LA TAPISSERIE DE LA REINE MATHILDE

We had a lovely time in Bayeux. Everyone said how much they enjoyed it. Pity about the cathedral, though. But the thing that made it for me was the Bayeux Tapestry. Even though it is not a tapestry. It is not woven like a tapestry should be. It is embroidered, - embroidered in worsteds of eight different colours on pieces of coarse linen each about 7½ ft. long joined together. It is somewhere round about 230 feet long and about 20 inches wide, but, apparently, at one time, it was 20 to 25 feet longer. That would make it slightly shorter than four cricket pitches stacked end to end.

So how did this piece of artwork come into being. At one time the French said it was made in France and was the work of Matilda, the wife of William of Normandy, and Queen of England and Duchess of Normandy, hence 'La Tapisserie de la Reine Mathilde'. But a more likely story is that it was ordered by William's half-brother, Eudes de Conteville, Bishop of Bayeux, better known as Bishop Odon (in France) and Bishop Odo (in England). Whereas Matilda never appears in the tapestry as it remains today, Odo comes into it three times, first blessing the meal the Normans had when they first landed, then helping to decide where to build their camp, and again comforting the Norman knights at their hardest time in the battle, though there are a couple of other places where he may appear unnamed. And he may also have appeared in the section which is now missing from the end.

But ordering it is not the same as deciding on the fine detail. Whoever designed it was obviously told what to put in it by a Frenchman or at least someone who had intimate knowledge of what was going on in France in the years before the invasion. But the final design bears a strong resemblance to work carried out in England during the late 11th. century (which fits in with a probable date of manufacture of 1076 or 1077). Both the Norman and English army seem to be wearing identical armour of the English type, and, although the text is in Latin, a lot of the names used are latinized versions of Anglo-Saxon spellings, not the sort of thing a Frenchman would dream of doing. Also, there was at that time, in Canterbury, an embroidery centre of excellence. And if you inspect the whole tapestry carefully you will find that there is not a scene or word in the whole design (except in the final scene which is believed to have been reworked in the 19th century) that is unfavourable to the English. So it seems that, in all probability, it is of English design and origin.

But what was it for. The most likely reason for its manufacture is that it was to be a decoration for the newly constructed cathedral of Bayeux, which was solemnly dedicated on 14th. July 1077. It was definitely within the cathedral walls 400 years later, for it appears in an inventory of the treasures of the cathedral. It seems that it was rolled up and just left, for at one time it was discovered that the outside of the roll had rotted and was impossible to renovate. In 1792 it was nearly lost altogether. It was the time of the Revolution, and the people of Bayeux fighting for the Republic, needed covering for their wagons. Somebody remembered this roll of cloth in the Cathedral, and used it. But a man, one Lambert Leonard Leforestier, saw what was happening, and supplied some cloth of his own to replace it. Two years later, in 1794, the tapestry was cut up and used as decoration for a public holiday. In 1803, Napoleon Bonaparte removed it, under much protestation by the citizens of Bayeux, and transported it to Paris. It is said he used it as an inspiration for his planned attack on his natural enemy, England. When the idea of such an attack was abandoned, the tapestry was returned to Bayeux.

Frightened of losing the tapestry again, the council of Bayeux kept it on a scroll, and it was only shown to eminent visitors to the city. That is how it spent the next 15 years, when people in England started to get interested in it. An Englishman spent two years making a very close inspection - almost pin-hole by pin-hole - and in 1842 repairs were effected in Bayeux. In 1870, during the Franco-Prussian war, it was removed to a place of safety, being returned to Bayeux in all its glory two years later. There it stayed until 1913, when war threatened again, and it was once again removed to a safe place, being returned when conflict had ceased. Again, in 1940 it was removed to keep it out of the hands of the Germans who had a habit of collecting works of art from countries they had conquered. On 6th. June 1944, a reverse invasion took place, when allied forces landed on the North coast of France. The tapestry was spirited away to the Louvre in Paris (the Germans were probably too busy to notice), and at the end of the war it was displayed there for a year before being returned to Bayeux and placed under the jurisdiction of the municipal library. It is now in Le Centre Guillaume le Conquerrant where it can be seen by all and sundry, provided they are willing to pay the entrance fee.

If anyone is really interested in the tapestry and can get on to the net, then a screen-saver can be downloaded free from www.screengold.co.uk/scrbayeaux.htm (that is not a spelling mistake, there is an extra 'a' in the middle). It is a self extracting zip file of about 4.15Mb, and scrolls along the whole length of the tapestry, complete with a translation of the Latin text, taking about half an hour to do so, though it can be speeded up or slowed down, whatever takes your fancy. So why not take a look.

BILL HUTCHINGS