DOMESDAY SURVEY Grade 7

William was concerned that his new kingdom might be attacked from abroad. So he wanted to bring more soldiers from France for protection. The question was, could he get more taxes from the English to pay for their support? In fact, William did not really know how wealthy England was. So, he decided to find out.

In 1086, he sent officials to carry out an enormous survey. When they had finished asking their questions, a second group of officials was sent to check if the villagers had been telling the truth. This became known as the Domesday Survey . Domesday is the day of judgment – no one escapes that, and no one seemed to be able to escape William’s Survey.

William’s officials completed their task in just under a year. It was a tremendous achievement and it told William just what he wanted to know. Many people were much richer than he had realised. Now he could make them pay the correct amount of tax. The information collected was written in the Domesday Book. These have survived to the present day and are very useful to historians.