The Man Behind the Bayeux Tapestry

by Trevor Rowley

  There was a legend recounted in his vita that St Vigor had founded a monastery at a place named as Mons Chrismatum, where there had been a pagan temple, just outside Bayeux. Odo claimed that his later foundation was on the same site, but no archaeological evidence for this earlier monastery has been found (Herrick 2007, 169). Work on Odo’s own abbey just outside Bayeux at St-Vigor-le-Grand began in 1050, but may not have been completed until after the Conquest. The church of St Vigor was intended to have been Odo’s own mausoleum as well as that of future bishops of Bayeux.

  17 The ruined Romanesque church of St Vigor, from a drawing of 1889.

  As part of his efforts to establish a relic cult at Bayeux, Odo attempted to bribe the sacristan of Corbeil, south of Paris, to give him the bones of Bayeux’s first bishop, St Exuperius (c. 390–405), which, apart from the head and a tooth, had been moved from Bayeux. This shabby tale was related by Guibert of Nogent in his Treatise on Relics of 1106:

  Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, eagerly desired the body of St Exuperius … He paid, therefore, the sum of one hundred pounds to the sacristan of the church which possessed these relics that he might take them for himself. But the sacristan cunningly dug up the bones of a peasant named Exuperius and brought them to the Bishop.

  The custodian swore an oath that these were the authentic bones of the saint, but Guibert records how the townspeople were incensed by what they saw as a betrayal of their patron saint, ‘See now what disgrace this Bishop’s bargain brought upon religion when the bones of this profane peasant Exuperius were thrust upon God’s holy altar, which perchance will never more be purged of them’ (de Nogent 1910, 15–22). Guibert was making a broader point about the danger of dealing in fragmented holy bodies, as whole corpses were more difficult to fake. Complete bodies were rare and were prized for their rarity; Odo would, therefore, have been motivated by his desire to reconstitute the highly prestigious body of St Exuperius in its entirety.

  More successfully, between 1050 and 1060 Odo commissioned a new shrine for the relics of the brothers St Rasyphus and St Ravennus. These were two fifth-century British martyrs who were at the centre of the most popular cult at Bayeux in the mid-eleventh century. According to later sources, the two Christian brothers fled from England during the early phase of incursions by the pagan Anglo-Saxons to Macé on the south-eastern boundary of Normandy. Here, they became hermits and were later martyred, perhaps by Arian Goths. One version of their deaths claims that they were thrown against a large block of sandstone, but although their heads dented the stone they were not harmed; two indentations found in the church of St Aubin of Macé are reputedly the result of this incident. Subsequently, they were decapitated and buried near the church. The saints were venerated as great healers who were responsible for many miracles, particularly in the diocese of Sées (www.catholic.org). Their relics were moved to St-Vaast-sur-Seulles, about 5 miles to the south of Bayeux, during the Viking invasions and forgotten about, but their location was miraculously revealed to Hugh, Odo’s immediate predecessor as Bishop of Bayeux (1011–49). The relics were then returned to Bayeux Cathedral, where the cult of Rasyphus and Ravennus flourished (Overbey 2009, 39–43). Odo’s new reliquary was designed to impress and was described in a fifteenth-century inventory as being ‘made of fine gold, with raised golden images, and decorated with large and expensive enamels and precious stones of various kinds …’. Odo’s efforts to promote the importance of these relics were obviously successful as, shortly after their re-enshrinement in Bayeux, the popularity of the cult of Rasyphus and Ravennus was second only to that of the Virgin Mary, to whom the cathedral was primarily dedicated. It has been argued that the cult of these rather obscure saints was in its ‘fullest bloom at the time of Harold’s oath’ and that it was on these relics that Harold swore the infamous oath depicted so graphically in the Bayeux Tapestry (Musset, 150). The 1476 inventory indicates that Odo may also have secured some of the bones of St Aubert, an eighth-century Bishop of Avranches. Odo’s preoccupation with relics for his cathedral and abbey appears to have survived until the end of his life. There is a reliquary used to hold the chasuble of St Regnobert which is still to be found in Bayeux Cathedral’s Treasury. It is Arabic in origin and Odo may have obtained it in southern Italy or Sicily just before he died (Allen, 159, 297) (colour plate 4).

  18 Earl Harold being handed the crown by English nobles, from the Bayeux Tapestry.

  There does not seem to have been a collection of miracles associated with the cathedral, and the cult of the Bayeux saints had only limited popularity outside the city; for instance, there is only one church dedicated to Ravennus and Rasyphus in the whole of Normandy. Conversely, there are several records of the citizens of Bayeux travelling out of the city to be healed at St Ouen, St Wandrille, Mortain, Countances and Fécamp (Bates 1970, 157–8). Despite his best efforts, Odo failed to establish a successful relic cult in Bayeux and his disappointment at this failure may have stimulated his desire to succeed in other spheres such as becoming pope.

