He therefore commissioned a massive survey of England’s landholdings and financial assets.

William the Conqueror (who had himself been an invader two decades earlier) realised the need to catalogue the country’s financial resources in order to assess how much taxation he could reap from the land to fund a potential war. Towards the end of the 11th century England came under threat from Danish invaders. The Domesday Book is England’s earliest surviving public record, unsurpassed in depth and detail until the introduction of censuses in the 19th century.