The Bayeux Tapestry and the Norman Invasion

(1973)

[no title indexed] (Table of Contents: 1)

comic story / 40 pages (report information)

Script

?; Lewis Thorpe (translation)

Pencils

? (embroidery); Michael Holford (photography)

Inks

? (embroidery); Michael Holford (photography)

Colors

? (embroidery); Michael Holford (photography)

Letters

? (embrodiery); Michael Holford (photography)

First Line of Dialogue or Text

Edward Rex

Genre

non-fiction; history; military

Characters

King Edward [Edward the Confessor]; Harold [King Harold] [Harold Godwinson] [Harold Godwineson]; William [Willem] [Duke William] [King William] [William the Conqueror]; Harold's companions; Count Guy; Turold; William's envoys; Aelfgyva; cleric; Norman soldiers; Conan; men of Dinan; Edward's liegemen; Queen Edith; Archbishop Stigant; shipwrights; seamen; Robert; Bishop Odo; refugees; English soldiers; Gyrth; Leofwine; Eustace

Synopsis

Harold is captured in Normandy, where William feasts him, gives him arms, and has him swear oaths of fealty. Even so, on Edward's death Harold takes the throne of England. William builds ships and sails with an army to England, where he digs in and ravages the countryside. As Harold's army approaches on foot, William attacks with horse, foot, and archers. There is terrible slaughter on both sides; French and English dead lie heaped together on the battlefield. But at length Harold and his brothers are killed, and the English soldiers flee the field.

Keywords

Archery; Battle of Hastings; coronation; embroidery; England; kings; knights; Latin; Medieval; Middle Ages; Normandy; propaganda

Indexer Notes

Despite its common name, the Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidery (embellished with thread by needle) rather than a tapestry (in which the design is woven in). Designer, creators, and date are all uncertain. It is plausible that it was complete by 1077, and that it was done by women from a noted school of embroidery in Canterbury, but no evidence exists either way. Although the story on the Tapestry as we have it is obviously almost complete, it is torn off at the right-hand side, and a section of unknown length has disappeared. In its current condition, it is almost 231 feet long. The Tapestry includes what are believed to be the first depictions of Halley's Comet, Westminster Abbey, and a horse, mule or donkey (rather than an ox) drawing a plow. The text is in Medieval Latin.