The unsentimental, decisive way with things was the Norman way, giving a hard-nosed edge to the fuzzy tangles of contracts and customs that had been used by the Anglo-Saxons. And it was in this spirit that William, in 1085, held court in Gloucester and launched arguably the most extraordinary campaign of his entire reign, a campaign for information. We tend to think of William as more or less permanently in the saddle. He grew up in a world, after all, where authority was usually delivered on the blade of a sword. So it's all the more impressive that he seems to have understood instinctively that information could also be power. William the Conqueror was the first database King.


这种理性而果断的处事方式，正是诺曼人的风格。与这种重视实际的风格形成鲜明对比的是，盎格鲁撒克逊拖泥带水的风俗和契约，也正是本着这种精神，1085年，威廉在格洛斯特举行受觐礼，并发动了一场他在位期间。饱受争议却也最为非凡的一场运动——信息运动。 我们倾向于认为威廉几乎从未放下过手中的权力。毕竟，他在一个以武力争夺权力的世界里长大成人。因而更为人所钦佩的是他似乎天生就知道，信息也是一种力量征服者威廉是第一位掌握海量信息的国王。