  • The Chapter and Cathedral School •

  Despite his frequent and prolonged absences from Bayeux, particularly after the Conquest, and whatever his character deficiencies in other areas, Odo’s commitment to Bayeux Cathedral was never doubted. His posthumous reputation at Bayeux was excellent, as witnessed by the celebration of a mass for his soul during the Lenten processions right up until the eighteenth century (Bates 1975, 12). The size and constituency of the body of clergy – the chapter – was a reflection of the power and prestige of a medieval cathedral. Odo appreciated the importance of cultivating men of high intellectual ability, who he realised were indispensable for a successful bishop’s entourage. He aimed to create a court of the same quality as those of the duke and the archbishop of Rouen. The successful operation of Bayeux Cathedral during Odo’s long absences in England was a reflection of the bishop’s accomplishment in fostering a prestigious, well-educated and well-trained chapter. Odo wasted little time in building up the number of men who served his cathedral, based on a network of endowments throughout the diocese. By 1092 there were nine dignitaries of the chapter and over thirty canons. In comparison, Coutances only had fourteen canons. Odo steadily acquired land for his cathedral to support the chapter and by the early twelfth century Bayeux could boast of having three times as many knights as any other Norman bishopric.

  Prior to the Conquest, Odo built himself a reputation as a strong defender of monasticism and a patron of learning by encouraging the advanced education of young clergymen. By the 1050s there were already small schools attached to Norman cathedrals for the training of parochial clergy for their own diocese. However, Odo sent his most promising clerks to study at cities outside Normandy, including Paris. Odo appears to have been in touch with all the important intellectual centres in northern France where, according to Orderic Vitalis, ‘he knew that philosophic studies flourished, and supported them generously so that they might drink long and deeply from the springs of knowledge’ (OV).

  In particular, Odo appears to have favoured the cathedral school at Liège, which became a nursery for future abbots and bishops in Normandy and in England. Liège was known for its excellence in the teaching of ‘moral discipline’, liberal studies and the study of virtue. Ironically, by the 1050s scholars were already complaining about the collapse of discipline and the lost golden age of the Liège School (Jaeger 1994, 54–6). Two young brothers from Bayeux, Thomas and Samson, initiators of a dynasty of English prelates, were sponsored by Odo and sent to Liège to study in the 1050s. They both returned to Bayeux, where Thomas became Treasurer of Bayeux, and subsequently they became royal chaplains, positions that often led to bishoprics. Thomas went on to be appointed Archbishop of York (1070–1100), while Samson, who some historians have suggested might have been the scribe who undertook the mammoth task of writing out Domesday Book, became Bishop of Worcester (1096–1112). Samson appears to have enticed Norman scribes, presumably from Bayeux, to Worcester Cathedral, where a copy of the
Registrum Gregorii was written in both English and Norman hands. Samson had two sons: Richard, who became Bishop of Bayeux (1108–33) and Thomas, who like his uncle became Archbishop of York (1108–14). Samson also had a grandson called Richard, who was Bishop of Bayeux from 1135 to 1142 (Galbraith 1967). The school at Bayeux seems to have increased in importance in the decades after the Conquest as the cathedral chapter grew in size and status. Training at Bayeux or Odo’s sponsorship at another institution usually led to a bishopric or a post in the government of the duke or the king. It is an endorsement of the quality of the training these men received that many of them were appointed after Odo’s fall from grace. No other cathedral produced as many men of distinction as Bayeux, and ‘its contribution to the practical government of conquered England and of its bishoprics and monasteries was fundamental and unrivalled’ (Bates 1975). The intellectual clerical network that Odo had established throughout western Christendom must have been on his mind in 1082, when he was attempting to make a bid for the papacy. No doubt he had important strategic positions in mind for many of his protégés if he had been successful.

  • Bishop Odo’s Patronage of the Arts •

  Odo’s patronage of scholars, poets and theologians established Bayeux as an intellectual centre. Odo also sponsored a number of the most significant contemporary poets, including Marbod, Bishop of Rennes who wrote lyric poetry covering a wide variety of topics, both sacred and secular. His erotic love poems have predictably received some of the most attention. Some of these works deal with male and female desires, while others are concerned with same-sex romance, although they fall short of endorsing homosexual physical relationships. Marbod wrote a verse life of St Thaïs, a fourth-century Egyptian who finished her life as a recluse prostitute, which inspired a novel by Anatole France and an opera by Jules Massenet (Boswell 1981).

  Marbod has been described as ‘surely the most unjustly ignored theorist and poet of the entire Latin Middle Ages’. Marbod later became Bishop of Rennes but he seems to have maintained his links with Bayeux throughout his life. He was widely thought of as being an eloquent writer, who once spontaneously composed a hexameter when handed a silver drinking vessel at a dinner party with Odo and William the Conqueror; but the resulting line, ‘this silver vessel needs neither pitch nor nails’, seems to have lost something in translation (Bond 1995, 70, 232). Marbod wrote to Odo reminding him of a previous favour and asking for another; in an age of sycophancy his poem might not have sounded as unctuous as it does today:

  But good Fortune has bestowed upon you all that Man seeks for himself;

  Riches, a good life, an excellent character,

  A tongue with which to speak, a mind which can think,

  Impeccable morals, the favour of the people, and of the Fathers.

