Nearly 70 metres of wool embroidered on linen, in 58 scenes with Latin captions
Nine linen panels stitched together, worked in stem stitch and laid-and-couched work
General knowledge · Culture & customs
The Bayeux Tapestry
c. 1070s
Medieval art — the Norman Conquest in wool and linen
A strip of linen nearly 70 metres long and about half a metre tall, embroidered in coloured wool with 58 scenes telling the story of the Norman Conquest, from Harold Godwinson's oath to William of Normandy through to the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Despite its name it is not a tapestry at all: the images are stitched onto the cloth, not woven into it. Probably commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William's half-brother, and made in England soon after the Conquest, it has been on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register since 2007, and in September 2026 it went on show at the British Museum — its first appearance in Britain in almost a thousand years.
How to spot them
- ▸Fifty-eight scenes in wool on linen, with Latin captions (tituli) above the action
- ▸Not woven but embroidered — so the name is technically wrong
- ▸The earliest known depiction of Halley's Comet appears in its upper border
- ▸Ends abruptly with the English fleeing; the final panel, probably William's coronation, is lost
Key facts
The earliest known picture of Halley's Comet, blazing in an upper border (1066)
Below it, ghostly ships in the lower border hint at the invasion to come
Probably commissioned by Bishop Odo, William's half-brother, who appears in it four times
Made in England, very likely in Canterbury, perhaps for the dedication of Bayeux Cathedral in 1077
'Harold rex interfectus est' — the caption over the death of an English king (1066)
Whether the figure with an arrow in his eye is Harold has been argued over for centuries
The unexplained caption 'ubi unus clericus et Ælfgyva'
A cleric touches a woman's face; nobody knows who she was or what the scene means
Once called the Telle du Conquest, and long credited in legend to William's queen
The 19th century knew it as the Tapestry of Queen Matilda
Elizabeth Wardle and 37 Staffordshire embroiderers made a full-size replica in 1885–86 (1886)
Now in Reading Museum, with one nude figure discreetly clothed
Shown in London from 10 September 2026, for the first time in its thousand-year existence (2026)
A loan from the Bayeux Museum to the British Museum, running until July 2027
Quick-fire facts
- •It is an embroidery, not a tapestry: the images are stitched in wool onto a linen ground, not woven in
- •It is about 68–70 metres long and roughly 50 cm tall, made of nine linen panels joined together
- •It contains 58 scenes with Medieval Latin tituli, and depicts some 623 human figures, 994 animals, 37 buildings and 41 ships
- •Two stitches are used: stem or outline stitch for lettering and outlines, and laid-and-couched work to fill figures
- •It is generally thought to have been commissioned by Odo, Bishop of Bayeux and Earl of Kent, William's half-brother
- •The comet in the upper border is Halley's Comet, and this is its earliest known depiction
- •The narrative runs from 1064 to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and ends abruptly; a final panel, probably showing William's coronation, is thought to be missing
- •Ælfgyva is the only woman named anywhere in the captions, and her scene has never been explained
- •It was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register in 2007
- •It went on display at the British Museum on 10 September 2026, the first time it has been in Britain since it was made
Drill it — 9 cards
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Sources
- Bayeux Museum — The Bayeux Tapestry
- The British Museum — The Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, 2026–27 Exhibition pages for the 2026 loan; cited without URL as the site blocks automated access