Domesday England

•the peasantrythe peasantry•agricultural life agricultural life •industrial activityindustrial activity•lawmakers & lawmakers & lawbreakerslawbreakers

•the peasantrythe peasantry•agricultural life agricultural life •industrial activityindustrial activity•lawmakers & lawmakers & lawbreakerslawbreakers

The first national census

•peasants•slaves•drengs•riders

Domesday Book records the numbers, classes, and distribution of the rural classes - some 90% of the population - in detail, not surpassed until the nineteenth century. Dozens of different social categories are recorded including, for instance:

The peasantryDomesday Book details the size

of all classes

of peasant holdings

In Middlesex , even the size of individual peasant plots is

described

Domesday Slaves

The distribution of slaves

slavesno slaves

Few slaves re

corded in north

East Anglia not mapped

minor social groups

riders

drengs

Drengs and riders were free

landowners, but of very modest estate. Their distribution is markedly regional

Agricultural and industry

• the peasantry• ploughing• sowing• reaping

• harvesting• water power• animal power

Peasants Ploughing

Occasional entries

in Domesday Book refer to

the routine

of peasant

life, ploughin

g …

… … or or

harrowing harrowing

and sowingand sowing

Peasants reaping

Another of the routines of

peasant life, harvesting …

Mills provided the industrial power of medieval England,

and Domesday Book records 99%

of all mills known to have existed by

1086, some 6000 in all, roughly one for every two places in Domesday England

Industrial power

Agricultural powerOxen provided the motive power for medieval

agriculture and Domesday Book reveals England was well-endowed in this respect, over

650,000 being recordedAs much of England was

under the plough in 1086

as in 1914

Lawmakers and Lawbreakers

•lawbreakers•tax dodgers•property speculators•fat cats

Law breakers

Domesday Book records

very large

numbers of cases of law-

breakingmap of recorded

lawlessness

Recorded crimes were very

various; but most were against

property rather than people

Law breakers

Tax dodgers

Domesday Book records large

numbers of cases relating

to taxation,

legal, dubious,

and criminal

recorded tax breaks or tax evasion

Tax dodgers One of

many such

cases of defrauding the

tax man

Property speculators

cases involving property development

In thousands of cases, Anglo-Saxon

estates had been

broken up or

enlarged, usually illegally

Property speculators

a typical case of such aggrandisement, involving the theft of 9 English properties

The majority of

cases of speculation

and illegality

were at the expense of

Anglo-Saxon

landowners

Fat cats

Norman lords were often

extortionate, extracting rents far in excess of

what juries regarded as equitable.

Domesday records

hundreds of such cases excessive manorial

rents

Fat cats

Like this tenant,

even the lucky

minority of

Englishmen who

were not entirely

disinherited, were

often degraded in status

or, as in this instance, treated ‘harshly and wretchedly’

ThanThan

kk

youyou

forfor

watchinwatchin

gg