1066 - Andrew Bridgeford [0]
ANDREW BRIDGEFORD
1066
The Hidden History in the
Bayeux Tapestry
Copyright © 2004 by Andrew Bridgeford
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information address Walker & Company, 104 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10011.
Reproductions of the Bayeux Tapestry by
special authorization of Bayeux Town
Published in 2006 by Walker Publishing Company Inc.
Distributed to the trade by Holtzbrinck Publishers
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The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardback edition of
this book under LCCN: 2004381071
eISBN: 978-0-802-71940-9
Originally published in Great Britain in 2004 by Fourth Estate First published in the United States in 2005 by Walker & Company This paperback edition published by Walker & Company in 2006
Visit Walker & Company's Web site at www.walkerbooks.com
Printed in the United States of America by Quebecor World Fairfield
4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3
Eventually
All things decline
Everything falters, dies and ends
Towers cave in, walls collapse
Roses wither, horses stumble
Cloth grows old, men expire
Iron rusts and timber rots away
Nothing made by hand will last
I understand the truth
That all must die, both clerk and lay
And the fame of men now dead
Will quickly be forgotten
Unless the clerk takes up his pen
And brings their deeds to life again
Wace, Roman de Rou, III, ll. 131-142
(c. 1170)
Contents
Map of Northern France and England
Genealogical chart: England
Genealogical chart: Normandy
Genealogical chart: Charlemagne/ Boulogne/Jerusalem
Genealogical chart: Ponthieu
1 In Search of the Bayeux Tapestry
2 A Tale of Consequence: The Impact of Conquest
3 Sources
4 Stitches in Time
5 The Strange Journey of Harold Godwinson
6 The Fox and the Crow
7 The English Decision
8 Invasion
9 The Battle of Hastings
10 English Art and Embroidery
11 A Connection with Bishop Odo of Bayeux
12 The Bayeux Tapestry and the Babylonian Conquest of the Jews
13 The Tanner's Grandsons
14 The Scion of Charlemagne
15 Count Eustace and the Death of King Harold
16 Eustace and the Attack on Dover
17 The Downfall of Bishop Odo
18 Turold the Dwarf
19 The Scandal of Ælfgyva
20 Wadard and Vital
21 Bayeux Cathedral and the Mystery of Survival
22 The Patronage of the Bayeux Tapestry
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
References to scene numbers in the book refer to scenes in the first plate section. References to plates correspond to images in the second plate section.
1
In Search of the Bayeux Tapestry
Five miles from the coast at Arromanches, in the gently shelving valley of the River Aure, lies the historic Norman town of Bayeux. From a distance the medieval cathedral emerges first into view, a faint impression of towers and spires, which gradually falls into sharper perspective as you approach the fringes of the town. War has touched Bayeux, but not scarred it. A ring road circumscribes the old centre, like a protective wall, and within its confines lies a network of shadowy streets and old stone buildings; and here and there the late-medieval frontage of a half-timbered house protrudes into the sunlight, as if it had emerged unwittingly out of the past into the present. At the centre of the town rises the enormous cathedral, a Gothic masterpiece built upon a Romanesque shell, its stark western towers, completed in the days of William the Conqueror, still soaring above the family of little houses gathered closely around its base. But it is not the cathedral, remarkable as it is, that every year draws half a million visitors to Bayeux. They come to see one of the most famous, intricate and mysterious works of art that has ever been made. Signs directing