And, in those suspicious times, a dreadful portent of things to come. It's Halley's comet, on one of its rare visits to the Earth's atmosphere. For no sooner had the crown been placed on the young king's head than an omen of doom shot across the sky. But while Harry was busy measuring the curtains in Winchester, on the other side of the Channel William was choking on his onions.Īs every good schoolboy will remember, it is at this point that the Tapestry preempts Harry's foolishness. In all the excitement, he forgot his sacred promise to William. Silly boy! Soon after his return to Blighty, Edward died and, as the most powerful nobleman in England, Harry ended up bagging the crown. Somewhere along the line, Harold ends up swearing allegiance to the Norman Duke William and, importantly, his claim to the English throne when Edward died. Harold swears an oath to William over a casket of holy relics
Either way, the mission didn't go according to plan, and Harold ended up being held hostage by the Normans. But neither the Tapestry nor our knowledge of contemporary kingmaking protocol support this. Common myth still has it that his mission was to confer the crown of England on the Norman Duke William when Edward died, and swear fealty. The Tapestry's tale begins in 1064 with the aging English king Edward sending the Earl of Wessex - Harold Godwinson - to Normandy. It's an extraordinary artifact - a hand-stitched account of the key events in the lead up to Duke William's invasion that's nearly 70 metres long and in almost pristine condition.Įdward the Confessor send Harold, Earl of Wessex, to Normandy The thing I find most remarkable about the Norman Conquest (and its fascinating lead-up) is the way it was all captured in glorious, panoramic technicolor on the Bayeux Tapestry. I'd like to think it was a nobleman, but no doubt it was just a grubby soldier getting his end away with some poor Anglo-Saxon wench. I suspect the disconcerting ginger patch in my beard is the ghost of some distant Norman antecedent. Even though the Normans were as much Viking as French and nearly all of us will have a Norman ancestor or three lurking somewhere down the family tree. The pesky Normans arrive at Pevensey, 28 September 1066Įven though it happened nearly 1000 years ago, 1066 is indelibly etched on our national consciousness. I suspect a lot of it stems from a lingering resentment about those pesky Frenchies getting one over us. The place Duke William landed - Pevensey, not Hastings as many people imagine - is not far from where I was born and grew up. Thanks to Wikipedia, I now know the fateful day fell on September 28 - two days (and 946 years) before my birthday. After all, we're talking about an event that happened nearly 1000 years ago, so what's a day here or there? But I'm sure far fewer know the actual date.
Every Englishman knows which year the Normans invaded.
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