One of the world's most famous and well-preserved pieces of medieval embroidery, the 70-metre-wide Bayeux Tapestry depicts the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England concerning William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, later King of England, culminating in the Battle of Hastings.
To this day, the tapestry remains one of the most valuable sources historians can analyse when understanding the events that led up to the Battle of Hastings, and the battle itself - which saw the Anglo-Saxon shield wall final succumb to the might and shrewd strategy of William’s Norman Army and King Harold being struck by an arrow in the eye…or so it seems…
In this documentary Professor Michael Lewis and Dr Emily Ward dissect the nuanced and, at times, controversial history of the Bayeux Tapestry and what it means to audiences today.
Up Next in There's no such thing as the Dark Ages
-
Working (more than) 9 to 5 - The Labo...
Dr Eleanor Janega investigates one of the least recorded aspects of medieval life - working women. But dig deep and you can find the evidence - proving the medieval period is a fascinating window into the true history of women…and work!
Eleanor takes on the jobs and businesses of real medieval ...
-
The Dead of Winter: Medieval Ghost St...
This winter, Dr Eleanor Janega leads us into the darker corners of the medieval imagination - a world where the boundary between the living and the dead was dangerously thin.
Drawing on medieval chronicles, religious monuments, and Icelandic sagas, we learn why people believed the dead could ret...
-
Saving Timbuktu's Manuscripts
For centuries the city of Timbuktu was famed as a golden metropolis situated on the southern fringes of the Sahara; tales of its immense wealth and its reputation as a key centre of learning obsessed travellers and adventurers for many hundreds of years. Timbuktu certainly has one of the most ill...
13 Comments