker 1: have anything like that. It absolutely may have been about 455 00:28:22,640 --> 00:28:27,479 Speaker 1: just taxes or establishing Norman style feudalism, but William may 456 00:28:27,480 --> 00:28:29,480 Speaker 1: have also been influenced by the fact that he was 457 00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:32,840 Speaker 1: facing a likely invasion by Denmark and Norway at the time, 458 00:28:32,960 --> 00:28:35,240 Speaker 1: and he wanted to know everything he could about the 459 00:28:35,280 --> 00:28:40,320 Speaker 1: country for potential military strategizing, in part to see how 460 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:42,200 Speaker 1: many of those people could be called up, but also 461 00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:46,040 Speaker 1: just what the country had and looked like if someone invaded, 462 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:49,200 Speaker 1: and of course additional tax revenue that could be collected 463 00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:52,960 Speaker 1: would also help war efforts. There was also a growing 464 00:28:53,040 --> 00:28:57,280 Speaker 1: issue that was just bickering. The various people under William 465 00:28:57,480 --> 00:29:00,960 Speaker 1: who had been given land had started to argue about 466 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:03,920 Speaker 1: whether that distribution had been handled fairly. It kind of 467 00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:07,440 Speaker 1: vibes like petulant kids to me. But I have the 468 00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:10,400 Speaker 1: distance of history, so it's easy to say that. But 469 00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:14,360 Speaker 1: with documentation of specifics about all of these lands, such 470 00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:18,200 Speaker 1: arguments could easily be put to rest. Doomsday is an 471 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:21,360 Speaker 1: important document for all the reasons mentioned in the Sally 472 00:29:21,440 --> 00:29:24,680 Speaker 1: Harvey quote we read earlier, but also because it serves 473 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:27,760 Speaker 1: as the beginning of written history for a lot of 474 00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:32,320 Speaker 1: towns and villages. It's become a foundational reference for historians, 475 00:29:32,400 --> 00:29:36,360 Speaker 1: though its interpretation has shifted and been questioned over the years. 476 00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:40,640 Speaker 1: In nineteen eighty six, to mark the nine hundredth anniversary 477 00:29:40,760 --> 00:29:43,800 Speaker 1: of William the First Survey, there was a project mounted 478 00:29:43,800 --> 00:29:46,280 Speaker 1: by the BBC to create a new version of the 479 00:29:46,280 --> 00:29:50,280 Speaker 1: Doomsday Book called Doomsday Reloaded, and this was intended to 480 00:29:50,360 --> 00:29:54,640 Speaker 1: create a new digital snapshot of the UK for future generations. 481 00:29:55,200 --> 00:29:58,760 Speaker 1: More than a million people participated in this project, submitting 482 00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:02,920 Speaker 1: their own digital document mentory accounts of ordinary life. Per 483 00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:06,520 Speaker 1: the BBC website that documented the project, Quote, schools and 484 00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:10,640 Speaker 1: community groups surveyed over one hundred eight thousand square kilometers 485 00:30:10,640 --> 00:30:13,560 Speaker 1: of the UK and submitted more than one hundred forty 486 00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:17,680 Speaker 1: seven thousand, eight hundred nineteen pages of text articles and 487 00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:22,200 Speaker 1: twenty three thousand, two hundred twenty five amateur photos cataloging 488 00:30:22,240 --> 00:30:24,560 Speaker 1: what it was like to live, work and play in 489 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:28,680 Speaker 1: their community. The major fault in this project was the 490 00:30:28,800 --> 00:30:32,440 Speaker 1: storage media used for all that information, because remember this 491 00:30:32,640 --> 00:30:36,960 Speaker 1: was the eighties, this used layser discs. They could only 492 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:40,880 Speaker 1: be read by some computers. That particular style of disc 493 00:30:40,960 --> 00:30:44,320 Speaker 1: technology really got left behind as the digital age advanced. 