Re-analysing old history is valuable: Bayeux Tapestry

Map of Normandy in France and Hastings in England

Khan Academy

Consider the issue of re-writing history over time, even when the original sources was well accepted. When reading Marco Polo’s writ­ing for example, despite it being of endless historical and literary value, historians have recognised mistakes, ex­ag­gerations and omissions.

Now David Musgrove and Michael Lewis suggest we re-analyse the magnificent Bayeux Tapestry re­garding the 1066 Norman Conquest. As its key nar­r­ative, the Tapestry record­ed the clash between England’s King Harold II Godwinson and Duke Wil­l­iam of Normandy. But it omitted key elements: a] other bat­t­les in northern England and b] Edgar Ætheling. Those bits have been largely lost to history.

The Tapestry started with King Edward The Confessor with his leading Earl Harold in Westminster. Harold left for the coast, crossed the Channel and entered Duke William’s court in Norm­andy. The pair then conducted a successful military campaign against rebels in Brittany. Harold made an oath to William, in support of William’s claim to Eng­land’s throne.

The Earl returned to King Edward’s court, where that monarch died and was buried in Westminster. Har­old immediately took the throne, in breach of the sacred oath he made in Normandy. William heard of the betrayal, built a fleet, assembled an army, crossed the Channel and waited for Harold. Harold brought his own force to Hastings, where he was kill­ed and his army defeated; William was crowned in Westminster, Christmas Day 1066.

But the images were open to inter­pretation; even in 1066 there were different views about what led to the Norman conquest. Ambiguity in the Bay­eux Tap­es­try was everywhere

Worse still were the omissions. When Duke William landed at Pev­ensey, King Harold was already engaged in the north. He’d re­cent­ly fought an­other contender for his throne, Norw­egian King Harald Hard­rada, who in alliance with Harold’s own bro­ther Earl Tostig, had defeat­ed an Eng­lish army. Harold then crushed Hardrada-Tostig at the battle of Stam­ford Bridge, a victory later undone in the Battle of Hastings defeat.

Earl Tostig was installed as Earl of Northumbria by Edward the Con­fes­sor in 1055. But the inhabitants of Northumbria rebelled against him in 1065, ?because he was trying to in­tro­duce new taxes in the semi-autonomous north. Remember this had been the Dane­law, under the jur­is­diction of the Vikings. Tostig grumbled, first setting out for his wife’s lands in Flanders, and then to the Scottish king, before ending u with Harald Hard­rada.

NB Harold’s long march south to Hastings wasn’t in the Bayeux Tapestry ?because the Normans were not in­terested in these conflicts. Duke Wil­liam didn't want the inclusion of these battles to cloud the viewer’s understanding.

And what happened to Edgar Ætheling? England had been ruled by the Danish King from 1016-35, then by his sons!! So as Edward’s reign prog­res­sed from 1042, having no obvious heir to Edward caused panic. In­deed efforts were being made to find the kin of Edward’s half-brother King Edmund Iron­side, who’d reigned briefly before losing in a battle. In any case, a Norman king would have been un­acceptable to the English elite.

In 1057 Prince Edward Ætheling came back to England from exile just as Uncle King Edward died. Happily Ed­ward brought his toddler son, Edgar Ætheling. Did King Edward raise him as his natural successor?

Edward and Edgar’s histories were not in the Tapestry at all, except for the deathbed scene of the ailing king, showing Edward touching hands with Earl Harold, alongside the Queen. Did this show King Edward contented that Edgar would succeed him as king?

The Bayeux Tapestry showed Harold being off­er­ed the crown by two members of the Coun­cil of Ministers. He was then anointed king. But Edgar had been stitched out of the Tap­es­try alto­g­ether. Was he seen as too young?

In Jan 1066, after the old king died, England was fac­ing a crisis. Whatever the nature of any promise to Duke William by King Edward in 1051, affirmed by Harold him­self en route to Norm­andy in 1064, they knew William would claim the crown by force. And it was known that King Harald Hardrada might try, via his Scandinavian roots, to take lands claimed in northern England.

But historians know that after King Harold’s death at Hastings, and the advance of the Norman army north, London’s citizens chose Edgar as king. So Edgar was excluded from the Bayeux Tapestry for another reason: it was politically expedient to remove him.

William was crowned

King Edward with Earl Harold

Norman ships

Death of King Harold

Battle of Hastings

Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William’s half-brother, played an important role in making the Bayeux Tapestry, as an advisor at Has­t­ings. In written records, Odo was less prominent than he app­ear­ed in the Tapestry, so the actual needlework was prob­ab­ly carried out under Odo’s patronage for self glorification. If the Bayeux Tapestry was to glorify Odo’s role in the Norman Conquest, then it was politically wise not to show Prince Edgar's legit­imate future in his acc­ount.

Historians believed the Tapestry accurately showed a version of the Norman conquest that suited a situation soon after the Battle of Hast­ings in 1066, when the Nor­mans were trying to appease the English, not domin­ate them. The Tap­es­t­ry had been rooted in the politics, until the politics changed! By 1069–70 with the Harrying of the North, Wil­liam’s pat­ience with the Eng­l­ish ended. The embroid­ery’s version of the Conquest was by then unfashionable!

After William the Conqueror’s death in 1087, Edgar got further into Anglo-Scottish politics, leading an English army north with King Wil­l­iam II’s backing, and having his own nephew enthroned. After that he became a crusader in the Holy Land, returning via the Byz­antine and German empires. Yet Ed­gar remained an undocumented fig­ure, because the Tapestry omitted his story.

Was history written by the victor, not just on the field, but also for posterity? Read The Bayeux Tapestry by Dr  K Tanton. Photo credits: Bayeux Museum.