The Domesday Book and Lancing

 William 1st

The Battle of Hastings depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry)

No other country in Europe produced anything to match the breadth of this undertaking until several hundred years later.

So how did the Domesday Book come about? Well, to find out we need to go back to 1066 and all that..............

In January 1066, King Edward the Confessor died childless. To die childless as a King was a major problem as there could be no "natural succession" from his family.

Edward had been only too aware of this and had made plans about who should succeed him. Although he was only related indirectly to him, Edward made Duke William of Normandy his heir in 1051. At the time, powerful opposition to this move was voiced by leading Saxon nobles Earl Godwin and his heir Earl Harold Godwin.

Earl Harold Godwin acted as an emissary from Edward the Confessor to the court of William of Normandy in 1064, during which time he allegedly swore an oath of "fealty to William, relinquishing any personal claim to the throne". This oath, which may have been given lightly, or possibly under duress, would figure directly in William's own claim, two years later. He would claim that the promise Harold made to him had been broken, giving William the right to challenge Harold in a battle for the crown.

On Edwards' death, the Witan (an Anglo-Saxon name for a council or meeting of nobles) approved Earl Harold Godwin as the new King. He became, as every school child knows, King Harold.

Well, Duke William did not let it end there, he fully expected to be made King of England as per the agreement with Edward. He set about creating an invasion force and sought Papal approval (which he got) for his taking the crown by force.

William invaded and on October 14 1066 his army defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. William became King William the First of England.

By the year 1000, most of England was already divided up into the shires that continued with little change until 1974. Government was far from possessing the centralised powers of the modern state but the Kings exercised considerable authority over local magnates. This was true both in Danelaw, those areas in East Anglia and Northern parts where Danish laws and customs prevailed since the time of Alfred the Great, and the other Anglo-Saxon regions.

English Kings had been able to mint a coinage controlled from the centre. They were also powerful enough to gather substantial amounts of silver from the tax known as Danegeld, a name originally used for money raised to buy off marauding Danish armies.

The silver was a sign of England's wealth, probably founded on its wool trade. With such resources and the means for a ruler to tap them, England was one of the great prizes of North West Europe.

One of the most important near contemporary accounts of the making of the Domesday Survey is contained in the Anglo-Saxon chronicles. It tells us that his 1085 Christmas Court in Gloucester, William

"had much thought and very deep discussion about this country - how it was occupied and or with what sorts of people. Then he sent his men all over England into every shire and had them find out how many hundred hides there were in the shire or what land and cattle the King himself had in the country, or what dues he ought to have in twelve months from the shire. Also he had a record made of how much land his archbishops and his abbots and his Earls and ... what or how much everybody had who was occupying land in England, in land or cattle and how much money it was worth. So very narrowly did he have it investigated that there was no single hide nor a yard of land, nor indeed (it is a shame to relate but it seemed no shame to him to do) one ox nor one cow nor one pig which there was left out and not put in his record; and all these records were brought to him afterwards"

This passage hints at the dismay and apprehension later expressed in the naming of the survey as Domesday because of the association with The Day of Judgement, that terrible verdict against which there was no appeal.

Another description of the survey was written a few years after its completion by Robert, Bishop of Hereford. The King's men, he wrote,

"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 and lands, of ploughs, horses and other animals, of the services and payments due from each and every estate. After these investigations came others who were sent to unfamiliar counties to check the first description and to denounce any wrongdoers to the king. And the land that was troubled with many calamities arising from the gathering of royal taxes"

King William proceeded quickly with the survey. Notes in one of the volumes indicate that the initial stages were completed in 1086. The mass of evidence was written in Latin. The material was sorted and resorted  until the final format was produced under county, landholders, hundreds and manors  - a phenomenal achievement given the task.

The Rape of Bramber, in which Lancing lay, was given to William de Braose. In Domesday, the listing for Lancing ( Lancinges) is

Robert holds Lancinges of William. Lewin held it of King Edward. It then vouched 16 hides and one rod; of these Robert himself had 12 hides and one rod and they have paid geld for 5 hides and one rod and a half. There is land for 5 ploughs. In the demesne are 2 ploughs and a half and 13 villeins and 7 bordars with 2 ploughs. There is 1 mill of 8 shillings and 7 salterns of 20 shillings and 3 pence.

Of this land 2 knights hold 2 hides and a half, and half a rod and have 2 ploughs there in demesne and 11 salterns of 12 shillings and 6 pence. The whole in the time of King Edward was worth £9 and afterwards £7. Now £14 and 10 shillings.

In the same vill, Ralph holds 3 rods and a half and they are part of the 16 hides above mentioned, and have paid geld for one rod. There is one villein and 2 bordars. Worth 5 shillings

Of the same manor another Ralph holds 3 hides and one rod, and they are also part of the above 16 hides. This land of Ralph has paid geld for 3 rods and does so now. In demesne is one plough, and 2 villeins and 2 bordars with half a plough. There are 5 salterns of 12 shillings and 6 pence. It is, and was, worth 50 shillings.

And again, Ralph holds one rod, which lay in Lancinges, and gave geld. One villein holds and held it. It is, and was, worth 5 shillings

GLOSSARY OF WORDS USED IN THE LANCING (LANCINGES) ENTRY TO THE DOMESDAY SURVEY IN  ORDER OF USAGE ABOVE

The William mentioned in the extract is William de Braose and the Robert was Robert le Sauvage, Lord of Broadwater.

There were some anomalies within the Domesday survey. For example neither Winchester or London, both important places in the 11th century are featured. However 13,418 places were visited and reported on.

Sussex features quite extensively. Historians delight in the information as it gives details of the immediate effect of the Norman Invasion and Battle of Hastings on the area. The Bayeux Tapestry also shows Sussex buildings and homes being put to the torch by the triumphant Norman army. This is reflected in the values before and after 1066 of places within Sussex. See the table to the right for the comparisons.

King William's place in English History

Everyone seems to know a little about King William, especially about the Battle of Hastings. However, William is often named as being "French" when he was in reality a Norman, descended from the Viking warriors. Indeed, he spent a lot of his life fighting against the French. He died on September 9, 1087 from complications to a wound he received in a siege on the town of Mantes.
 

William certainly did change our history, not all of it for the worse.

The writers of the Anglo-Saxon chronicles summed it all up very well

"His anxiety for money is the only thing on which he can deservedly be blamed; . . .he would say and do some things and indeed almost anything . . .where the hope of money allured him."

links to related websites

The Domesday Book on-line

Scene of the Battle of Hastings

 The Bayeux Tapestry

Sussex and the Domesday Book

sources for this article

1066 The Year of the Three Battles by Frank McLynn Pimlico Books 1998.  A History of Lancing by R G P Kerridge Phillimore Books 1979.  The Domesday Book, England's Heritage Then and Now, Tiger Books 1995