494 00:30:45,120 --> 00:30:48,920 Speaker 1: There were efforts to access and share the community disc Archive, 495 00:30:49,040 --> 00:30:52,040 Speaker 1: which included updates over the years, but in June of 496 00:30:52,040 --> 00:30:55,720 Speaker 1: twenty eighteen, the project was finally closed for good. The 497 00:30:55,760 --> 00:30:59,959 Speaker 1: website created for it is now part of the National Archive, 498 00:31:00,320 --> 00:31:05,280 Speaker 1: UK government web archive. Today, the physical volumes of Doomsday 499 00:31:05,280 --> 00:31:08,520 Speaker 1: Book are kept in the National Archives. And remember how 500 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,760 Speaker 1: earlier we said there were two volumes, Now there are 501 00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:15,280 Speaker 1: technically five because the book was rebound in nineteen eighty four. 502 00:31:15,680 --> 00:31:18,640 Speaker 1: That was part of a long term preservation plan because 503 00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:21,440 Speaker 1: people still want to look at it, they are not 504 00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:24,920 Speaker 1: readily accessible to most people in their physical form. They 505 00:31:25,160 --> 00:31:28,560 Speaker 1: kind of held back for very specific requests of like 506 00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:34,560 Speaker 1: scholarship and legal needs. However, there is a complete digitized 507 00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:38,000 Speaker 1: version online that anyone can access. It is completely free. 508 00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:41,400 Speaker 1: That is thanks to the work of public interest technologist 509 00:31:41,400 --> 00:31:46,200 Speaker 1: Anna Powell Smith, who with permission, used digitized Doomsday data 510 00:31:46,240 --> 00:31:49,560 Speaker 1: compiled by jj N Palmer of the University of Hull 511 00:31:49,640 --> 00:31:52,200 Speaker 1: and his team. They compiled that data in the nineteen 512 00:31:52,320 --> 00:31:55,520 Speaker 1: nineties and she used it to make an interactive website 513 00:31:55,560 --> 00:32:00,160 Speaker 1: called opendoomsday. It is at opendoomsday dot org. Again, does 514 00:32:00,360 --> 00:32:04,160 Speaker 1: is spelled domes and you can click around a map 515 00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:07,200 Speaker 1: to see what data was collected there in William's survey. 516 00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:11,000 Speaker 1: It's a pretty cool project and massive and according to 517 00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:15,400 Speaker 1: the BBC, Doomsday is still valid as evidence to title 518 00:32:15,440 --> 00:32:19,040 Speaker 1: of land. It remained the most detailed account of England 519 00:32:19,120 --> 00:32:23,080 Speaker 1: and its landholdings for more than seven hundred years until 520 00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:27,160 Speaker 1: a national census was taken in eighteen oh one, and 521 00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:31,240 Speaker 1: people still love it and spend their entire careers researching it. 522 00:32:31,320 --> 00:32:35,760 Speaker 1: Which I kind of love. I have a very, very, 523 00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:43,040 Speaker 1: I think hilarious email. This is from our listener Kristen 524 00:32:43,160 --> 00:32:46,720 Speaker 1: and it is about divorce ranches. And she writes, Dear 525 00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:49,120 Speaker 1: Holly and Tracy, I've been meaning to write you about 526 00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:52,480 Speaker 1: your episode on divorce ranches in Nevada, as my family 527 00:32:52,560 --> 00:32:56,320 Speaker 1: has had a personal experience with a divorce ranch. One 528 00:32:56,400 --> 00:32:59,240 Speaker 1: summer in the mid nineteen sixties, my parents packed the 529 00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:02,200 Speaker 1: four of us kids into the station wagon and drove 530 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:05,400 Speaker 1: from our home in northern California just across the state 531 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:08,720 Speaker 1: line into Nevada to a dude ranch in Verding, Nevada 532 00:33:08,920 --> 00:33:12,160 Speaker 1: that's about ten miles west of Reno. My parents took 533 00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:14,960 Speaker 1: us there based on reports that the ranch was family friendly. 534 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:19,440 Speaker 1: There's horse riding, swimming pool, playground games, lots of kids 535 00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:22,040 Speaker 1: to play with, et cetera. And when we arrived, the 536 00:33:22,080 --> 00:33:25,960 Speaker 1: place appeared to live up to their expectations. However, after 537 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:29,040 Speaker 1: a time we did begin to notice a strange demographic 538 00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:32,280 Speaker 1: to the ranch. My father was the only man there 539 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:35,640 Speaker 1: who wasn't part of the staff. People kept asking us, 540 00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:39,320 Speaker 1: is your mom staying here? Yes, where's your dad also 541 00:33:39,480 --> 00:33:43,120 Speaker 1: staying here? She then has in quotes question marks and 542 00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:47,720 Speaker 1: exclamation plays. Despite that, we did have a good time there. 