The Bayeux Tapestry, a 70-meter-long embroidered linen cloth which narrates the story of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 has been said to be "one of the most powerful pieces of visual propaganda ever produced, as well as one of the few medieval works of art familiar to almost everyone in the Western world."[1] The tapestry has compelled many people to study and question who commissioned it and for what purpose.[2] The tapestry is currently located in Bayeux, Normandy and is protected by a glass case.[3] The Bayeux Tapestry Tituli are Medieval Latin captions that are embroidered along the Bayeux Tapestry scenes and describe the portrayed re-enactments on the tapestry. The tituli, comprising 2,226 characters and symbols, is the longest known text of its kind.[4] These depicted 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.
Description
Many palaeographers who study manuscripts can distinguish different hands within the writings on manuscripts. Although Bayeux Tapestry scholars have proven, so far, that there were different scribes at work, there are subtle differences between similar letters along the entire tapestry.[4] For example, at Scene 17 the 'e' letters, both Roman and uncial, in the top line of the tituli have elegant serifs with tiny points; those in the lower two lines have straight bars.[4] As well as in scenes 52 to 57, different techniques and colorings suggest different writers.
The Bayeux Tapestry was most likely commissioned by William the Conqueror's half-brother, Bishop Odo, possibly at the same time as Bayeux Cathedral's construction in the 1070s, and completed by 1077 in time for display on the cathedral's dedication. It is embroidered in woolyarn on a tabby-wovenlinen ground using outline or stem stitch for detailing and lettering. A dark blue wool, almost black, is used for most of the tapestry's lettering but towards the end other colors are used, sometimes for each word and other times for each letter.
Detail of embroidered lettering
The content of the hanging is primarily pictorial but tituli are included on many scenes of the action to point out names of people and places or to explain briefly the event being depicted.[5] The text is in Latin (which for the most part is grammatically correct), and is extremely direct, with each statement being closely tied to the scenes depicted in a given section.[6][7] The text is frequently abbreviated as indicated by tildes placed over words at the place of omission of a letter. The words themselves are often demarcated by two points (which Lucien Musset likens to colons); sometimes, more important section breaks are demarcated by three points. Many personal names, mostly in English, are not Latinised and the same applies for names of places in England and for Beaurain "Belrem" in France. In places the spelling shows an English influence, such as the phrase "at Hestenga ceastra", which in proper Latin would be "ad Hastingae castra".[6] Some French names are either archaic ("Rednes") or anglicised ("Bagias").[8] Sometimes "Franci" is used to describe the Normans who at that time certainly did not regard themselves as French.[9]
Notable Scenes
Scene 12
Scene 12 is another notable scene, however it is studied because of its tituli. It appears as though "a different writer took over the inscription at this point and saw himself as beginning here; or that the same scribe began a new stint of work here."[4] The upper border has dipped at this point and the birds and beasts depicted in it are large.[3] "The tituli is accordingly forced into smaller letters and is very intermittent, being fitted in round a tree, a sword, hands, spears, and birds’ heads. It seems likely that the first workshop completed the main register and the upper border, leaving the inscription (and possibly the lower border) incomplete."[4]
Scenes 29 and 30
Another notable event occurs in scenes 29 and 30, the coronation of Harold as king. In this scene, Harold is seated on the throne, with nobles to his left and Archbishop Stigand to his right. The tituli states, "Here they gave the king's crown to Harold" in scene 29, and "Here sits Harold King of the English" in scene 30.[10] The coronation of King Harold is important because as the masses are cheering for Harold, Halley's Comet appears in the sky.[11] This scene also includes a fleet of ships in the lower border, which foreshadows the Norman invasion and the English defeat at the hands of William the Conqueror.[11]
Scene 57
The most famous scene within the Bayeux Tapestry is scene fifty-seven, Harold's death. In this scene, the tituli states, "Here Wido seized Harold"[11] which can be translated to "Here King Harold was slain." Harold's death marks the end of the Anglo-Saxon era in England and births the beginning of the French Norman rule.[10] Harold appears to be plucking an arrow from his eye in the scene. According to many historians, The Bayeux Tapestry is considered one of the earliest and most convincing pieces of evidence that Harold was killed by an arrow.[3] Scene 57 also holds evidence that there were more than one "writer". Scene 52, within the first new titulus after the sixth seam, the colors change to black and yellow with intermittent red letters.[4] They continue, mostly in letters of alternating color, until Scene 57, Harold’s death. At this point green is introduced to the inscription and there are some words in black, some in the lighter greenish shade, to the present limit of the Tapestry.[4] "The change of color at Scene 57 may, again, relate to a different production team: The episode of Harold’s death also contains a seam, the eighth, although it is invisible from the front of the Tapestry."[4]
Latin text with English translation
The English translation provided here is of a literal nature, to reflect the simplicity of the captions themselves. The numbering scheme uses the scene numbers on the tapestry's backing cloth, which were added sometime around 1800.[5]
↑ Letters in square brackets are omitted on the tapestry either by way of abbreviation or where they are implied by a macron diacritic on the previous letter.
