Feudalism, Government and the Domesday Book

To control a conquered land with only a few thousand Normans, William reorganised English society around the feudal system — a structure that tied land to service and loyalty. The idea was simple: nobody owned land outright except the king. Everyone else held land from someone above them in return for duties.

The system worked as a pyramid:

                KING (William)
             owns ALL the land
                    |
      grants land to (in return for service)
                    v
        TENANTS-IN-CHIEF
   (barons and bishops — the great lords)
                    |
        grant land to knights
                    v
             KNIGHTS
    (fight for their lord; run manors)
                    |
        provide land to work for
                    v
     PEASANTS (villeins and serfs)
        who farm the land itself

Each level owed something to the level above and offered protection to the level below. This is how a small ruling elite could dominate a much larger population.

The glue holding the feudal pyramid together was the exchange of land for service. When William granted land, the receiver had to swear loyalty and provide defined duties in return.

The key obligations were:

• Homage: a formal ceremony in which a man knelt and swore an oath of loyalty to his lord, promising faithful service in exchange for his land.
• Knight service: in return for their land, tenants-in-chief had to supply a set number of trained, mounted knights to fight for the king, typically for about 40 days a year.
• Feudal dues and taxes: lords also owed the king money and support at key moments, and controlled the peasants who actually farmed the land.

Two terms describe how land moved through this system. Patronage was the king's power to grant land and office in return for loyalty and service, binding powerful men to him. When a landholder died, his estate normally passed by primogeniture — inheritance by the eldest son — which kept great estates intact and made the line of loyalty predictable.

Level	Holds land from	Owes in return
King	No one (owns all land)	Protection and justice to all
Tenants-in-chief	The king	Homage, knights, taxes, advice
Knights	Tenants-in-chief	Military service, run the manor
Peasants	Their local lord	Labour, farm produce, obedience

Feudalism was not just an economic system. By making every landholder personally swear loyalty for their land, William made rebellion a breach of a sacred oath, and gave every lord a stake in keeping the king strong.

William did not scrap English government — much of it was efficient, and keeping it made his rule look legitimate. He kept the useful parts and added Norman features on top.

What William kept from Anglo-Saxon England:

• Shires (counties) and their subdivisions, the hundreds, as units of local government.
• Sheriffs, royal officials who collected taxes and enforced the king's will in each shire.
• Government by writ: written royal orders (the chancery system) that let the king rule at a distance.
• An effective tax system, including the land tax known as the geld.

What the Normans added or changed:

• The Curia Regis ("King's Council"), the gathering of leading barons and bishops who advised the king.
• Filling almost all top positions with Normans rather than English nobles.
• Ruling England alongside Normandy, often through regents when William was overseas.

By keeping Anglo-Saxon administration but staffing it with Normans, William got the best of both worlds: a proven, efficient machine of government under firmly Norman control.

In 1086, twenty years after the Conquest, William ordered a vast survey of England. The results were recorded in the Domesday Book, the most detailed record of any medieval European kingdom.

Royal commissioners travelled the country asking, for each place:

• Who held the land before 1066 and who held it now.
• How much land there was and how many people, ploughs and animals.
• How much it was worth and how much it could be taxed.

The Domesday Book had several purposes:

Purpose	How the survey served it
Raising money	Showed how much tax and geld William could collect
Knowing his kingdom	Gave a complete picture of England's wealth and resources
Settling disputes	Recorded who legally held each estate, ending arguments over land
Confirming the Conquest	Made the Norman landholding settlement official and permanent

The book got its grim nickname because there was no appeal against its findings — like the Day of Judgement. It shows how thoroughly the Normans had taken over: by 1086 almost all major landholders recorded were Norman, not English.

The Normans kept much of the Anglo-Saxon legal system, which already used local courts, but made it more uniform and added measures to protect the ruling minority.

Courts operated at several levels, dealing with different kinds of case:

• Royal (king's) courts for the most serious matters.
• Shire and hundred courts for local disputes and crimes.
• Manor courts run by lords for the peasants on their land.
• Church courts, expanded under the Normans for religious offences.

Two features are especially important for the exam:

• Trial by ordeal: where guilt was uncertain, God was thought to reveal the truth. Types included ordeal by water (the accused sank if innocent), by hot iron (a burn that festered showed guilt), and, newly introduced by the Normans, trial by battle (combat between accuser and accused).
• The murdrum fine: if a Norman was murdered and the killer was not handed over, the whole local hundred had to pay a heavy fine. This protected the small number of Normans living among a far larger, resentful English population.

Norman legal feature	Purpose
Trial by ordeal	Let God "decide" guilt in unclear cases
Trial by battle	New Norman ordeal settling disputes by combat
Murdrum fine	Protected Normans by punishing whole communities
Keeping local courts	Made justice efficient and rule seem legitimate

A common exam theme is change and continuity: what did the Normans actually change, and what stayed the same? The honest answer is a mixture, and strong answers show both.

Area	Continuity (stayed the same)	Change (the Normans altered)
Government	Shires, hundreds, sheriffs, writs, tax system kept	Curia Regis added; top jobs given to Normans
Landholding	Peasants still farmed the land	Nearly all land redistributed to Norman lords under feudalism
Justice	Local courts and trial by ordeal continued	Trial by battle and the murdrum fine introduced
Ruling class	England still ruled by a landed elite	The Anglo-Saxon elite replaced by Normans

The Normans changed who held power and land far more than how England was governed day to day. They kept the efficient machinery of Anglo-Saxon government but placed it entirely in Norman hands.

1. Describing feudalism as only about land

Feudalism tied land to service and loyalty, not just ownership. Explain homage and knight service — the duties owed in return for land — not just who held what.

2. Getting the date of the Domesday Book wrong

The Domesday Book was compiled in 1086, twenty years after the Conquest. Do not place it in 1066 or confuse it with the survey of an earlier year.

3. Saying the Normans changed everything

Much Anglo-Saxon government survived — shires, hundreds, sheriffs and writs. The Normans changed who held land and power more than the machinery of government. Show both change and continuity.

4. Misexplaining the murdrum fine

Murdrum punished a whole community (the hundred) when a Norman was murdered and the killer was not found. It protected the Norman minority; it was not a general fine for all murders.

5. Confusing the types of trial by ordeal

Learn the distinct ordeals: water (sinking meant innocence), hot iron (a healing burn meant innocence, a festering one meant guilt), and battle (a new Norman ordeal by combat). Mixing up the outcomes loses precision.