Lucy Worsley Investigates

It's kept in the dark, quite literally, for its own protection.

There it is: the Bayeux tapestry.

This tapestry shows the invasion of England and the Battle of Hastings in 1066 as a heroic enterprise.

It's basically a medieval movie- it tells the story scene by scene from beginning to end.

And did you know it's not actually a tapestry at all?

The pictures are stitched on, which is embroidery.

This is women's work and I suspect that the men who give names to things like this don't necessarily know what they're looking at.

But the first thing that strikes me is the sheer scale of it.

Look how long it is, and it goes off right round the corner.

It's just a stunning piece of work.

And here's the scene I'm looking for.

It depicts a pact which allegedly took place between two of the main contenders for the English throne.

The hero of the tapestry, that's William and Harold, King Edward the Confessor's brother in law.

This is Harold and you can tell because of his ginger moustache, the Anglo-Saxons have moustaches, the Normans are all And what's happening here?

It says in the caption: this is the bit where Harold he thicket a sacramentum.

He makes an oath to Duke William of Normandy who is that chap there.

And Harold is touching a casket full of holy relics to make the oath even more powerful.

And in his oath, he swears he will support William's claim to be king.

Let's see what happens next.

Well.

Here we go.

Edward the Confessor dies: there is his is dead body.

He's defunctus- he's defunct.

And in this scene, Harold has made himself king?

'Rex an glorum': king of the English it says.

Ha!

So in this version of the story, at least- the Norman version of the story, Harold has betrayed William.

This is why William is justified in invading England.

But like all historical sources, the tapestry has an agenda.

It was commissioned by William's half brother, Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and it was basically propaganda justifying Williams