STITCH BY STITCH, THE MEDIEVAL HISTORY LESSON ON LINEN
NORMANS BURNING ENGLISH HOMES
This image shows that the fundamentals of tyranny have not changed in a thousand years. Just as soldiers in Burma have been doing to the Rohingya Muslims in recent months, Norman soldiers are shown burning down homes while women and children flee in terror.
HEADLESS BODIES AT HASTINGS
The tapestry shows the realities of war in the Middle Ages, with battlefields strewn with headless bodies. Other scenes show soldiers looting bodies for weapons and presumably cash or jewels.
DEATH OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR
A crucial scene, as it is Edward’s death that sparks the whole question of who should succeed him. It also depicts his grieving wife Queen Edith, one of only three women in the work, and who may have been its patron.
THE DEATH OF HAROLD
Undoubtedly the most famous image from the tapestry. However, many scholars are undecided as to whether Harold is the man with the arrow in his eye, or the poor man being chopped down by a horseman, as the Latin words meaning ‘King Harold has been killed’ span both figures.
WILLIAM REVEALS FACE AT HASTINGS
This is a key moment during the battle, when William – in order to rally his men – takes the extraordinary risk of lifting his helmet to reveal his face to his troops, proving that he is very much alive and still in charge.
HALLEY’S COMET
The depiction of Halley’s Comet is significant, as it shows that it was regarded as an omen by King Harold when it appeared in 1066. Whether Harold thought the omen good or bad is not known.
THE CAMEL IN THE BORDER
The exotic camel in the tapestry hows that those who designed the work had knowledge of the Middle East – a sign of their erudition and status.
MYSTERY OF THE CLERIC TOUCHING A WOMAN’S FACE
One of the more mysterious scenes in the tapestry shows a man described as a ‘certain cleric’ touching the face of an Englishwoman called AElfgyva. The meaning can only be guessed at, but the appearance of a nude man at the bottom of the panel may suggest a prelude to rape.
ENIGMATIC TUROLD THE BEARDED DWARF
Very few figures are named in the tapestry, so who exactly was this man, who appears to be charged with little more than holding horses, and why was he named?