↑ The Bayeux Tapestry scholar Lucien Musset argues that "Edward" is anachronistic (as his name is spelled elsewhere on the tapestry as "Eadwardus") and that it was almost certainly added by restorers, given that the name is missing in 18th century copies.[13]
↑ This symbol, resembling a right-angled 7, is a Tironian note abbreviation for et ("and").[6]
↑ Possibly a member of either or Duke William or Bishop Odo's entourage.[16]
1 2 The significance of the cross is discussed by Norton.[17]
↑ A verb is missing, which makes this image the greatest mystery in the Tapestry. The historian D. C. Douglas commented as follows: "The similarity of attitude between the clerk and the semi-obscene figure in the lower margin will not escape notice, nor will the absence of a verb in the legend. Perhaps the dovecot and the doves in the upper border have an erotic significance, and the whole episode may possibly refer to some scandal, then notorious, but now advantageously forgotten".[18] Theories on the woman and her relationship with the cleric abound, ranging from being an embroidress to receiving anger, lewdness or affection on part of the clergyman.[19]
↑ This word is a misspelling of the demonstrative pronoun hic.[20][21]
↑ This caption was missing in 18th century copies. Musset refers to this line as "entirely spurious" and the result of "heavy-handed restoration".[28]
Related Research Articles
William the Conqueror, sometimes called William the Bastard, was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death. A descendant of Rollo, he was Duke of Normandy from 1035 onward. By 1060, following a long struggle, his hold on Normandy was secure. In 1066, following the death of Edward the Confessor, William invaded England, leading an army of Normans to victory over the Anglo-Saxon forces of Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings, and suppressed subsequent English revolts in what has become known as the Norman Conquest. The rest of his life was marked by struggles to consolidate his hold over England and his continental lands, and by difficulties with his eldest son, Robert Curthose.
Harold Godwinson, also called Harold II, was the last crowned Anglo-Saxon English king. Harold reigned from 6 January 1066 until his death at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, the decisive battle of the Norman Conquest. Harold's death marked the end of Anglo-Saxon rule over England. He was succeeded by William the Conqueror.
Emma of Normandy was a Norman-born noblewoman who became the English, Danish, and Norwegian queen through her marriages to the Anglo-Saxon king Æthelred the Unready and the Danish king Cnut the Great. A daughter of the Norman ruler Richard the Fearless and Gunnor, she was Queen of England during her marriage to King Æthelred from 1002 to 1016, except during a brief interruption in 1013–14 when the Danish king Sweyn Forkbeard occupied the English throne. Æthelred died in 1016, and Emma married Sweyn's son Cnut. As Cnut's wife, she was Queen of England from their marriage in 1017, Queen of Denmark from 1018, and Queen of Norway from 1028 until Cnut died in 1035.
The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William, Duke of Normandy, and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson, beginning the Norman Conquest of England. It took place approximately 7 mi (11 km) northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex, and was a decisive Norman victory.
The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroidered cloth nearly 70 metres long and 50 centimetres tall that depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, led by William, Duke of Normandy challenging Harold II, King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings. It is thought to date to the 11th century, within a few years of the battle. Now widely accepted to have been made in England, perhaps as a gift for William, it tells the story from the point of view of the conquering Normans and for centuries has been preserved in Normandy.
Eustace II,, also known as Eustace aux Grenons, was Count of Boulogne from 1049 to 1087. He fought on the Norman side at the Battle of Hastings, and afterwards received large grants of land forming an honour in England. He is one of the few proven companions of William the Conqueror. It has been suggested that Eustace was the patron of the Bayeux Tapestry. His second son Godfrey of Bouillon was a preeminent leader of the First Crusade, and the first ruler of the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Matilda of Flanders was Queen of England and Duchess of Normandy by marriage to William the Conqueror, and regent of Normandy during his absences from the duchy. She was the mother of nine children who survived to adulthood, including two kings, William II and Henry I.
