ROYAL TAXATION AND WRITTEN RECORD IN ELEVENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND AND NINTH-CENTURY WEST FRANCIA

Abstract

This paper explores Continental contexts for the understanding of taxation in eleventh-century England. The subject is widely recognized as important but fraught with difficulty. The central idea is the relevance of Carolingian practices of surveying and the keeping of written records for later Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman government. Such a European perspective has been important for Anglo-Saxon historians: one thinks especially of the model emphasizing Carolingian influence on later Anglo-Saxon government advanced by James Campbell and Patrick Wormald. 1 It has also been important for historians of Domesday, when one considers the comparative richness of the Carolingian administrative record, comprising the corpus of polyptychs, plus capitulary material indicating government interest in surveys and list-making. The Carolingian sources have been seen as the best comparanda for the two Domesday volumes and ‘satellite’ texts, as explored in classic studies by Campbell, John Percival, Henry Loyn and R. H. C. Davis. 2 Are these indications of a shared early medieval culture of surveying and information gathering? There has been awareness that Anglo-Norman administrators came from a world familiar with polyptychs and certain legacies of Carolingian government, though ultimately commentators have placed more emphasis on the distinctiveness of the Domesday record.