Domesday Book

After the battle of Hastings 1066, William Duke of Normandy became King of England. In order for him to gain and maintain control he needed to exert strong force onto the English by imposing Norman power through ruthless and unjust methods. William spent his early years as king by learning the English way of governing. He saw that it worked well and decided to keep as much of the English tradition intact. William, discovering that his ‘nice’ approach did not convince all English that he was a worthy ruler led to the 1068 revolt. William realised that the only way to settle this was through the brutal process known as 'the harrying of the north'. This was effective in that it made William realise that the only way he could maintain complete authority over the English was to impose harsher rule. He then built castles everywhere as symbolic of the power he had and to instill fear into the people as a reminder of who ruled over them. Along with this, the introduction of the Norman-French version of feudalism was brought into English society allowing the country to be administered while he was absent. Lastly, the creation of the Domesday Book was a royal survey of the whole of England for administration and tax purposes.
Soon after William became king of England in 1066 he introduced the position of sheriff. They were officials of the crown who were responsible for the administration of royal estates and shires; collecting tax on the king’s behalf; and were responsible for leading the king’s military in times of turmoil. Although William left most of the administration of the country as it originally was, he was insistent on retaining the tax system of geld. He kept the process of shires and hundreds on which it was based and ‘laid taxes on people very severely,’ but spent time learning about how England was governed. The Anglo-Saxon way of local governing was different to the Normans where ‘the absence of local, popular institutions was the most striking difference’.