LONDON — In England, students memorize one date above all else: 1066. It was the year of the Battle of Hastings, at the start of the Norman Conquest, an epic invasion from France, when William the Conqueror crossed the English Channel with an army of Norman soldiers of Viking descent and killed England's Anglo-Saxon King Harold II with an arrow through his eye. The battle changed England's language, ethnic makeup and rulers.
King Charles III is a descendant of the victors. People joke that 1066 is the country's most-used PIN number. It's in an advertising jingle for a famous brand of car insurance, among other things.
The oldest depiction of 1066's events is on a medieval tapestry sewn in England but whisked away to France in the late 11th century, where it's been ever since. It's normally displayed in a small museum in Bayeux, Normandy. But after years of diplomacy, the tapestry was transferred this summer to London, on loan while renovations are underway at the French museum where it's usually kept.
On Thursday, the Bayeux Tapestry went on public display at the British Museum as the centerpiece of a sold-out, 10-month temporary exhibition. The Bayeux Tapestry is a piece of narrative embroidery — wool thread sewn into linen panels — with surprisingly bright colors, despite its age. It's about 20 inches high and nearly 230 feet long.
That's about as long as a 747 airliner, or about 2.5 times the length of a blue whale. Part war propaganda, part comic strip, it depicts the start of the Norman Conquest — horsemen in battle, royal banquets and mythical beasts — along with gory scenes from the Battle of Hastings. There's a panel showing William the Conqueror's soldiers sinking into quicksand, and several decapitations.
Near the end, it shows the death of Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England — though some scholars believe the arrow through his eye may have been added to the tapestry during a 19th century restoration. The tapestry was commissioned by William the Conqueror's half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, to celebrate the Norman victory in the Battle of Hastings and decorate his cathedral. But scholars believe it was stitched on the losing side, in England — likely by seamstress nuns.
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