The Domesday Book: William's Great Survey

In 1085, William the Conqueror commissioned a survey so thorough that his own subjects compared it to the Last Judgment. The Domesday Book recorded over thirteen thousand settlements, every manor, every ox, every acre of England. But why did he do it? How did a kingdom recovering from conquest and rebellion submit to such an audit? And what can the dry columns of parchment tell us about ordinary lives—women, slaves, towns, and the brutal logic of the new Norman order? Lucas and Luna dig into the origins of the survey at Gloucester, the circuits of royal commissioners, the Anglo-Saxon geld system that made it possible, and the human cost behind the neat entries. They explore what the book was for, what it left out, and how it became the most complete snapshot of any medieval kingdom. From Little Domesday to the Exeter Domesday, from the devastation of the Harrying of the North to the thriving port of London, this episode is a map of England in 1086—and a portrait of a king who wanted to know everything. #DomesdayBook #WilliamTheConqueror #1086 #NormanEngland #MedievalHistory #GreatSurvey #HarryingOfTheNorth #LittleDomesday #ExeterDomesday #AngloSaxonEngland #Geld #SuttonHoo #EnglishHistory #FexingoHistory #HistoryPodcast #MedievalEurope #NormanConquest #KingsAndEmpires Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo