The Bayeux Tapestry

The great virtue of the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry show is that they’ve kept it simple. Before the public opening, an ominous sense of information overload was gathering. Like the English troops huddling behind their shield wall as the Norman missiles rained down, we were assailed from all directions with Bayeux trivia, military, technological, astronomical, culinary, superstitious, artistic, religious… Would the design of the exhibition drown this fabulous survivor in superfluous data?

It doesn’t. Compared, for example, with the British Museum’s recent Samurai show (MHM 151), the exhibition borders on the minimalistic. The lesson has been taken to heart that the Tapestry must be given its voice and allowed to speak loud and clear. So, speaking loud and clear, what does it say?

It is striking how Roman it feels. The Tapestry was stitched halfway in time between Emperor Augustus and us, and the Latin and Roman references are everywhere. Duke William, looking on as Harold makes his fatal, holy vow, both hands touching Bayeux’s relics, has the sleek poise of a Roman emperor. The Normans’ wine and fancy food, their powerful horses and innumerable ships, all convey an impression of both power and refinement. They fight under the flag of the Pope. By contrast, the poor old English are as ignorant of fighting on horseback as they are of fine dining. The message is that the medicine of civilisation may have a nasty taste, but it will do us good in the long run.

Powerful propaganda

The Tapestry is a work of propaganda, designed to have the impact on the eye and brain that the invading force’s army had on the ground. Helpless submission is the only answer. Either that or, as in the Tapestry’s wretched final (surviving) panel, et fuga verterunt Angli – ‘and the English ran away’. Like all efficient propaganda, the story it tells is brutally straightforward. On an unexplained visit to the Continent, Harold cements his alliance with his Norman counterpart by combining with him to defeat the latter’s enemy, Conan, who hands over the keys of his castle on the tip of his spear. At Bayeux Abbey, Harold takes a vow of vassalage to his host, a tacit acknowledgment of William’s greater power and prestige. Yet, on his return to England, with King Edward the Confessor dying, Harold brazenly breaks the vow by having himself crowned King of England. The warning signs are not long in coming: Halley’s Comet appears in the sky – numerous anxious fingers pointing at it in wonderment and fear – Harold’s throne wobbles, and he totters on it. A single English ship brings the dire news of the coronation to William, whose response is immediate: build an invasion fleet!

We are halfway through the Tapestry before the invasion gets under way, with the loading of great barrels of wine (essential, obviously) along with the weapons and armour. This will be a surprise to many visitors, for whom the battle is expected to be the Tapestry’s main business. But it is essential to the work’s propaganda purpose that both Harold’s closeness to William and his subordination to him – above all, his swearing of those holy vows – should be spelled out loud and clear. It is as vital to William’s work as Hitler’s betrayal of Munich was to Britain’s declaration of war in 1939, and Saddam’s supposed possession of WMD was to the invasion of Iraq. Much has changed in the past millennium, but that has not.

To the modern eye, it is curious that the Tapestry records the invaders’ war crimes in such grisly detail. The first thing the Normans do on disembarking is set about pillaging the nearby villages and burning the houses. Pitifully, an English woman – one of only three women depicted in the work – flees holding her child’s hand. Winning hearts and minds is clearly not on the agenda. It is a war to the death on both sides, most obviously for the Normans, for if they are defeated they have nowhere to go but back to their boats and the wintry seas, but for the English, too: the question of giving or receiving quarter gets no mention. As Peter Rex points out in his book 1066, ‘The Duke was applying the accepted principles of medieval warfare, based on the book De Re Militari by the [4th-century AD] Roman general Vegetius: “The main or principal point in war is to secure plenty of provisions for oneself… to destroy the enemy by famine is more terrible than the sword”.’

A dazzling display

The Tapestry is exhibited in a single long display, precisely fitting the dimensions of the Sainsbury Gallery, with sombre lighting that heightens one’s sense of being witness to a solemn historic event. The only enhancement of the Tapestry itself is animated white cartoon figures projected on to a backdrop, their dimension and style similar to those of the work, adding minor explanations or amplifications to parts of the action: ‘the fearsome fleet crosses the sea’, for example, ‘a force so vast it fills the horizon’. The occasional sounds of the sea splashing or flames consuming an English house discreetly enrich the visitor’s experience.

This brilliant exhibition nonetheless leaves questions crowding one’s mind. How is it that no great event since then was ever commemorated in this vivid, compelling fashion? It’s as if Tolstoy’s War and Peace were the only surviving novel. Then again, who was the Tapestry for? As propaganda, was it meant to be taken around the defeated kingdom to persuade the English that their defeat was both inevitable and just? If not – and there is no indication that such a thing was ever attempted – was it merely for the preening pleasure of the battling Bishop Odo of Bayeux, who is believed to have commissioned it, and his half-brother William? Or, in a remarkable feat of prescience, did he foresee that, centuries later, his brainchild would finally come home, to dazzle us all?

MHM visits

Childhood in War

Until 28 February 2027
IWM London, Lambeth Road, London SE1 6HZ
http://www.iwm.org.uk/events/childhood-in-war
Admission free

The IWM’s interactive exhibition examines how children have experienced conflict from 1914 to the present day. Through personal stories, immersive displays, and hands-on discovery, visitors explore how war affects everything from school and play to home and health. Young visitors can enjoy a literary trail inspired by children’s books. 

Among His Troops: George Washington and the citizen-soldier tradition

Until 2 January 2027
Pritzker Military Museum & Library, 10475 12th Street, Kenosha, WI 53144, USA
http://www.pritzkermilitary.org/among-his-troops-george-washington-and-citizen-soldier-tradition
Entry included in museum admission 

This limited-run special exhibition, developed by the Museum  of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, combines the story of Washington as a leader, his role in the Continental Army, and his experience as a citizen-soldier through the lens of his war tent.

Roman Scotland:  life on the edge of empire

14 November 2026- 18 April 2027
National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street,  Edinburgh, EH1 1JF
http://www.nms.ac.uk/exhibitions/roman-scotland-life-on-the-edge-of-empire
Adult £13.50

Too often, views of Roman Britain stop at Hadrian’s Wall. Roman Scotland will bring the military communities of Rome’s most northerly frontier to life through new research, significant loans from across Europe, and previously unseen archaeological discoveries.