Embroidering history

Reconciliation and recrimination on the Bayeux Tapestry

As the Bayeux Tapestry goes on show at the British Museum, Matthew Symonds explores some of the enigmatic messages encoded in its exquisite needlework.

This pivotal scene on the Bayeux Tapestry shows William watching as Harold swears an oath in Bayeux. The Latin text relating to this episode states that this is ‘where Harold has taken an oath to Duke William’. Image: © La Fabrique de Patrimoines en Normandie / Antoine Cazin (detail)

In September 1476, a brief but illuminating entry in the treasury inventory of Bayeux Cathedral, in Normandy, noted the presence of ‘a very long and narrow embroidered hanging with images and text’ stored in the vestry. The author added that the textile was displayed in the nave for a little over a week every year, and took for its subject matter the ‘Conquest of England’. Thanks to this information, we can be confident that these two-anda-half lines of text represent our earliest confirmed sighting of the Bayeux Tapestry. By 1476, this would already have been a venerable object, as most scholars place its creation in the years following 1072, meaning that production was probably in full swing less than a decade after the events that it depicts. These played out over 1065 and – of course – 1066, and revolve around the fortunes of two men: Earl Harold Godwinson of Wessex and Duke William of Normandy, known to history as ‘the Conqueror’. The Tapestry chronicles how they became locked on a collision course by their competing claims to the English throne. This rivalry reached its deadly denouement less than a year after the death of the previous monarch, Edward the Confessor. The armies of William and Harold clashed at Hastings on 14 October 1066, and the reverberations were felt throughout England. About a third of the Bayeux Tapestry is devoted to the brutal fighting, with the imagery pulling no punches when it comes to depicting the horrors of dismembered bodies and the looting of corpses. At the climax of the battle, Harold is slain and English resistance broken.

The fighting at Hastings reaches its climax as Harold is slain in Scene 57. Note the archers and looting of corpses in the lower register of the embroidery. Image:
© La Fabrique de Patrimoines en Normandie/Antoine Cazin (detail)

Taken as a whole, the embroidery is undoubtedly among the most celebrated artworks to survive from medieval Europe. Yet the Bayeux Tapestry remains every bit as enigmatic as it is famous. Many of the mysteries surrounding this textile concern events that are crucial to understanding the first 400 years of its existence. These include such fundamental questions as who commissioned it, where it was made, where it was first shown, and why. Exploring some of the options introduces us to a colourful cast of characters who lived through the events of 1066, and whose fates turned for better or worse when Godwinson fell at Hastings. Indeed, given the seismic impact of the Norman victory, it is hard to believe that many – perhaps any – of the countless hands that contributed to making the Bayeux Tapestry did not have their own opinions about the events it portrays. While this immediacy surely influenced the composition of the narrative, it is surprisingly difficult to pin down a consistent pro- or anti-Norman message.

Knowing where the textile was intended to be seen would probably help to clarify the motive, and it is possible that Bayeux Cathedral was always the intended recipient. A poem penned around 1100 by Baudri of Bourgueil, who was based in the Loire Valley, appears to feature a fictionalised version of the Bayeux Tapestry, which would fit with it being on the Continent by then. Whether it was at Bayeux is a different matter, as an inventory of 1430 places a large tapestry depicting William’s conquest of England in the hands of Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy. Perhaps this simply reveals that there was more than one visualisation of the invasion in circulation. What is more certain is that after the 1476 inventory places the Tapestry in Bayeux, it is only known to have left the city a handful of times: once at the behest of Napoleon, once during the Second World War, and now for the highly anticipated British Museum exhibition The Bayeux Tapestry (see ‘Further information’ box). This presents the textile lying flat and elegantly lit, allowing visitors a spellbinding encounter with a near contemporary take on a genuinely pivotal moment in English history.

The Bayeux Tapestry ends somewhat abruptly with the Normans pursuing the survivors of the fighting at Hastings, suggesting that either part of the embroidery has been lost, or it is unfinished. The Latin text says ‘and the English have turned in flight’. Image: © La Fabrique de Patrimoines en Normandie/Antoine Cazin (detail)

FURTHER INFORMATION
The exhibition The Bayeux Tapestry will run until 11 July 2027. Although tickets for 2026 have already sold out, the first batch for 2027 will be released in October this year, with priority for British Museum members. For further details about the exhibition, including ticket prices, please see www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/ bayeux-tapestry.

A fascinating volume that accompanies the exhibition is also available. Beautiful photography shows the entirety of the Bayeux Tapestry, alongside contributions that shed light on many intriguing aspects of this extraordinary embroidery, including those introduced here: S Brunning, L de Beer, M Lewis, N Speakman, with M Horton-Insch (2026) The Bayeux Tapestry (British Museum Press; pbk: ISBN 978- 0714123554, hbk: ISBN 978-0714123530)

This is an extract of an article that appeared in CWA 139. Read on in the magazine (Click here to subscribe) or on our website, The Past, which offers all of the magazine’s content digitally. At The Past you will be able to read each article in full as well as the content of our other magazines, Current Archaeology, Ancient Egypt, and Military History Matters.