00:00What does the Bayou Tapestry actually show?
00:02Let me explain to you the Bayou Tapestry, frame by frame,
00:07what it means and what it tells us about the Norman Conquest of England.
00:13The story starts in 1064.
00:16England has a king, Edward the Confessor,
00:19and he has a plan for what will happen after he dies.
00:22He sends his brother-in-law, Harold Godwinson,
00:27across the Channel to Normandy.
00:29Harold's mission?
00:30Historians still debate exactly why Harold made the journey,
00:35but most sources agree that while in Normandy,
00:40he swore some kind of oath to William, the Duke of Normandy.
00:46After his trip, Harold returned to England,
00:49and when Edward dies, Harold is crowned king.
00:56William hears the news and he is furious.
00:59He decides to take the throne for himself.
01:03Now, imagine the summer of 1066.
01:06Hundreds of ships are being propelled alongside the Normandy coast.
01:12Soldiers are gathering.
01:15Horses are being loaded onto boats.
01:17And in September, the fleet finally set sail across the Channel,
01:23carrying around 7,000 men and 2,000 horses.
01:28Among them is William's own ship,
01:31the Mora, a gift from his wife, Matilda.
01:34A lantern, blessed by the Pope, shines from the top of its mast.
01:38The Normans land at Pevensey, in Sussex, and march towards Hastings.
01:45And then comes October 1066, the Battle of Hastings.
01:51First, the Norman archers advance.
01:54Then comes the cavalry.
01:58But the English soldiers are waiting behind a wall of shields.
02:03The battle is brutal.
02:05Horses collapse.
02:06Weapons clash.
02:08Men fall.
02:09And as the fighting continues,
02:13bodies begin to feel the battlefield.
02:16Eventually, Harold is struck in the eye by an arrow.
02:20He dies.
02:21The English army breaks and begins to flee.
02:25And that is where the Bayer tapestry suddenly stops.
02:29The final part of the ombrodery is missing.
02:33But what remains is extraordinary.
02:37Almost a thousand years later,
02:39we can still follow the story of the Norman conquest.
02:44Almost frame by frame.
02:47And it isn't just a story about war.
02:49Look closely and the tapestry also shows us
02:53how people lived in the 11th century.
02:57What they were, how they traveled,
03:00the weapons they used,
03:02the ships they sailed,
03:04and the castles they built.
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