Feudal England: Historical Studies on the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries

by John Horace Round

Sciatis quod Faritius abbas de Abendona in curia domini mei et mea, apud Wintoniam in thesauro ... per Librum de Thesauro, diratiocinavit quod, etc.

The court was held 'in castello Wincestre', says the narrative, 'apud Wintoniam in thesauro', says the record. Both are right, for the Royal Treasury was in Winchester Castle.[²⁵⁵]

But what was the 'Liber de Thesauro'? I contend that it was Domesday Book, and can have been nothing else. For, passing now to the Dialogus de Scaccario (circa 1177), we there read in reply to an inquiry as to the nature of Domesday Book (which 'in thesauro servatur et inde non recedit'): 'liber ille de quo quæris sigilli regii comes est individuus in thesauro' (I. XV.). The connection of the Book with the Treasury is brought out strongly in the Dialogus, and leads to the presumption, as Mr Hall perceived, that the Treasury being originally at Winchester, the Book was there also—as indeed we see it was under Henry I.[²⁵⁶] On the date of its removal to Westminster, there has been much discussion between my friend Mr Hall and myself.[²⁵⁷] Mr Hall relies mainly on the Dialogus de Scaccario, and on the inferences he draws from it, for the early removal of Domesday to Westminster, and the establishment there of the royal Treasury. For myself, I claim for the Winchester Treasury greater importance and continuity than he is willing to admit. The leading records, of course, were stored there as well as treasure. We find William Rufus speaking of 'meis brevibus ... qui sunt in thesauro mea Wyntoniæ';[²⁵⁸] and we read that, on his father's death, 'pergens apud Wincestre thesaurum patris sui ... divisit: erant autem in thesauro illo lx. m[ille] libræ argenti excepto auro et gemmis et vasis et palliis.'[²⁵⁹] Heming's Cartulary describes the Domesday returns as stored 'in thesauro regali', and Henry of Huntingdon states that 'inter thesauros reposita usque hodie servantur'.[²⁶⁰] Now, as the Treasury was in Winchester Castle at the time of the above suit, and as it had been in 1100[²⁶¹] and 1087, so it was still at the accession of Stephen in 1135, and at the triumph of Matilda in 1141. This is absolutely certain from the Chronicles, nor do they ever mention any other Treasury. Moreover, the contents of this Treasury in 1135—'erant et vasa tam aurea quam argentea'—correspond with those described by the Dialogus forty years later: 'vasa diversi generis aurea et argentea'. Lastly, there is a piece of evidence which has not yet been adduced, namely, that in his Expugnatio Hibernica (1188), Giraldus, speaking of that ring and letters which John of Salisbury declared had been brought by him from the Pope, and were 'still stored in the Royal Treasury', writes of

Annulum aureum in investituræ signum ... qui statim simul cum privilegio in archivis Wintoniae repositus fuerat.

Giraldus certainly must have looked on the Royal Treasury at Winchester as the only recognized repository for all such objects as these.

Mr Hall, indeed, has gradually modified his original position that 'Ingulphus saw the Domesday register, as it now exists, at Westminster', and that it was sent there for good from Winchester 'early in the reign of Henry I',[²⁶²] but he still places the establishment of 'the' Treasury at Westminster, in my opinion, too early. It is the gradual decay of Winchester as the capital and seat of administration that makes it difficult to say positively when or how the national records, Domesday Books among them, were transferred to Westminster. We have seen at least that, in its early days, the 'Liber de Wintonia', as it styles itself, had its home within the walls of the Royal castle of Winchester; and I cannot but think, now as at first, that it began by visiting Westminster for Exchequer sessions only.[²⁶³]

In any case, we have seen its witness appealed to on a far earlier occasion than had hitherto been known. In my paper on 'An Early Reference to Domesday',[²⁶⁴] I quoted an even earlier mention of the 'Descriptio Angliæ', but here again the reference seems to make rather to the Domesday Survey itself than to Domesday Book, the 'Liber de Thesauro'.

As an appendix to this paper, I give the pedigree of the Domesday MSS. according to the views I have expressed.[²⁶⁵]