Bayeux Tapestry

The Bayeux Tapestry is Coming Soon!

Jan 14, 2026

art, battles, culture, Events, history, medieval characters, medieval life, research, Usurpers to throne

1066, Bayeux Tapestry, British Museum, Harold Godwinson, Norman conquest, William I

Later this year the Bayeux Tapestry will be coming to London on loan from France for the first time in almost a millennium. It is believed to have been fashioned by English embroiderers (it’s not really a Tapestry, but an Embroidery) possibly in Canterbury. It was probably commissioned by Archbishop Odo, the brother of William…
Let’s swap for a while. Your Bayeux Tapestry for our Sutton Hoo Treasures….

Aug 11, 2025

archaeology, armour, battles, buildings, history, research, Usurpers to throne

Bayeur Museum, Bayeux Tapestry, British Museum, Edward the Confessor, Harold Godwinson, Sutton Hoo Treasures, William I

If you go to this link https://tinyurl.com/5y5j2fwy you’ll read that after a number of failed negotiations in the past, Britain is at last to be entrusted with the Bayeux Tapestry. Not for good—Heaven forfend!—but on loan, and in return we are lending France the wonderful Sutton Hoo treasures. (Can they be trusted with our treasures,…
Medieval royal Christmases….with a few camels thrown in….!

Dec 26, 2024

Christmas events, history, Uncategorized

A Christmas Carol, Bayeux Tapestry, Becket, Bishop Odo, Charles Dickens, Christ Church Canterbury, coronation 1066, Edward III, Edward IV, Elizabeth I, Epiphany, Henry I, Henry II, Henry III, Henry VI, Henry VII, Henry VIII, John Leland, Katherine of Aragon, King John, King Wenceslas carol, Lucy Worsley Christmas Odyssey, Matthew Paris – Benedictine, Medieval camels, medieval Christmas, Medieval Ireland, Richard II, Richard III, Royal Menagerie, Scrooge, Twelfth Night, William I

Camels seem to have figured quite a lot in gifts to medieval monarchs, at Christmas and other times. But I’ll begin with commenting on the season itself. St Stephen’s Day is the second day of Christmas (Christmas Day itself being the first, and Epiphany, 6 January, the twelfth and last). Today, unless we’re among those…
Another triptych – William II this time

Aug 2, 2024

anniversaries, art, genealogy

assassination, Bayeux Tapestry, Charles I, Colchester, executions, New Forest, Richard II, Scotland, Tirelli family, Triptych, Tyrrell family, Walter Tirel, William II, Wilton Diptych

I am sure you have all seen the famous triptych of Charles I – one front view and two profiles – and felt that he could have benefitted from two extra heads in real life, or admired the Wilton Diptych of Richard II and significant religious figures. Now there is another triptych on the scene,…
A review of Westminster Abbey: Behind Closed Doors….

Jan 5, 2023

anniversaries, archaeology, buildings, Events, law, religion, Science, sources, television reviews

“Tudors”, Anne of Bohemia, Anzac Day, Bayeux Tapestry, burials, Channel Five, Charles “III”, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Charles I, Charles II, Cheyneygates, Cicely Plantagenet, coronation chair, coronations, Crown of St. Edward, Dame Judi Dench, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Duke of Norfolk, Easter, Elizabeth II, executions, gardens, Harold II, Hawksmoor Tower, Henry V, Henry VII Lady Chapel, Holy Week, Imperial State Crown, Lady Diana Spencer, Lady Margaret Beaufort, Lent, Liber Regalis, Operation Golden Orb, Order of the Bath, Palm Sunday, Platinum Jubilee Roof, Poets’ Corner, Pyx Chamber, Queen Mother, records, Richard II, Royal Peculiars, Royal regalia, Shrine of St. Edward the Confessor, Sir Derek Jacobi, Sir Ian McKellen, Sir john Gielgud, Sir Ralph Scrope, St. Paul’s, State Opening of Parliament, Stone of Scone, Timothy West, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Tower of London, Viscount Welles, weddings, Westminster Abbey

I have now watched all of the Channel 5 series Westminster Abbey: Behind Closed Doors, which is so packed with information that I hardly know where to begin with this review. Aha, did I hear you say the beginning might be a good idea? You’re right, so here goes with a selection of descriptions from…
In its true colours – Mysteries of the Bayeux Tapestry

