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WonderHistory fact

The Domesday Book records a great survey of England ordered by William the Conqueror in 1085 and completed in 1086. For each place it lists who held the land, what it was worth and what it contained, so the king knew what he owned and what he could tax.

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Twenty years after the Norman Conquest of 1066, William sent officials to every county. Local juries answered set questions: who held each estate before the Conquest and who held it now, how many ploughs, people, mills and fishponds it had, and what it was worth. The results were written in abbreviated Latin into two volumes: Little Domesday, covering Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, and Great Domesday for most of the rest, apparently copied out by a single scribe. The far north was left out. The book names 13,418 places. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle grumbled that not even an ox, a cow or a pig escaped the record. By about 1179 people called it Domesday, after the Day of Judgement, because there was no appeal against what it said. It is kept at the National Archives in Kew, London, and can be read online.

Türkçe oku
Domesday Kitabı, Fatih William'ın 1085'te başlattığı ve 1086'da tamamlanan büyük İngiltere sayımının kaydıdır. Kitap her yer için toprağın kime ait olduğunu, ne kadar ettiğini ve üzerinde neler bulunduğunu yazar; kral böylece nelere sahip olduğunu ve neyi vergilendirebileceğini bilecekti.

1066'daki Norman fethinden yirmi yıl sonra William her kontluğa görevliler gönderdi. Yerel jüriler belirli sorulara yanıt verdi: Fetihten önce ve şimdi her mülk kimdeydi, kaç sabanı, kaç insanı, kaç değirmeni ve balık havuzu vardı, değeri neydi? Sonuçlar kısaltmalarla dolu bir Latinceyle iki cilde yazıldı: Norfolk, Suffolk ve Essex'i kapsayan Küçük Domesday ile geri kalanın çoğunu kapsayan ve tek bir kâtibin elinden çıkmış görünen Büyük Domesday. En kuzeydeki topraklar sayıma alınmadı. Kitapta 13.418 yer adı geçer. Dönemin tarih yıllığı Anglo-Sakson Kroniği, tek bir öküzün, ineğin ya da domuzun bile kayıttan kaçmadığından yakınır. Kitaba 1179 dolaylarında Domesday, yani Kıyamet Günü adı takılmıştı: Kıyamet günündeki hüküm gibi, onun kayıtlarına da itiraz edilemezdi. Kitap bugün Londra'nın Kew semtindeki Ulusal Arşivler'de saklanır ve internetten de okunabilir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Domesday Book
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