543 00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:51,240 Speaker 1: I still remember horseback riding and meals served family style 544 00:33:51,320 --> 00:33:54,520 Speaker 1: on long tables and benches. The attached picture shows me, 545 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:57,680 Speaker 1: my three brothers, and my mom absorbing the atmisphere at 546 00:33:57,720 --> 00:34:01,400 Speaker 1: the ranch. My dad was behind the camp for pet 547 00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:03,840 Speaker 1: tax I'm attaching a picture of our late great kitty, 548 00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:06,760 Speaker 1: Harry Potter cat. We adopted Harry Potter, who was a 549 00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:10,120 Speaker 1: homeless street kitten living on the island of Elba. He 550 00:34:10,200 --> 00:34:12,600 Speaker 1: was named by my daughter, who, at third grade, had 551 00:34:12,719 --> 00:34:15,680 Speaker 1: just discovered the magic of the Harry Potter books. Harry 552 00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:18,520 Speaker 1: was a very well traveled cat. He lived with us 553 00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:22,200 Speaker 1: in Milan, Washington, d c. And Beijing before retiring with 554 00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:25,200 Speaker 1: us to North Carolina. Harry was very loving and was 555 00:34:25,239 --> 00:34:28,359 Speaker 1: always available to help me with my costuming projects, as 556 00:34:28,400 --> 00:34:31,319 Speaker 1: shown here assisting with my ursula Seawitch bell a poc 557 00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:34,279 Speaker 1: cosplay construction. He was a wonderful kitty and we miss 558 00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:36,440 Speaker 1: him every day. I just want to thank you for 559 00:34:36,480 --> 00:34:38,680 Speaker 1: all you do to bring history to life and into 560 00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:41,120 Speaker 1: my home. I have an ma in history, but still 561 00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:44,600 Speaker 1: learn something new from you in nearly every podcast. My daughter, 562 00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:47,760 Speaker 1: a teacher has also become an addict after I introduced 563 00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:49,400 Speaker 1: her to you. I get a real kick out of 564 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:51,919 Speaker 1: your delivery style and feel like you guys are two 565 00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:54,239 Speaker 1: of my besties that I haven't yet had the opportunity 566 00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:57,120 Speaker 1: to meet. Keep up the amazing work, Kristin. This is 567 00:34:57,200 --> 00:34:59,960 Speaker 1: so sweet and I love it and I'm scary following 568 00:35:00,120 --> 00:35:04,239 Speaker 1: you on Instagram, Kristen, I just love the idea of 569 00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:07,440 Speaker 1: somebody going to a divorce ranch for a family vacation 570 00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:12,399 Speaker 1: and kind of befuddling everyone. Where's your dad right there? 571 00:35:14,560 --> 00:35:17,400 Speaker 1: I do love it, but also I love that you 572 00:35:17,440 --> 00:35:19,600 Speaker 1: had a great time. That pictures gold. I hope you 573 00:35:19,680 --> 00:35:22,200 Speaker 1: keep it forever and ever and ever. Is so wonderful, 574 00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:25,600 Speaker 1: and Harry sounds like a wonderful cat. Thank you for 575 00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:28,000 Speaker 1: giving him a home and giving him a life that 576 00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:31,200 Speaker 1: many people would envy. It sounds like. If you would 577 00:35:31,239 --> 00:35:32,920 Speaker 1: like to write to us, you can do so at 578 00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:36,040 Speaker 1: History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. If you'd like to 579 00:35:36,080 --> 00:35:38,080 Speaker 1: subscribe to the show and you haven't done that yet, 580 00:35:38,120 --> 00:35:40,400 Speaker 1: you can do that on the iHeartRadio app or wherever 581 00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:48,160 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. Stuff you Missed in 582 00:35:48,239 --> 00:35:51,920 Speaker 1: History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts 583 00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:56,080 Speaker 1: from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever 584 00:35:56,120 --> 00:36:00,840 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.