Bayeux Tapestry

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Bayeux Tapestry

I think this tapestry has been over thought by historians  throughout the ages. I've been thinking about its purpose and have come to the conclusion that it is a record of the glorious conquest made by the Duke of Normandy in the name of the people of Normandy. And wasn't he a clever boy! It was never intended to be an accurate historical record of the battle - the old adage that History is written by the victors is so true here.

I'm going to be using the excellent "The Bayeux Tapestry" book by David M. Wilson to comment on the scenes depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry and using the plate numbers as references.

1. Plate 1 Saxon Harold has an audience with King Edward

King Edward is bearded but Harold and his retainer are moustachioed. Throughout the Tapestry the majority, if not all Saxons are so adorned

2. Plate 5 First depiction of Saxons with a Norman shield

Despite the depiction of  Saxons in a boat, they are shown with a "Normanesque"  teardrop shaped shields lining the gunwale of the boat they are travelling in.  How the hell could any Saxon born or Englishwoman of the time not know that the true shape of a Saxon shield is circular? According to the "experts", the tapestry was worked on by Englishwomen in the employ of a Norman master. Did they not say " Hold on a minute, my Fred had a round shield the day he died at Hastings. Why do you want me to give him a different shield?" "Well," the answer might have came back, "they're all wearing mustaches, that's how you can tell that they are Saxon"

After attending the 950th anniversary re-enactment I have learnt that there was a switch over from round shields to "teardrop" ones happening during the period.

3. Plate 9 First depiction of a Norman

On the extreme right of the plate we have someone wearing one of the most ridiculous haircuts of all time! It looks as ridiculous in a book as it does in real life. ( I've seen "Norman Knights" sporting the same haircut at a battle re-enactment at Senlac Ridge)

4. Plates 43 and 44  Horses disembark from the boats

In this scene we see horses running away from the boats after landing on "terra firma". Interestingly we never see the horses again until the battle scenes. This suggests that the horses were offloaded the once and made their own way to Hastings.

3. Plate 45 Horses run to Hastings for Food

All I can say to this description is "Picasso's cubes"! The cavalry was going to secure the landing place at the Port of Hastings. On the way the cavalry did do some damage as evidenced by Nick Austin ( and this plate) but secure the landing place they did. Any damage they did on the Hastings peninsula  would have been hidden by later pillaging.

4. Plate 47 Pevensey?

The fortification in the centre of this plate does look like the stone keep on the centre of Pevensey Castle nowadays. 

5. Plate 49/50 Castle at Hastings.  

Here the so called castle is being built under what seems to be the direction of William. The bands suggests that the motte was a substantial undertaking and built on a natural height. On plate 50 there is a tower placed in front of and only slightly overlapping the fort behind. The mound that the tower is built on is substantially less than the fort behind and is not raised up off the foot of the Tapestry. 

Taking on board what Nick Austin said about perspective and depiction, I could well believe what is shown here are the two forts erected at Hastings by William.

6. Plate 51 Hastings

The central scene is reputed to be a depiction of the town of Hastings. Notice the roofs of these building :- they seem to be made up of fish scale type shingles common here in Norway until quite recently. Even the house being set on fire on Plate 50 has these shingles. Given the different depiction of the roofs on the towers adjacent to the Higher fort and what is supposed to be the town of Hastings, one is left with the conclusion that the two towers must have been built by the Normans.

7.Plates 54/55 Norman Scout reports to William

There's a lot of pointing going on here. William ( on plate 54) is pointing at an identified Vital ( on plate 55) who has his arm raised indicating that Harold is near. Notice however that Vital's arm is not so raised as the scout's as seen on plate 50. This indicates that Harold is closer than in the time frame of plate 50. There's another pointing man on plate 55 but he happens to be on top of a big mound and pointing nearly horizontal. This could be indicating that Harold has been spotted at the summit of  Darwell Woods (Telham Hill 141m asl and Darwell Woods 162m asl).

8. Plate 56 Scout spots Normans and reports back to King Harold

I love the way that the hill the scout is on has been identified as being Caldbec Hill and that the scout travels across broken ground to report back to King Harold. As you may have seen from my "slice" , Caldbec Hill is part of quite a sharp ridge that runs into Battle village. Also if you look closely the scout is perched on the top of a triangle perhaps signifying that he was at the top of a hill. Then he has to go down the back of the hill and up another triangle to get to Harold. So Harold could not possibly be on Caldbec Hill  As the Normans were on Telham hill ( as depicted in Plate 55), yes it could be that the scout was on Caldbec Hill looking up at the Normans but it could have been the top of Darwell Wood or anywhere in the vicinity as long as there was line of sight. 

As an aside, John Grehan says in his book "The Battle of Hastings : The uncomfortable Truth"page 118 "... turn to websites with extreme caution ... enable those with no academic training and limited resources to express their opinions, ,,,, to offer alternative views to those of the mainstream." My response to that is each person has the right to look at any evidence and make up their own mind and add their opinion to the melee. It's not as if the "professional " historians have got it right over the Battle of Hastings. I doubt that I have got it "right" but I'm giving it my best with what's available to me. Only when the true site of the battle has been established will  conjecture be irrelevant. 

9. Plates 57 through to 66 Depiction of Terrain

Throughout these battle scenes there is really no depiction of terrain suggesting it did not play an important part in the battle. Howevere there are written accounts that suggest that the Normans attacked uphill. So what are to make of this anomaly?

 10. Plate 63 Dead Saxon with Saxon Shield

On the bottom fringe we have our first depiction of a Saxon shield covering a dead Saxon warrior.

11 . Plate 64 Battle (cont'd)

We now have the first sighting of a live Saxon fighting with a round shield. As the guy is in full armour, I suppose we could call him a Housecarl.

12. Plates 66/67  The Battle continues

What we have here is un-armoured men perched atop a mound fighting off mounted Norman cavalry and making a good show of it.  In this scene we see a Norman knight(?) spearing a defender. I'm in two minds about my interpretation of this scene. Firstly, is this a depiction of a reported last stand by the Fyrd separated from the main body or could it be the Malfosse defence in the wrong chronological order? I think the answer lies on 65b. What is depicted here looks like prepared anti-cavalry defences which makes the mound depicted on the following plates a cross-section of where the Fyrd were stationed.

13. Plate 73 Another 2 Arrows in the Eye!

On the far right of this plate we have two fleeing Saxons trying to pull an arrow out their eyes. No one has ever told me that these figures existed but this puts a different slant on our 'arold. While it is told that Harold was killed by an arrow in the eye it is quite plainly recorded here that being hit by an arrow is survivable.