William the Conqueror Created a New Feudal System. What Made it New?

William the Conqueror created a new feudal system. What made it new? It was far more centralized, militarized, and bureaucratic than the existing continental system.

William owned all of England as king. He “granted” land to the loyal hierarchy, and they became its “managers.” No one in England could hold land except by fulfilling their service and financial obligations to William. Tenants could not create vassals, as they did on the continent, which prevented the rise of semi-independent local lords. The tenants-in-chief (nobility) supplied a certain number of knights for the king’s military for a set period each year and collected what was due the king and the church from those under their control.

William commissioned the Domesday Book in 1086, which made up an all-encompassing accounting system. The Domesday Book listed landowners, tenants, livestock, mills, and plow teams for over 13,000 places. It set the taxable value of land and everyone’s financial and military obligations. The survey’s findings were binding and unchallengeable.

Peasant labor fed the realm, but they received little in return for it. Peasants and serfs bore the cost of the system’s power and riches. They had little chance of bettering their situation, which led to a vast revolt across England in 1381. At last, the ruling class had to reckon with the growing unrest among the lower orders. This sped up the decline of serfdom in the following century.