Andrew Bridgeford - 1066 - The Hidden History of the Bayeux Tapestry

The Hidden History of the Bayeux Tapestry

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by Fourth Estate 2004

This edition published by Harper Perennial 2004

Copyright © Andrew Bridgeford 2004

PS section copyright © Eithne Farry 2004

PS™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

Andrew Bridgeford asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9781841150413

Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2013 ISBN 9780007394135

Version: 2016-12-20

Eventually

All things decline

Everything falters, dies and ends

Towers cave in, walls collapse

Roses wither, horses stumble

Cloth grows old, men expire

Iron rusts and timber rots away

Nothing made by hand will last

I understand the truth

That all must die, both clerk and lay

And the fame of men now dead

Will quickly be forgotten

Unless the clerk takes up his pen

And brings their deeds to life again

Wace, Roman de Rou , III, 11. 131–142 ( c . 1170)

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Epigraph

Map

Genealogical Charts

1. In Search of the Bayeux Tapestry

2. A Tale of Consequence: The Impact of Conquest

3. Sources

4. Stitches in Time

5. The Strange Journey of Harold Godwinson

6. The Fox and the Crow

7. The English Decision

8. Invasion

9. The Battle of Hastings

10. English Art and Embroidery

11. A Connection with Bishop Odo of Bayeux

12. The Bayeux Tapestry and the Babylonian Conquest of the Jews

13. The Tanner’s Grandsons

14. The Scion of Charlemagne

15. Count Eustace and the Death of King Harold

16. Eustace and the Attack on Dover

17. The Downfall of Bishop Odo

18. Turold the Dwarf

19. The Scandal of Ælfgyva

20. Wadard and Vital

21. Bayeux Cathedral and the Mystery of Survival

22. The Patronage of the Bayeux Tapestry

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Acknowledgements

P.S. Ideas, Interviews & Features…

About the Author

Profile of Andrew Bridgeford

Life at a Glance

Andrew Bridgeford’s Top Ten Books

Q & A

About the Book

A Critical Eye

The Reading Bayeux Tapestry

Read On

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Five miles from the coast at Arromanches, in the gently shelving valley of the River Aure, lies the historic Norman town of Bayeux. From a distance the medieval cathedral emerges first into view, a faint impression of towers and spires, which gradually falls into sharper perspective as you approach the fringes of the town. War has touched Bayeux, but not scarred it. A ring road circumscribes the old centre, like a protective wall, and within its confines lies a network of shadowy streets and old stone buildings; and here and there the late-medieval frontage of a half-timbered house protrudes into the sunlight, as if it had emerged unwittingly out of the past into the present. At the centre of the town rises the enormous cathedral, a Gothic masterpiece built upon a Romanesque shell, its stark western towers, completed in the days of William the Conqueror, still soaring above the family of little houses gathered closely around its base. But it is not the cathedral, remarkable as it is, that every year draws half a million visitors to Bayeux. They come to see one of the most famous, intricate and mysterious works of art that has ever been made. Signs directing you to this masterpiece are dotted around the centre of the town. They are marked with a single descriptive word, in French and in English: ‘ Tapisserie. Tapestry’. Here, in Bayeux, anything else would be redundant.

The route marked ‘Tapestry’ takes you along these narrow streets, under the eves of ancient houses and beneath the angular shadows of the cathedral. It passes by shops selling every item that can possibly be embossed with images of the Bayeux Tapestry, from mugs to mouse pads, tea towels to T-shirts. You may pause to recall the conquering exploits of Duke William of Normandy under the pale green awning of the Restaurant Le Guillaume or remember his wife, Queen Matilda, at the Hôtel de la Reine Mathilde. Not far away a crêpe may be consumed at the somewhat more alarmingly branded Crêperie Le Domesday. The journey takes you past these establishments and along the Rue de Nesmond until you reach a sizeable seventeenth-century building that was turned into a museum in the early 1980s. During the course of its long and dangerous history, the Bayeux Tapestry has been kept, and sometimes concealed, in several places in and around the town of Bayeux. This building is its modern home. Your eyes narrow at the museum’s gate. Rain puddles scattered around the courtyard reflect the sun’s fresh glare like so many broken panes of glass. A party of English schoolchildren has gathered in front of the door, a posse of noisy chatter, scuffed heels and clipboard assignments gripped with an innocent disregard. Two hundred yards away, Bayeux Cathedral is a silent witness to your journey, a stone silhouette imposed on a bright and changing sky.