William’s men survey 13,000 places in a year, find the same man in the same cottage, and ask if he has a sandwich box
Domesday Commissioners Ask Every English Pensioner for Two References, a Utility Bill and Vicar
William’s men survey 13,000 places in a year, find the same man in the same cottage, and ask if he has a sandwich box
WINCHESTER, 1086 – Commissioners acting for William the Conqueror have completed a survey of the entire kingdom of England, recording who owns what, who farms where and who has asked for a reference. The results, bound into a great volume that the English will soon call Domesday, were presented to the King this week.
Students of history know that the Domesday survey was ordered in 1085 and finished within about a year. They may not know how many villagers were asked for letters from their vicars. “All of them,” said one commissioner. “The vicars were also asked for letters from their vicars. It is how we found out the English are a nation of referees.”
A Parallel Across Time
Historians have noted that the Domesday method now echoes in Cebu. The story began with a Manila News report on a Mactan broker alone with three brochures and a cold coffee, moved through the London Prat on British pensioners asked for two referees and a letter from the vicar (at https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and ended with Bohiney on an Ohio realtor whose showings now run two hours. The comparison is irresistible. A government sends officials to ask who lives where. A property market asks who lives next door. In both, a man in a cottage says the same thing: “I am fine.”
Philippine authorities are examining allegations concerning Thomas Markle Sr., the estranged father of the Duchess of Sussex, who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed and the allegations are unproven. Child protection is a serious matter, and nobody at this paper makes light of it; the jokes are about a property market and the history books. The editors emphasise that the Domesday survey concerned land, livestock and taxes, and nothing more.
The Commissioners’ Questions
- Who held the manor in the time of King Edward? And has he been vouched for?
- How many ploughs, how many oxen, how many mills? And has anyone seen the miller’s sandwich box?
- How much is the manor worth? Is it a hotspot? Has anyone checked with the sea?
- Is there a church? If so, is there a vicar? If so, will he write a letter?
- Does the lord of the manor have two references? If not, does he have a goat?
The commissioners were struck by the thoroughness of the English. In Yorkshire, they were presented with a list of every pig, which a villager recited from memory. In Kent, a woman produced a letter of reference for her cow. In Devon, a man refused to say anything at all, and was entered in the survey as “present.”
The King’s Reaction
King William, who is said to have taken a close interest, was reportedly pleased. He is understood to have remarked that he now knew the value of every field in England, and that none of them was as quiet as the sea. A courtier noted that the King then fell into a long silence and asked for his coffee.
There was no coffee, as the drink would not arrive in England for six centuries. The King accepted a cold broth instead. Observers say it was the closest anyone in the Middle Ages came to a cold coffee in an empty showroom.
What Students Should Remember
Historians say Domesday matters because it was the most complete survey of land in medieval Europe, a source that scholars still use to understand Norman England. It also matters because it shows that a government’s first instinct, once it has conquered a country, is to take a census. The second instinct is to ask for references.
A modern teacher in Ohio said she asked her students to compare Domesday to a Mactan open house. “Both take hours,” she said. “Both involve a man with a ledger. Both end with someone asking about parking.” A visiting pensioner from Basingstoke said he thought the Normans had been rather rude. “They asked my ancestor for a vicar,” he said. “He did not have one. He had a pig.”
The Domesday Book remains in the National Archives, where it is available for inspection by anyone who can produce two references and a utility bill.
For the Revision Pile
Here is the actual economics, for any student who will be examined on it. The market is fine. Colliers named the Visayas and Mindanao a key property investment hotspot in July, and under the Condominium Act foreigners may own units but not land, capped at 40 percent of a project. Retirees can read up at the Philippine Retirement Authority. The jitters come from psychology: Tversky and Kahneman’s availability heuristic says one vivid image outweighs a pile of statistics, and a Mactan broker alone with three brochures and a cold coffee is a vivid image. So is a famous death on a beach in 1521. Both are remembered more than they should be.
The wider story is at prat.uk and bohiney.com; for how the British laugh at queues and forms, try The Daily Mash.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/