Domesday Book

Timeline

1. 1085Gloucester · EnglandAfter discussing defense and taxation at his Christmas court at Gloucester, William I dispatched commissioners to tour the counties by district, questioning sworn witnesses by hundred and manor, and launched a nationwide survey of land and property.
2. 1086Winchester · EnglandThe returning reports from the various regions were condensed and transcribed into two great parchment volumes: the Great Domesday covering most counties, and the Little Domesday detailing Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, forming a searchable register of royal estates.
3. 1087–1301English royal exchequer · EnglandFor several centuries thereafter the book was treated as near-conclusive written evidence in land disputes, inheritance, and tax assessments, strengthening the Norman monarchy's institutional memory of the English estate order.
4. 1601The National Archives (UK) · EnglandThe original volumes passed through the royal archive system into the modern national archives; since the nineteenth century, collation, facsimile reproduction, and digitization have made the Domesday Book a foundational source for studying eleventh-century English society.