The Man Behind the Bayeux Tapestry

by Trevor Rowley

  • The History of the Tapestry •

  Since at least the fifteenth century, when it was first recorded, the Tapestry has been housed in Bayeux. An inventory of Bayeux Cathedral furnishings dating from 1476 records, ‘Item, a very long and narrow hanging, embroidered with images depicting the Conquest of England, which is hung around the nave of the church on the day and throughout the octaves of the relics (1–14 July)’ (Caple 2006, 80). That is, during the second week of July, which included the anniversary of the dedication of the church, the Tapestry would have provided a suitable backdrop for the feast of the relics. Its existence became more generally known only in the eighteenth century, when it was called Queen Matilda’s Tapestry because it was believed that King William’s wife, Matilda, was involved as either the Tapestry’s patron, designer or embroiderer. Early scholars also considered that the work was executed in Normandy.

  It is not surprising that the Tapestry’s characteristics which most appealed to the Norman victors – a successful invasion and military victory over the English – also attracted the attention of later military despots. The cult of Matilda and the Tapestry reached its height during the early nineteenth century as a result of patriotic fervour built up by Napoleon, who projected himself as a reincarnation of William the Conqueror. In November 1803 Napoleon visited his troops assembled in Boulogne in anticipation of the invasion of England, where the building of the invasion fleet was progressing erratically. Napoleon observed that the Tapestry ‘records one of the most memorable deeds of the French nation and preserves the memory of the pride and courage of our ancestors’. In order to boost morale, Napoleon had the Bayeux Tapestry transported to be exhibited at the Palace of the Louvre (then called the Musée Napoléon). As a result of this exhibition and Napoleon’s involvement there was extensive press coverage, which prompted the composition of a one-act musical comedy called La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde. The play opened at the Théâtre du Vaudeville on 14 January 1804 and according to the stage instructions, ‘When the curtain rises, we see Matilda, surrounded by her women, all busy embroidering. A portion of the tapestry is hung around the stage’ (Hicks, 108). There is no record of the play having been subsequently revived! Undoubtedly, such events cemented the popular belief that the Tapestry was the work of Matilda and in the following decades there were several paintings and prints which portrayed Matilda at work on the embroidery. For instance, the frontispiece of Ducarel’s Anglo-Norman Antiquities (1823) shows Matilda supervising her ladies embroidering the Tapestry in the nave of Bayeux Cathedral. In 1849 Alfred Gaillard completed an oil painting entitled La Reine Mathilde travaillant à la Telle du Conquest which now hangs in the Musée Baron Gérard in Bayeux. The Tapestry was extensively restored in 1842 using machine twisted thread instead of the original hand-spun wool.

  26 The opening scene of the operetta La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde composed by a Mr Wicht and performed in 1804. Hicks, 2006

  The Tapestry was intended to be used for more sinister propaganda purposes during the Second World War. The Nazi ideas for the Tapestry went far beyond its appeal as a depiction of a successful invasion of England. After the German occupation of France a systematic multidisciplinary analysis of the Tapestry was planned. This was motivated by the belief that the embroidery demonstrated the superiority of the Aryan spirit and that Duke William represented a Germanic prince. A unit of the SS established by Himmler was called the ‘Ahnenerbe’ (Ancestral Heritage), part of whose remit was to study, reclaim and confiscate culturally significant monuments for display in a triumphant post-war Germany. It rested on the premise that the Normans were directly descended from the Vikings and had inherited many of their characteristics, notably, ‘the joy of fighting, the love of war and the chivalric respect of the enemy’ and the Tapestry proved that ‘the Viking heritage and Viking customs lived on in Normandy in a relatively pure form’. To Himmler, the heroism displayed on the Tapestry was central to his vision of the SS, and the Tapestry represented a ‘magnificent example of Germanic, Aryan art and deserved to be recognised as such’. The project, which included a scheme to print a life-sized copy of the Tapestry, was never completed, although after the D-Day landings in Normandy, Himmler made an unsuccessful attempt to have the Tapestry moved to Berlin. As part of the French Liberation celebrations in November 1944 the Tapestry went on display at the Louvre once more before being returned to its pre-war home of the Hôtel du Doyen in Bayeux (Hicks 2006, 205–31).