Dec 25, 2022

anniversaries, art, battles, buildings, Science, travel

Battle of Hastings, Bayeux Museum, Bayeux Tapestry, BBC4, colours, coronations, embroidery, loan, Odo Bishop of Bayeux, Restoration, William I, wool

This enthralling BBC Four documentary describes the story of the artwork that is actually a seventy metre embroidery on a woollen surface. It was mostly filmed at the Bayeux Museum, where the artwork is displayed in temperature and humidity controlled conditions. The presenters pointed out that the “Tapestry”, obviously dedicated to Odo Bishop of Bayeux,…
The art that made us

Nov 8, 2022

anniversaries, art, battles, buildings, culture, humour, religion, Science, television reviews

Aphra Benn, Armada, Arts and Crafts, Barbara Hepworth, Battle of Hastings, Bayeux Tapestry, BBC2, Beowulf, Black Death, Bloomsbury Group, British Empire, Burns, Charles I, Colonel Blimp, Cool Britannia, Damien Hirst, David Hockney, David Threlfall, Death and the Gallant, Elizabeth Gaskell, Elizabeth I, embroidery, English Civil War, Festival of Britain, First World War, Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, Geoffrey Chaucer, Great Fire of London, Hanif Kureishi, Harry Potter, Hogarth, Industrial Revolution, Jane Austen, Jarrow march, John Foxe, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, Joshua Reynolds, Julian of Norwich, kitchen sink drama, Llancarfon, Margery Kempe, Mary Stuart, murals, Norman conquest, Oliver Cromwell, Phillip Larkin, Piers Plowman, poetry, pre-Raphaelites, Reformation, Restoration, Richard II, Roman Britain, Rubens, satire, Second World War, Sir Christopher Wren, Sir William Orpen, St. Cadoc’s church, St. Paul’s, stained glass, Stuarts, The art that made us, The Fighting Temeraire, The unknown soldier, Tracey Emin, Trainspotting, Turner, urbanisation, van Dyck, Walter Sickert, Welsh Bible, William Cobbett, William Morgan, William Shakespeare, Wilton Diptych, York Minster

This is another fascinating BBC2 series, illustrating English and British history through the evolution of our art. The eight one-hour episodes, narrated by David Threlfall (Men of the World), feature:The Roman and pre-Roman periods, Beowulf, the Norman conquest and the Bayeux Tapestry; The Black Death, Wilton Diptych, Piers Plowman, Chaucer, Julian of Norwich,…
The Maldon Embroidery

Aug 11, 2022

anniversaries, art, battles, buildings, religion

Battle of Maldon, Bayeux Tapestry, Beeleigh Abbey, Brythnoth, Charters, d’Arcy family, Edward Bright, Ely Cathedral, Heinkel bomber, Henry II, Maldon embroidery, Moot Hall, Olaf, Olaf Tryggvason, railways, Rose and Crown Maldon, shipping, St. Peter’s Maldon, Thomas Plume, Thomas Plume’s Library

The first thing to notice about this is that is an embroidery not a tapestry, although the “Bayeux Tapestry” is also an embroidery ie hand-stitched. It was constructed to mark the millennium of the 991 Battle of Maldon, at which Vikings, possibly under Olaf Tryggvason, defeated and killed the Saxon Earldorman Brythnoth. It is displayed…
Some more articles …

Apr 11, 2021

anniversaries, art, battles, buildings, religion

Archbishop of Canterbury, Battle Abbey, Battle of Fulford, Battle of Hastings, Bayeux Tapestry, Harald Hardrada, Harold II, Odo Bishop of Bayeux, Peregrinations, Rome, St. Edward the Confessor, Stigand, Trajan’s Column, Viking longboats, William I, Yorkshire

… on the Bayeux Tapestry are featured in this excellent journal, Peregrinations by the International Society for the Study of Pilgrimage Art. The first relevant article, which also discusses Viking longboats and the Battle of Fulford, earlier in 1066, starts on (pdf) page 196. The second starting on page 238 compares the Tapestry with Trajan’s…
Was Edward the Confessor an albino….?

Jan 6, 2021

anniversaries, art, religion, Science

albinism, Bayeux Tapestry, Benedictine monasteries, hunting, NPG, Richard II, Richard III, St. Edward the Confessor, William I, Wilton Diptych

Researching for my writing takes me all over the place … and to numerous figures from the past. This time, needing to know the attitude of medieval people to albinism, I was led to our long-revered medieval monarch and saint, Edward the Confessor. Now I’ll be the first to admit to not knowing a…