  (Bates 1970, 195)

  The cathedral’s most prolific author, the poet/canon Serlo, wrote ‘satire in a glutinous Latin, which can have given pleasure to few’ (Bates 1975). Eight of his poems have survived, six of which are concerned with regaining property he has lost because he was a priest’s son and his appeal to Odo to help him; one of them carries the wistful title, ‘On the Defence of the Sons of Priests’. He also wrote on the fine qualities of the secular clergy and its Bayeux members, of which he was one. His poems on the deficiencies of the reformed papacy and the new monasteries were also motivated by a strong dose of self-interest. His poem describing the assault on Bayeux in 1105 by Henry I provides a description of the city which contained eleven churches, Bishop Odo’s beautifully decorated court, the house of a rich burgess called Conan (the treasurer), the chapter house and the ducal castle (van Houts 2004–11).

  If we look at the curricula vitae of the alumni of Bayeux, it would appear that Odo also supported grammarians, dialecticians and musicians just as Bishop Geoffrey did at Coutances Cathedral (Bates 1970, 198; Gazeau 2007, 244).

  4

  • The Duke Becomes a King •

  Duke William of Normandy sailed an invasion fleet across the English Channel in late September 1066 and on 14 October defeated the English army led by King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. Two distinct but very simple versions of the events of 1066 soon emerged: the Norman claim, articulated by William of Poitiers and other Norman chroniclers, that William gained the crown legitimately by defeating the usurper Harold, and the English account, expressed by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, that William unlawfully seized the throne by killing King Harold.

  William’s close family were at the heart of the Norman campaign. They were present at the council called in response to Harold’s accession to the throne, and they provided much of the invasion fleet and many of the men-at-arms. It was the three brothers – William, Odo and Robert – who held a council of war just before the battle and who appear on the Bayeux Tapestry as supreme commanders poised to strike (colour plate 14), like General Eisenhower and Field Marshal Montgomery meeting on the eve of D-Day in June 1944. In another very important way Odo’s contribution was fundamental to the story. If the Bishop of Bayeux was responsible for creating the Bayeux Tapestry, a visual record of the Conquest, his fingerprints are all over Anglo-Norman history between 1064 and 1066. Our perception of almost every aspect of the Conquest of England is coloured by the images on the Bayeux Tapestry, which often provides primary evidence for details of the campaign. If there was a detailed chronicle of the Norman Conquest of England written by Odo, it could not have provided as valuable an historical source as the Tapestry.

  • The Oath •

  During his minority, William’s court still included the two exiled English princes Alfred and Edward, sons of Ethelred II and Emma, daughter of Duke Richard II. In 1036 the brothers returned to England and Alfred was captured by Godwin, Earl of Wessex, who handed him over to Harold Harefoot, who was acting as regent for his brother King Harthacnut. Edward returned to Normandy after Alfred was blinded and died from his wounds. According to tradition, it was at about this stage that Edward first promised the English crown to Duke William. In 1041 Edward had been invited back to England by Harthacnut and became king the following year. William believed that Edward had confirmed his promise of the throne in 1051–52 at the time the Godwines had been banished from England. According to one version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, William sailed to England ‘with a great force’ at the end of 1051 and was received by Edward, entertained honourably and returned laden with gifts. This story does not appear elsewhere and is largely discounted. Nonetheless, William did expect to be King of England on Edward’s death, and the origins of that expectation lay in the period of Edward’s exile in the Norman court.

  William was in possession of English hostages, Harold’s brother Wulfnoth and nephew Hakon, who had probably been taken to Normandy by Archbishop Robert of Jumièges on his enforced return to the duchy in 1052. According to English sources, Earl Harold’s journey to the continent in 1064 was undertaken to negotiate their release. Norman sources claim that Harold went with the intention of confirming Edward’s promise to William. William of Poitiers relates that Edward sent Harold:

  To confirm his former promise by a further oath he sent to him [William] Harold, of all his subjects the greatest in riches, honour and power, whose brother and nephew had previously been accepted as hostages for the duke’s succession.

  Harold’s journey takes up much of the first half of the Bayeux Tapestry, but the visual narrative does not make the purpose of that journey clear. It has been argued that William’s policy for many years had been directed towards his acquisition of the English throne; in particular, his enlistment of Harold in his 1064 Breton campaign and his holding of the English hostages are explained in terms of that strategy. Eadmer, in his Historia Novorum in Anglia (c. 1124), writes that William sought Harold’s active support for his bid to be King of England and asked for the stronghold of Dover (with a water well) and a marriage alliance; Harold’s sister was to be married to a Norman noble, while Harold would marry Agatha, one of the duke’s daughters. Harold was
to retain his prominent position in England, but under the rule of King William. The hostages would be released on William’s accession to the throne. Harold was required to swear a solemn oath on holy relics supporting William before he was allowed to leave Normandy. It was the breaking of this oath that justified William invading England and removing the perjurer Harold from the throne that he had illicitly seized. Whatever the truth of this version of events, it was the one which the Normans repeatedly used to validate William’s accession to the English throne.