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/Adobe Stock) Now, Dr. Stephen Baxter, Associate Professor of Medieval History at the University of Oxford, has discovered some surprising facts about the depth, speed, and sophistication of the survey which led to the famous Domesday and other texts, which formed a useful medieval database that is still examined by historians today. An Extensive Yet Efficient Survey One of the most surprising finds from the study published in the English Historical Review is that the first draft of the survey covering England south of the River Tees was completed in just 100 days. Dr. Baxter says: “Domesday Book is at once one of medieval England s best known and most enigmatic documents. The reasons for and processes behind its creation have been the subject of debate among historians for centuries. This new research, based on the earliest surviving Domesday manuscript, shows the survey was compiled remarkably quickly and then used like a modern database, whe ....
Published: What’s the background to the Domesday Book? In 1085, William the Conqueror faced the greatest crisis of his life and reign. This, of course, came two decades after his famous invasion and conquest of 1066. For the next 20 years he and his Norman followers colonised England – but then, in the 1080s, William’s position as king began to look vulnerable. His eldest son, Robert, was in rebellion and courting allies in northern France for an attack on Normandy, and King Cnut of Denmark was preparing to invade England in alliance with the count of Flanders. Advertisement William’s response was characteristically vigorous. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, he mobilised the largest “force of mounted men and infantry” ever seen in England, compelled his vassals “to provision the army each in proportion to his land,” and scorched the coastline to prevent his enemies from gaining a foothold − the kind of foothold that his own army ha ....