  27 Nineteenth-century impression of Queen Matilda and her ladies creating the Tapestry in the crossing of Bayeux Cathedral. The frontispiece to the French edition of Ducal’s Anglo-Norman Antiquities (1823).

  As a result of increasing visitor numbers in the 1960s and 1970s, it was decided to provide a new, more spacious home for the Tapestry. There is now a dedicated Musée de la Tapisserie in Bayeux, occupying the Grand Seminary, opened in 1983, where the Tapestry is on permanent display. The move provided an opportunity for a full examination of the Tapestry from the back as well as the front and initiated its reassessment at many levels (Bouet et al. 2004).

  • The Narrative •

  The story told in the Tapestry falls into two distinct parts. The first half is largely devoted to Earl Harold: going to France, being captured, campaigning with Duke William, swearing an oath, returning to England for King Edward’s death, and being crowned. The second part concentrates on William and the Normans: hearing the news of Harold’s coronation, preparing the fleet, sailing for England, foraging and feasting, and finally a long account of the battle itself. The oath is seen by most scholars as the important junction, when Harold, swearing on holy relics, makes a sacred promise which he subsequently breaks. The real change in the direction of the Tapestry actually comes with the appearance of Halley’s Comet immediately after Harold’s coronation. In the previous scene, Harold appears to be regally in control of the situation; it is when he is told of the comet’s appearance that the new king visibly crumples, as if he knew that the journey to his destruction had started.

  It is generally accepted that the Tapestry starts in 1064 with Edward the Confessor sending Earl Harold on a mission to France. Edward is identified by his regalia and by the first caption, which states simply – King Edward. The nature of Harold’s mission is not stated but its significance is emphasised by the body language of the participants. Norman sources claim that Harold was going to pledge his loyalty to William as Edward’s designated successor to the English throne. On the other hand Eadmer, the Canterbury chronicler, writing in the early twelfth century claimed that Harold’s mission was to secure the release of his kinsmen that William was holding hostage. William of Malmesbury even casts doubt on whether Harold was on a diplomatic mission at all, and suggests that the earl was enjoying a pleasure cruise in the Channel, when he was shipwrecked off the coast of Ponthieu (Brooks & Walker 1979, 86, 92).

  Earl Harold and his men, accompanied by hunting hounds and a hawk, make their way to his manor at Bosham in Sussex. Here, on the south coast of England they pray in the church (which survives), feast and set sail for Normandy. The winds blow the English contingent off course and they land by mistake in the territory of Guy, Count of Ponthieu, a vassal of William’s. Harold is seized by Guy and his soldiers, who take the earl’s sword, symbolising his vulnerability as a captive who could be ransomed. Harold is taken to Beaurain to meet Guy, and two of Harold’s men ride to inform William of the earl’s plight. William is seated immediately next to a formidable fortification which, although it is not named, is generally believed to be the ‘Tower of Rouen’ where, ironically, Odo was to be imprisoned in 1082 (Musset, 118). It has been argued that fortification was Guy’s castle at Beaurain and that the stone structure was a gatehouse for a motte, the top of which is visible behind the entrance structure (Taylor 1991). This claim is based partly on the assumption that the Tapestry is providing an accurate topographical representation of the castle as it was in 1064. In the case of this and the other castles depicted o
n the Tapestry, such a degree of accuracy seems very unlikely. It is much more probable that the images of castles are ingenious symbols for those fortifications.

  William sends messengers to Guy ordering him to release Harold, which he does eventually. William then accompanies Harold back to Rouen holding the hawk, which together with the hounds may have been brought as a gift for him. During the exchanges between Guy and William the name Turold is inscribed either next to one of the duke’s messengers or above a dwarf holding the Normans’ horses. Turold was a common Norman name, but here it has been taken to refer to one of Bishop Odo’s vassals who accompanied him to England. At this stage there is a curious incident where a woman, one of only three depicted on the Tapestry, with the English name of Aelfgifu is seen with a gesticulating cleric who, touching her face, seems to be chastising or blessing the woman. The incomplete caption above simply reads, ‘Where a certain clerk and Aelfgyva’. This scene must have had a clear meaning to eleventh century observers, possibly relating to a well-known contemporary scandal, but although it has been interpreted in a variety of ways it remains the most baffling episode on the whole Tapestry (Stephenson 2011, 71–4).

