William the Conqueror led the Norman Invasion into England. After sequestering power, he implemented two monumental changes that shook the nation. Unlike his predecessors, the changes he implemented did not help the populace. Instead, they assisted in his consolidation of power.
After he put the Anglo-Saxon nobles into subjection, William the Conqueror commandeered all the property. He treated everything as if it were his, exercising more tyrannical power than the kings before him. It was a true violation of property rights, that similar to America’s current property tax system1, disregarded the basic concept of ownership. If an Anglo-Saxon noble desired to reacquire their property, William the Conqueror demanded evidence that they supported him during the Norman Invasion. If that condition was met, they could buy their estate back. If not, the King redistributed it to his allied Norman nobles. So, not only did William exercise a disregard for property rights but he also implemented quasi-communism in the sense that the government owned everything, and it was his to redistribute as he pleased. The only difference between his property redistribution and communism is that he was a hyper-realist and did away with the charade that it was “for the common good” to implement equality. It worked out for William’s monarchy as his exercised sovereignty over all property resulted in abundant wealth for him and his colleagues.
The other change he implemented in England was forming the Domesday Book. The book was a catalog of data, compiling all the nation’s property records into one book. It enabled the lords to tax very efficiently since they knew who owned what. There was no roundabout way of avoiding taxes under William’s administration since he collected such comprehensive data on his subjects. In many respects, his surveillance of his people is reminiscent of that of the NSA in the United States of America, as revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden. The book provided a level of stringent taxation that had not existed in England previously, and it was wildly effective though it outraged the people.
In conclusion, William the Conqueror’s two most impactful changes to England were not philosophical contributions but economic ones regarding the centralization of power. He seized all property, upending the former economic structure with lords on top, and he wrote the Domesday Book cataloging who owned what. Life under his rule as an Anglo-Saxon would have been a pitiful torment. While historians can evaluate William the Conqueror’s military strategy with admiration, he is a poor choice for learning how to preserve liberty.
- The American property tax implies the property belongs to the government, i.e., is taxable. It is not. When a homeowner purchases a property, they should have the right to it. However, if someone cannot pay the outrageously expensive property taxes, their property is seized by the government and put into foreclosure. The property they paid for is robbed and sold. The implication of a foreclosure is that the property must be sold to “satisfy a debt.” However, what debt should American people owe to the state for a property they already paid for? The entire premise of the property tax is unethical. ↩︎
Asher Sisneros 