Tapestry row sparks new Norman conflict
Stephen McGinty
25 June 2008
The Scotsman
IT IS the most famous cartoon strip in history, the story of the Norman Conquest in 1066 detailed in colourful weave and stitch. But the Bayeux Tapestry, one of France's national treasures, was, historians now believe, actually made in Britain and should be repatriated.
The 70-metre tapestry that depicts the campaign of William the Conqueror currently sits in the town of Bayeux, in Normandy, where records show it has been since at least 1476. Yet there is a growing evidence that, instead of being created in France as was previously thought, the tapestry was stitched by English hands and should now be sent back.
The British government has twice before requested a loan of the tapestry, first for the Queen's coronation in 1953 and again in 1966, for the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. Neither request was successful. However, yesterday the editor of BBC History Magazine said that the tapestry should be allowed to be displayed in England.
Dave Musgrove said most experts were now agreed it was created on this side of the Channel. He said: "There is a pretty good academic consensus that it could well have been made in Canterbury. The Latin script that accompanies the pictorial images shows signs of being written by someone who came from an Anglo-Saxon background. Secondly the imagery in the tapestry is very similar to imagery that we know was in illuminated manuscripts that we know were in Canterbury's library at the time. It is an iconic document of English history and wouldn't it be amazing to have it shown in England where there is a very good chance it was made, and wouldn't that inspire people to get involved in medieval history? The crowds would come flocking."
According to French legend, the tapestry was created by Queen Matilda, William the Conqueror's wife, with the assistance of her ladies-in-waiting and as a result the tapestry is also known as "La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde" (Queen Matilda's Tapestry). In recent decades, however, scholarly analysis indicates that it was commissioned by Bishop Odo, William's half-brother, possibly to display in Bayeux Cathedral at the time of the building's completion in 1077.
However, as the Bishop's main power base at the time was in Kent, the tapestry is now believed to have been designed and constructed in England by Anglo-Saxon artists. Yet one other candidate, recently put forward by Carola Hicks, an art historian at Cambridge University, is Edith of Wessex, the widow of Edward the Confessor, whose death in 1066 led to the dispute over succession and the battle of Hastings. Ms Hick's posits the theory that Edith, one of only three clothed women portrayed in the tapestry, had it made to strengthen her new position in the Norman hierarchy and to show her support for the new King William.
Over the years the tapestry has been used in opening or closing credits of a number of films including El Cid, which starred Charlton Heston and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves with Kevin Costner. The style of the tapestry, which was described by the artist, Bryan Talbot, as the "first known British comic strip", was even parodied in The Simpsons. Michael Lewis, the deputy director of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and the author of The Real World of the Bayeux Tapestry, said: "I think it would be lovely to see it in this country. If the tapestry was returned, it would be possible to display it with the works that it was influenced by."
However, Sylvette Lemagnen, curator of the Bayeux Tapestry Museum in Normandy, where the artefact currently sits behind four layers of armoured glass, said any move would require high-level permission. "It is not my responsibility nor the responsibility of the town of Bayeux to answer such a question because the tapestry belongs to the French state," she said.
BRITISH CLAIM TO BAYEUX TAPESTRY
By Joe Churcher
24 June 2008
Press Association National Newswire
One of France's national treasures, the Bayeux Tapestry, was made in Britain and should be put on show in this country, a historian said today. The 70-metre woven medieval depiction of William the Conqueror's 1066 invasion is a major tourist draw in the Normandy town of Bayeux, where records show it has been since at least 1476. But Dave Musgrove, editor of BBC History Magazine, said most experts were now agreed that it was created on this side of the Channel 400 years earlier.
"There is a pretty good academic consensus that it could well have been made in Canterbury," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "The Latin script that accompanies the pictorial images shows signs of being written by someone who came from an Anglo-Saxon background. And secondly the imagery in the tapestry is very similar to imagery that we know was in illuminated manuscripts that we know were in Canterbury's library at the time."
He went on: "It is an iconic document of English history. Yes it relates to French and Norman history as well but for English history it is really, really important. And wouldn't it be amazing to have it shown in England where there is a very good chance it was made and wouldn't that inspire people to get involved in medieval history. The crowds would come flocking."
Art historian Carola Hicks said it "could well" have been made in England but urged caution over any attempt to move it. "It has been in France since 1476 and it is a French national monument so I think there are very grave issues in laying claims on a nationalistic basis," she said.
Lessons from history also counselled against the idea, she suggested, pointing out that Napoleon brought it to Paris as a propaganda weapon when he was planning to invade England in 1803. "Look what happened to him."
The head of the Nazi SS Heinrich Himmler also spent most of the Second World War plotting to remove it to Berlin, she said. Dr Musgrove said a replica sown by Victorian needlewomen in the 1880s and on display in Reading was excellent but "doesn't look quite the same".
