What was the Doomsday Book?

The Doomsday Book (Alternately known as Domesday, or Book of Winchester) is the record of the 1086 CE great survey of England . It was done for William I of England, AKA 'William the Conqueror'.

Domesday comes from the Old English Word "dom" an accounting or reckoning. So Domesday or Doomsday was a Day of Reckoning. What were they checking for? The survey was an attempt to find out what or how much each landholder had in land and livestock, and evaluate its worth. The Reckoning was how much money each household would owe in taxes. The Dutch have this same use of reckoning in their Word for a restaurant bill "Rekenen" a summing up.

About the book itself, it was written in Latin spiced up with Old English Words for which no Latin equivalent. Copies still exist and it is on-line.