DOMESDAY SURVEY 



As the plough and its oxen were the staple sources of agricultural wealth in 

 early times, it is surprising to find a decrease in the number of ploughs so 

 often coinciding with a great increase in manorial value. We are, in fact,, 

 faced with the question whether the figures given above in the column 

 headed ' valuit ' really refer to the same date as the statements about the pre- 

 Conquest ploughs. But the 'valuit' often becomes even more anomalous 

 when we compare it with the assessment of the manors to which it refers, 

 Thus, taking ten consecutive entries on the fief of the Countess Judith, we 

 find : 



Vill 



Heather 



Broughton Astley 

 Markfield 

 ' Elvelege ' 

 ' Ricoltorp ' 

 Rearsby . 

 Welby . 

 Sysonby 

 Lubenham 

 Foxton . 



Car. Bov. 



I. d. 'Valuit' 



O I 



O 10 



O 2 



O 2 



O 10 



O IO 



O IO 



O 



IO 



1 O 



4 

 o 

 o 

 o 

 o 

 o 

 6 

 8 

 o 

 o 



Now as the geld was normally levied at the rate of two shillings to the caru- 

 cate, in six out of these ten examples the whole value of the estate would 

 have been more than equalled by its fiscal responsibilities, and the figures in 

 the list become even more striking if we remember that it has been estimated 

 that, if the whole of England be taken into account, the average value of the 

 hide or carucate will be something very close to twenty shillings. 14 It has, 

 therefore, been suggested, in explanation of the conjunction of extreme 

 poverty with crushing taxation displayed by Leicestershire, that the 'valuit ' 

 does not refer to the Confessor's time, but to ' some time of disorder that 

 followed the Conquest ' ; u and on the whole an examination of the county vill 

 by vill seems to bear out this view. In the first place, there are four entries in 

 which we are told that the value given for the estate refers to the time when 

 it was received by the Domesday tenant, that is, to some period in the early 

 years of William's reign : 



Vill 



Burbage . . . 



Bottesford 



Soke of Melton Mowbray 



Husbands Bosworth , 



'When received' 



' d - 



O 2 



6 o 

 4 10 

 o o 



o 

 o 

 o 

 6 



1086 

 d - 



400 

 16 o o 

 15 10 o 



i o o 



to which we may add the cases of Barrow-on-Soar and its ' soke,' of which 

 we are told ' the whole (estate) was and is worth 40, when received (it was 

 worth) 10,' and of Donington le Heath, which had originally been worth 

 i, but was waste when Nigel de Albini entered into possession of it, and 

 had only risen in value to two shillings at the date of the survey. These 

 figures, few as they are, are enough to suggest that Leicestershire had under- 

 gone something very like actual devastation in the period immediately 

 succeeding the Conquest, and it is quite possible that the Domesday ' valuit v 



14 Maitland, Dom. Bk. and Beyond, 465. 



283 



u Ibid. 469. 



