A conquering king catalogued nearly every acre, ox and peasant in his new kingdom

In 1085, William the Conqueror ordered a survey of almost all of England — who owned what land, how many people worked it, what it was worth — to settle disputes and maximise tax revenue after the Norman conquest. The resulting Domesday Book was so exhaustive and final that English people nicknamed it after the Last Judgement; it remains one of the most complete public records to survive from medieval Europe.

— Ann Williams & G. H. Martin (eds.), Domesday Book: England's Heritage, Then and Now — 1086 survey; modern translation 1992
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