By: Jonathan Jones / The Guardian
Translation: Telegrafi.com
“Angli et Franci” – these Latin words embroidered on the Bayeux Tapestry may be the first time those animated rivals, the English and the French, are mentioned together. But in one of the shifts from triumph to horror that make this epic work of art still so compelling – almost a thousand years after its creation – the full sentence reads: “Here, at the same time, the English and the French [or Anglo-Saxons and Franks] fell in battle.” Beneath the black letters, horses and armoured riders are thrown and overturned in a bloody mess. At the bottom are corpses and a severed head.
Now, in an unprecedented act of cultural diplomacy between England-ve and Franci-s, this 70-metre-long Romanesque marvel, preserved for centuries in the Bayeux of Normandy, will go on display at the British Museum. In return, the treasures of the [cemetery] of Saten-Husse and the chess pieces of Louis will be sent to France. When the exhibition opens in September 2026, it will likely be one of the most visited ever at the British Museum - because every British child learns that this is not just a work of art, but a document of our history and who we are.
It won’t disappoint. This is the most captivating depiction of a great battle ever made. Next to it, Rome’s Dacian Wars on Trajan’s Column or the paintings of Napoleon’s campaigns in the Louvre are chilling. Imagine if Ridley Scott, in his prime, had made a movie about the Battle of Hastings, with severed limbs flying towards the screen as the Normans open the gates of Hell: it still wouldn’t be as thrilling as the punch below the belt that The Paint Tapestry delivers. These hand-drawn, simply embroidered drawings draw you into a tale of friendship and betrayal, revenge and despair, unleashing raw emotion and showing war as exploitative for glory and as pointless butchery.
One possible reason why the Bayeux Tapestry depicts war so vividly is that it was made by women. It is thought to have been commissioned by Odo, Bishop of Beaujeu and half-brother of William the Conqueror, and the work was probably executed in Canterbury by Anglo-Saxon noblewomen. When they embroidered a scene of a woman and child fleeing a house burned by Norman warriors, it undoubtedly reflects a female experience of war.
However, it is not pacifist, or pro-Saxon. It tells the story of the Norman Conquest from the Norman perspective. The Normans had been Vikings, a few generations earlier, but by the 1060s they were part of a new European civilization built on feudalism and chivalry. The tapestry takes you into their world, where the most important thing you can do is make an oath before God - and the worst thing is to break it.
This is what the Anglo-Saxon noble Harold Godwinson is shown doing. In the first scene, he is friends with the childless English king Edward, whom he hopes to succeed. He then rides, moustache fluttering, to his estate where he prays and feasts before setting off on a journey to France. His ships are blown off course by bad weather, he is taken hostage, but is rescued by William of Normandy. They become brothers in battle, attacking castles together. But they are not equals. In a passionate scene, Harold reaches out to touch holy relics as he swears allegiance to William.
He swore! On relics! So when William hears that, despite this ritual of submission, Harold has ascended the English throne, he does not hesitate. Ships are built, they are loaded with weapons and wine. The Normans come for Harold.
The world here is boldly drawn, it is experienced. These people are so impulsive that they do not worry about contradictions. Bishop Odo blesses the feast, as you would expect. Then he is seen in the heart of the battle. When it seems that everything is turning into a massacre with no winners, it is Bishop Odo who mobilizes the Normans. Suddenly everything turns in their favor. The technically advanced Normans control the horses with the new saddle - they can ride and throw spears at the same time.
The Saxon shield wall is shattered, the last survivors are driven into small groups that are annihilated one by one. Harold is struck by an arrow, a straight black line that enters under his helmet. “Harold Rex interfectus est” - King Harold is slain.
When the battle is lost and won, Britain is a different place. We don't see what comes next - the castles, the destruction of the North, The Book of Judgment [Domesday Book, manuscript of 1086] - but all this, and the whole future of Britain, is implied. William's iron knights become the architects of a new kind of nation-state.
The tapestry makes this story human. William begins as a generous nobleman who saves his friend Harold. Anger turns him into something colder: his revenge has a monstrous outcome. Not just Harold, but the entire Anglo-Saxon era must die - all because of a broken oath and a failed friendship. "Men, eh," you can hear the women whisper, as they create the most fascinating and brutal document of our history. /Telegraph/