  28 The tower of Bosham church, Sussex. The Saxon church, of which parts survive, was depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry. It lay on Godwinson land and Earl Harold prayed here before undertaking his journey to France in 1064.

  28a Earl Harold entering Bosham church, from the Bayeux Tapestry.

  Subsequently, Harold joins William in a military campaign against William’s enemy Count Conan II of Brittany. At the start of the Breton campaign Mont-Saint-Michel is prominently displayed, possibly to highlight the change in location from Normandy to Brittany. Another suggestion is that Mont-Saint-Michel is emphasised because Abbot Scotland, the first Norman head of St Augustine’s, Canterbury, came from the monastery there, where he had been a scribe. Furthermore, Mont-Saint-Michel was recognised as having ‘the most decoratively active Norman scriptorium’ (Gameson 1997, 172). Abbot Scotland provides another indication that St Augustine’s was where the Tapestry originated. Bishop Odo also had links with Mont-Saint-Michel, as it was from here that he recruited monks to house his own foundation of St Vigor, Bayeux. On their way past Mont-Saint-Michel some of the Norman cavalry become mired in quicksand by the mouth of the River Couesnon and Harold is shown as a hero on this occasion by rescuing two of the drowning men himself. One of the mounted onlookers wears the chequered costume worn by both William and Odo at Hastings and carries a baton. While the figure is most likely to be the duke, it is possible that it could also be Bishop Odo. It has been suggested that the bishop’s attestation of a charter at Domfront between 1063 and 1066 could have been linked to his presence on the 1064 Breton campaign.

  The Normans besiege a motte and bailey castle at Dol; this and the other earthwork castles on the Tapestry are graphically and uniquely illustrated. The designer of the Tapestry was obviously familiar with motte and bailey castles, probably from England during the first phase of the Conquest. Earth and timber castles were built quickly following Hastings in order to secure strategic positions as Norman rule was imposed. However, it seems that they are being used as a symbol rather than as a realistic depiction of the Breton and Norman castles, which probably would have been built of stone. Conan escapes to another castle at Dinan but is forced to surrender before the town is burnt. It is possible that after the Breton campaign was over Duke William and Earl Harold led a triumphal march from Domfront to Bayeux, prior to Harold swearing his oath of allegiance to William (Bates 1970, 11).

  In the next scene William ceremonially gives Harold a helmet, coat of mail, sword and lance. William is reinstating Harold to the status of a full knight, a status of which he had been deprived by Guy of Ponthieu. Thus, Harold becomes William’s vassal, a further obligation of the earl to the duke. This scene has variously been interpreted as William ‘dubbing’ Harold as one of his knights, as a symbolic recognition of William’s future overlordship of England, or as recognition of the military prowess shown by Harold during the Breton expedition (Musset, 142). Its occurrence, just before the oath scene, might suggest that it is confirming Harold’s military obligation to the duke.

  The ‘arms’ scene leads on to ‘William came to Bayeux’, where Bayeux is depicted by a splendid turf and timber motte castle. However, we know that the castle in Bayeux had been built in stone by William’s grandfather Richard II in around 980. There is no evidence of there ever having been a motte and bailey in Bayeux. Indeed, all the castles depicted on the Tapestry – Dol, Rennes, Dinant, Bayeux and Hastings – are shown as mottes. Only the Tower at Rouen is clearly built of stone. Next Harold unarmed and bareheaded, is seen taking an oath of loyalty on two shrines containing sacred relics before the seated William. This ritual act completes a sequence binding Harold to William by both custom and law. The central location of the scene is intended to make the faithful reflect on the sanctity of oaths sworn in the presence of relics. It would also have emphasised the importance of the Bayeux relics. The only onlookers are ordinary soldiers and servants; such an event would normally be witnessed by clerical and secular lords. It seems, therefore, that the Tapestry wanted to stress that this was a sacred bond between the two men and thus emphasise Harold’s perfidy when he breaks it.

