''Nomina Villarum'' was a survey carried out in 1316 and contains a list of all cities, boroughs and townships in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and the Lords of them. The document was compiled for King Edward II. The survey was a

feudal Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...

aid, a payment which by tradition the king could demand from his tenants to finance the knighting of his eldest son or the marriage of his eldest daughter and was in effect, a taxation on land. The name of the document is mediaeval

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

for "Names of towns" — ''villa'', originally meaning a country house, later developed the meaning "town" or "small city".

References

14th-century books in Latin 14th-century documents Demographics of England 14th-century manuscripts Censuses in the United Kingdom Taxation in medieval England 1316 in England {{england-stub