[Footnote 55: Fishwick's "History of St. Michael's-on-Wyre," _Chetham Soc._, xxv. (new series), p. 2.] [Illustration] CHAPTER VI. THE NORMANS AND THE PLANTAGENETS (A.D. 1066-1485). The stirring events which led up to the battle of Hastings, which took place on October 14, 1066, and the subsequent complete conquest of England by William of Normandy, did not perhaps immediately affect the Northern part of the kingdom so much as they did those counties lying nearer the scene of action. We have now arrived at a period when we have more definite and reliable evidence as to the actual position of Lancashire. At the end of the year 1084 the King summoned his Great Council to meet at Gloucester, with the object of devising means whereby a full account could be obtained as to the state of the country, especially as to the land--how much was cultivated, and by whom and on what authority it was held. This is not the place more fully to describe the _modus operandi_ of preparing the Domesday Book, but it may be mentioned that by some singular arrangement Lancashire as a county is not named, the southern portion being included in Cheshire, the hundred of Amounderness in Yorkshire, and the two northern hundreds in Westmorland, Cumberland, and Yorkshire. The value of the information contained in the return is threefold, as it records the state of the country in Edward the Confessor's time, the way each manor, etc., was dealt with by William on his taking possession, and the rateable value on the taking of the Survey. Unfortunately, we do not get from it anything like a census of the whole country, but it will be useful for comparison to note that Yorkshire had about 10,000 inhabitants, London some 30,000, and that of the other counties Lincoln and Norfolk had the largest population. The Survey was taken in A.D. 1085.