The Bayeux Tapestry

The story

An embroidery almost seventy metres long

The Bayeux Tapestry is a very long strip of linen cloth, about fifty centimetres wide and almost seventy metres long: more than two basketball courts laid end to end. Embroidered on it in coloured wool thread are dozens of scenes telling how, in 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, conquered England. In fact it is not a tapestry, which is a woven fabric, but an embroidery: the name has stuck by tradition.

The story begins with King Edward the Confessor, who ruled England and had no children. He died in early January 1066, and the crown was taken by Harold, the most powerful nobleman in the kingdom. But William, Duke of Normandy, also claimed to have a right to the throne. According to the Norman version, Harold, on a journey to Normandy, had sworn on sacred relics to support him as king. When he took the crown for himself, the Normans said he had broken his oath.

The star with a tail, and the battle

In the spring of 1066 a comet appeared in the sky, which we now know to be Halley's Comet. On the tapestry some people can be seen pointing at it, frightened, with the Latin words “Isti mirant stella”, that is, “These men wonder at the star”. For many it was a bad omen for Harold.

William had a fleet built, crossed the Channel in September, and on 14 October 1066 faced the English army near Hastings. It was a very hard battle, lasting almost all day. The English, on foot, took up position on top of a hill, joined together in a wall of shields. The Normans attacked several times with cavalry and archers and, according to the story, even pretended to flee to break up the English line. Harold died. A famous scene shows a warrior with an arrow in his eye, but historians argue about whether it is him or another soldier.

William was crowned King of England in London on Christmas Day 1066, and since then he has been called “the Conqueror”.

How it was made

The tapestry was probably commissioned around 1070 by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and William's half-brother, perhaps to decorate his cathedral. Research suggests it was embroidered in England, perhaps at Canterbury, by English embroiderers, who were famous at the time for their skill. The words are in Latin, and along the edges, above and below the main scene, run bands with animals, fables and scenes of everyday life. There are many figures: about six hundred people, about two hundred horses and many other animals.

The technique is refined. The embroiderers used wool thread dyed with plants and minerals, in about ten colours, including blue, green, yellow and red. The linen was made of several pieces sewn together, and the figures were first outlined and then filled in with stitches. It was long work, done entirely by hand, by skilled people, who had to work precisely so as not to spoil the cloth and to tell each scene well.

Surviving a thousand years

The tapestry was kept at Bayeux for centuries, displayed once a year in the cathedral. During the French Revolution, in 1792, it was nearly cut up to cover a military wagon, but a citizen saved it. In 1803 Napoleon had it displayed in Paris to encourage the French to invade England. Today it is kept in a museum at Bayeux, in a case that protects it from light, and in 2007 UNESCO recognised it as one of the documents of the “Memory of the World” Programme.

The last part is missing: the final scene has been lost, perhaps that of William's coronation.