  29 Duke William handing arms to Earl Harold after the Breton campaign in 1064, from the Bayeux Tapestry.

  Following a series of conspiracies and rebellions in the 790s, feudal oaths of loyalty were instituted by Charlemagne, where all men were required to swear an oath of allegiance to the king upon relics. The king’s inner circle swore an even stronger oath of vassalage, committing them to obedience and military service. This was a binding covenant and breaking it was perjury. The details were unimportant; it was the oath itself that was sacrosanct (Brown 2009).

  After sailing back to England, Harold, appearing submissive, reports back to a markedly older Edward who appears to be remonstrating with the earl. The next scenes are in reverse chronological order: the shrouded body of Edward is carried in a funeral procession to Westminster Abbey before the deathbed scene where Edward ‘speaks to his faithful followers’ as Harold’s fingers touch those of the dying king. The next caption states that, ‘Here they gave the king’s crown to Harold’. In other words, Harold had been bequeathed the crown before witnesses. Harold’s coronation immediately follows on and the new king sits in splendour on the throne with orb and sceptre while he receives the sword of state. Prominently standing next to Harold, arms outstretched, is Archbishop Stigand, who has been excommunicated and is regarded as a usurper by the Normans – the implication is that the ceremony is invalid. This is borne out by the next episode with the appearance of a star with a streaming tail. Such cosmic events were regarded as bad omens in the Middle Ages and the significance of the appearance of Halley’s Comet coinciding with his coronation was not lost on Harold, who visibly crumples on the news of its sighting. (The comet actually appeared later in the spring of 1066.) At this stage the lower border, which up until now has been largely given over to decoration, echoes the bad tidings with the appearance of the ghostly outlines of the boats of the future invasion fleet.

  The story then moves back to Normandy, where William, sitting together with his half-brother Odo, receives the news of Harold’s coronation from England. A conference is called, and Odo and William are shown seated on a bench. The caption reads, ‘Here Duke William ordered ships to be built’. Odo, who is the larger of the two men, is pointing onwards to the felling of trees. The bishop has an open hand, indicating that the two men are talking, and William’s hand on his hip indicates that he is being persuaded. The graphics of the Tapestry here, as elsewhere, depict Odo as a proactive figure, but this is not always reflected in the captions (Lewis 2007, 100–20).

  30 The new king, Harold, hearing the news that Halley’s Comet has been sighted. In the bottom frieze the ghostly outline of the invasion fleet is depicted. From the Bayeux Tapestry.


  The next scenes show the Norman preparations for the invasion with tree felling and boat building. The contemporary cleric, Baudri de Bourgueil describes woodmen felling timber at the command of the prince and shipwrights who fashion oars, masts and other components from oak, holly, ash and fir (Musset 2002, 186). This is followed by the loading of boats with grain, wine, chainmail suits, helmets, swords, arrows and spears. The care with which the Normans are preparing for battle is emphasised by the diligent loading of the cavalry horses into the boats. The Norman fleet then sails across the Channel and lands unopposed at Pevensey, where they set up camp in the third-century Roman fort. The Norman troops under the command of Wadard, one of Odo’s men, are then shown foraging and looting prior to a symbolic feast, where Odo presides over a semi-circular table, with fish, bread, knives and goblets, in a scene reminiscent of many depictions of Christ and the Last Supper. Odo’s right hand is making a blessing over the food. The composition of this scene is similar to a Last Supper illustration in St Augustine’s Gospels, which adds strength to the argument that the Tapestry was actually embroidered at St Augustine’s Canterbury (Brooks & Walker 1979).

  William then holds a final war council in a simple building before the battle, attended only by his half-brothers, Odo and Robert of Mortain; again, it is Odo who appears to be leading the discussion. This is the only time the three brothers are shown together. Orders are given for the building of a castle ‘at Hastings’, the construction of which is then portrayed, after which William receives news of Harold’s movements. The next scene is one of the most poignant in the whole story; a mother and her son are shown escaping from what was clearly a grand house which is being torched by Normans – the caption reads casually, ‘Here a house is burnt’. There are then some preliminary cavalry manoeuvres and William questions a mounted scout called Vital about Harold’s movements. This is almost certainly Vital of Canterbury, one of Odo’s vassals, who was a Channel merchant who would have had knowledge of the local geography and of the English language.