Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #domesday

Most recents (2)

THREAD. This entry is typical of the Cambs. #Domesday Book (1086).
1st, it lists the major landowners after the Norman Conquest - here at Barton, Humphrey was Guy de Raimbeaucourt’s tenant in 1086.
2nd (& this is what I’m interested in) it lists the landowners *before* ... Image
2. ... 1066. As you can see, there were 24 of them & they were all free men - they could grant and sell their land without permission from anyone else. They didn’t ‘belong’ to a manor, but farmed independently.
And DB tells us a number of other interesting things about them ... Image
3. They were commended to the king for patronage and protection, & in return performed specific services for him - in this case they carted his goods, people, crops, etc.from one place to another, & they provided a mounted escort for the Sheriff when he undertook official duties. Image
Read 19 tweets
THREAD. For years and years, everyone was sure that in 1086, at the time of the Domesday Survey, hardly anyone lived in the Cambridgeshire fenland. So here’s the story of what I found out when I tested that belief & the data it rested on...
2. Well, of course, people are inevitably influenced by what they expect to find - and everyone knew that the 8thC lives of saints, the earliest documentary sources, described ‘the manifold horrors of the wide wilderness’... the trouble with that was...
3. ... that the people who wrote those lives consciously modelled their biographies on those of other saints, & on the life of Christ who had spent 40 days in the wilderness. So, were the biographers of Æthelthryth & Guthlac describing actual or religious landscapes?
Read 20 tweets

Related hashtags

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3.00/month or $30.00/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!