The Bayeux Tapestry (it is actually an embroidery made with wool on linen, not a tapestry) is an embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres (230 ft) wide and 50 centimetres (20 in) high, giving one interpretation of the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066. It features William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, and finishes with the Battle of Hastings.
The tapestry has fifty scenes. It was commissioned by Bishop Odo, William's half-brother, and made in Kent, England in the 1070s. This is because the quality of the Kent women’s embroidery was far better than that of the Normans at the time, and also Bishop Odo was temporary ruler in England at the time because William was away in Normandy. So this French tapestry is actually one of the finest pieces of English Anglo-Saxon art and is really part of Anglo-Saxon times.
Tapestries like this were common in churches, cathedrals and monasteries at the time. They were also found in the houses of the wealthy. They were used as a kind of wall hanging to decorate the walls. This one was probably made to hang in Odo’s palace and then given to the cathedral in Bayeux, possible at the time of the cathedral’s dedication (the cathedral was built directly after the conquest).
Where did the idea of a long story come from? Possibly from the days of the Roman Empire, when Emperor Trajan had the story of Rome carved in a big spiral up a tall column. Scolland, the abbot of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury, had travelled to Rome and seen Trajan's Column
They could not make the tapestry in one piece because there was no way of weaving such a large piece, so it was made from nine linen panels, sewn together after each had been embroidered.
The different events are separated by stylised trees. See if you can spot them.
Above and below the story panels are borders with birds, beasts, fish, scenes from fables, agriculture and hunting, and more, and are not to do with the story as such. A few corpses from the battles are also found in the bottom border. In scene 10 there is a picture of a harrow, something only newly invented. In scene 32 there is Halley's Comet. This is the first drawing of the comet in the world.
The end of the tapestry is missing, and so it may have been a couple of metres longer when finished.
The story shows Harold Godwinson, just crowned King of England, leading the Anglo-Saxon English, and William, Duke of Normandy, leading a mainly Norman army.
The story starts, however, with the death of English King Edward the Confessor, who had no children or any clear successor. Edward's mother, Emma of Normandy, was William's great aunt. So that is how William felt a claim to the throne. At that time was decided jointly by the king and by an assembly of nobles. Because Harold Godwinson, earl of Wessex was the most powerful noble in England, as well as Edward's brother-in-law, it was agreed that Harold would succeed when Edward does.
The main battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 and shows the English on foot behind a shield wall, whilst the Normans are on horses. But both armies are shown fighting bravely. The battle becomes very bloody with troops being slaughtered and dismembered corpses littering the ground. King Harold is killed.(scene 57) In this case the arrow in the eye may have just been symbolic, meaning dead rather than exactly how he was killed.
