WILLAM THE CONQUEROR

WILLAM THE CONQUEROR(1066-1087)

Willam 1^stwas the founder of the norman dynasty in England.

His real claim to the english thrown rested on his victory in the battle of hastings in 1066 AD against Harold.However the defeat of harold alone did not result in the submission of all the english men.As a matter of fact,there were many revolts in south-west,mercia and northambria and one by one they were all ruthlessly suppressed.Each revolt was followed by fresh confiscation of land possessed by the english nobility.The land thus captured was used for rewarding williams own norman followers.At the same time he had to make himself master of both english and normandy.To the english william was a foriegn ruler.So inorder to secure his position ,william decided to confiscate the land of rebels by suppressing the uprisings with an iron hand ,by developing the fuedal system and by using the english against his own rebellious barons.

OATH OF SALISBURY was one of the anti fuedal measures taken by William the conqueror.He wanted to remedy some of the defects of english fuedalism.A universal defects of fuedalism was the weakness of the royal authority.One reason for this was the absence of royal control over the sub tenents.They held their estate from their over lords called tenents in chief.Therefor the sub tenents were not directly responsible for the king who was theoretically the central authority .In order to make sub tenent loyal to the royal person,william 1^st and others gathered on the Salisbury plain,wiltshare in 1086 Ad.The king himself administered an oath of Loyalty.The narons and chief land lords who took the pledge were morally bound to be loyal to the king.

THE DOOMS DAY BOOK is the result of the great survay of land and the holders of land made by william 1^st ,done with the aim of strengthening his hold on the feudal barons and their subordinates.The dooms day survay is probably the first of its kind ever made.It served at once two purposes,fiscal and political.Politically it helped willaim to ascertain the tax that was due to him fron every land holder in his realm.Assessment of tax was based on the findings of the royal surveyers.The decisions were fianl and incontrovertible like the verdict of God on the last judgement Day and hence the name of Doom’s Day Book.It is very valuable as a historical source book.