Odo of Bayeux was Bishop of Bayeux in Normandy and was also made Earl of Kent in England following the Norman Conquest. He was the maternal half-brother of duke, and later king, William the Conqueror, and was, for a time, William's primary administrator in the Kingdom of England, although he was eventually tried for defrauding William's government. It is likely Odo commissioned the Bayeux Tapestry, a large tableau of the Norman Conquest, perhaps to present to his brother William. He later fell out with his brother over Odo's support for military adventures in Italy. William, on his deathbed, freed Odo. Odo died in Palermo Sicily on the way to crusade.
William de St-Calais was a medieval Norman monk, abbot of the abbey of Saint-Vincent in Le Mans in Maine, who was nominated by King William I of England as Bishop of Durham in 1080. During his term as bishop, St-Calais replaced the canons of his cathedral chapter with monks, and began the construction of Durham Cathedral. In addition to his ecclesiastical duties, he served as a commissioner for the Domesday Book of 1086. He was also a councillor and advisor to both King William I and his son, King William II, known as William Rufus. Following William Rufus' accession to the throne in 1087, St-Calais is considered by scholars to have been the new king's chief advisor.
Robert, Count of Mortain, first Earl of Cornwall of 2nd creation was a Norman nobleman and the half-brother of King William the Conqueror. He was one of the very few proven companions of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings and as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 was one of the greatest landholders in his half-brother's new Kingdom of England.
Bayeux is a commune in the Calvados department in Normandy in northwestern France.
Odo of Rennes, Count of Penthièvre, was the youngest of the three sons of Duke Geoffrey I of Brittany and Hawise of Normandy, daughter of Richard I of Normandy. Eudon married Agnes of Cornouaille, the daughter of Alan Canhiart, Count of Cornouaille and sister of Hoel II, Duke of Brittany who was married in 1066 to Eudon's niece Hawise, Duchess of Brittany.
Richard I, also known as Richard the Fearless, was the count of Rouen from 942 to 996. Dudo of Saint-Quentin, whom Richard commissioned to write the "De moribus et actis primorum Normanniae ducum", called him a dux. However, this use of the word may have been in the context of Richard's renowned leadership in war, and not as a reference to a title of nobility. Richard either introduced feudalism into Normandy or he greatly expanded it. By the end of his reign, the most important Norman landholders held their lands in feudal tenure.
The Dane axe or long axe is a type of European early medieval period two-handed battle axe with a very long shaft, around 0.9–1.2 metres at the low end to 1.5–1.7 metres or more at the long end. Sometimes called a broadaxe, the blade was broad and thin, intended to give a long powerful cut when swung, effective against cavalry, shields and unarmored opponents.
The Carmen de Hastingae Proelio is a 20th-century name for the Carmen Widonis, the earliest history of the Norman invasion of England from September to December 1066, in Latin. It is attributed to Guy, Bishop of Amiens, a noble of Ponthieu and monastically-trained bishop and administrator close to the French court, who eventually served as a chaplain for Matilda of Flanders, William the Conqueror's queen. Bishop Guy was an uncle to Guy I, Count of Ponthieu, who figures rather prominently in the Bayeux Tapestry as the vassal of Duke William of Normandy who captured Harold Godwinson, later to become King Harold II of England, in 1064.
Titulus is a term used for the labels or captions naming figures or subjects in art, which were commonly added in classical and medieval art, and remain conventional in Eastern Orthodox icons. In particular the term describes the conventional inscriptions on stone that listed the honours of an individual or that identified boundaries in the Roman Empire. A titulus pictus is a merchant's mark or other commercial inscription.
William the Conqueror had men of diverse standing and origins under his command at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. With these and other men he went on in the five succeeding years to conduct the Harrying of the North and complete the Norman conquest of England.
Events from the 1080s in England.
William I of England has been depicted in a number of modern works.
The Vita Ædwardi Regis qui apud Westmonasterium Requiescit or simply Vita Ædwardi Regis is a Latin biography of King Edward the Confessor completed by an anonymous author c. 1067 and suspected of having been commissioned by Queen Edith, Edward's wife. It survives in one manuscript, dated c. 1100, now in the British Library. The author is unknown, but was a servant of the queen and probably a Fleming. The most likely candidates are Goscelin and Folcard, monks of St Bertin Abbey in St Omer.
Coatsworth, Elizabeth (2005). "Stitches in Time: Establishing a History of Anglo-Saxon Embroidery". In Netherton, Robin; Owen-Crocker, Gale R. (eds.). Medieval Clothing and Textiles. Vol.1. Suffolk, UK: Boydell & Brewer. pp.1–27.
Norton, Christopher (23 October 2019). "Viewing the Bayeux Tapestry, Now and Then". Journal of the British Archaeological Association. 172 (1): 52–89. doi:10.1080/00681288.2019.1642012.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
