Of Conquest. 1066/1944 Normandy

Somehow in the past year, I was reading about William the Conquerer of England and the Battle of Hastings...1066 AD. I was intrigued and found out that there is a tapestry created around 1100 AD which depicts this epic battle. The Tapestry is housed in a museum in Bayeux, France on the Normandy Coast. I read up on the Battle and on the Tapestry itself. I decided to go.

I figured it would be me and maybe a dozen people who wandered in from the surrounding territories...along with a few scholars in tweedy jackets.

Not so. The parking lot near the Tapestry Museum in this very charming French village that somehow escaped major destruction in WWII....was big enough for 30 tour buses. Clearly I am not the first to be intrigued by the Bayeax Tapestry.

There are two stories here and I will be brief and would also encourage you, dear readers to Google both of them.

The Battle of Hastings first.

Around 1066, Edward the Confessor, King of England was dying. He looked around for a successor. Apparently the line of succession was not so clear during his reign: primogeniture was not yet the rule.) And the King decreed that William the Bastard (an unfortunate moniker is ever there was ...though one could make a case for King Edward's father who was known as Ethelred the Unready), a ruler in Norman France should succeed him. William was distant nephew of Edwards wife.

Edward dispatched his brother-in-law Harold to go tell William the news. Harold went across the channel to France and promptly got lost and landed in the wrong place. Got captured and had to be rescued by William.

Anyway...William was given the news. Harold returned to England. Edward died. Harold, (already a powerful though directionally-challenged Duke) changed his mind and decided that He, himself should be crowned King of England. He was. William was not amused and mounted a military campaign to defeat Harold.

            

In an epic event...William prepared for battle by felling trees, storing provisions, building boats, marshaling the troops and sailing to Hastings, England.

Harold and William met on the battlefield for bloody winner-take-all. William was victorious. Harold was defeated and died in the battle that day.

William, in one of the wiser moves of his rule.... changed his name to William the Conquerer and stayed in England as King...building castles, cathedrals and all the while trying to consolidate his power. You cannot read or view anything in English Medieval history without tripping across the name and events of William the Conquerer.

    

This epic tale of the Tapestry itself is equaling fascinating but I will be brief. The tapestry consists of some fifty scenes, embroidered on linen (so it technically is not a tapestry) and was done by...they are not sure...in exactly the year...they are not certain. Was it done in England or France, probably England...though not sure. It tells the tale of the Battle of Hastings where William defeated Harold and won. 

 But it resided in the Cathedral in Bayeax for centuries, brought out for festivals. It was kept in a box. Somehow it survived the Reformation where church relics and worship objects were smashed and burned. Some monks kept it in a priory. It servived fires and pillaging and use as a simple canvas to cover things...and even Nazi's. Today it is in an hermetically sealed case that is 68 meters long by .5 meters wide. An exhibit and film are shown also with the actual Tapestry. And...it will be loaned to the British Museum for a few years.

Tourists walk the length of the sealed tapestry under proper dim lighting...listening to an Audio narration of the Battle itself. 

       

And if that isn't enough. Walk outside. Down the street. Stop for a croissant and chocolate bun...walk a few more yards to the Cathedral...Notre Dame in Bayeux

                   

Stunning.

         

                 It was wide open. People walking here and there.

              

                One of the grandest cathedrals that I have seen.

                               

        I even went down into the crypt beneath the sanctuary...always a great place to visit.

                  

But Bayeux is right in the middle of the Normandy area....tourism is strong as people come to honor the sacrifice and Liberation of the Free World in 1944. There are signs all along this coast and in towns alluding to the sacrifice of the brave for defeating the Nazi's.

                      

A few blocks from the Tapestry and Cathedral is the Museum for the Battle of Normandy. I took no pictures inside...I was absorbed with the photos and films and weapons and stories. It was respectfully done...and stunning in its presentation.

                  

I left after a couple hours and went through Bayeux, got my car and headed for the beach.

                  

Omaha Beach, Normandy

The day was misty and the clouds hung low and almost matched the color of the sea. I viewed it from up on high...as the Nazi defenders must have seen things. So I had to go down on the beach itself to experience the view of the Allies.

                         

Along the way was a memorial to an Engineering unit (and there were of course, monuments to the many fallen soldiers throughout the beaches). Someone had recently placed a photo of a soldier from that event.

                               

The beach itself is huge. One could picture an armada of every type of military equipment being unloaded on the wide beach as the bullets and shells rained down on them in 1944.

Today...I just looked at it all.

Probably as sacred a place as I have ever been.

                 

The ironies and tragedies of history...taking place on the same channel between two countries. In 1066 an armada invaded England from France and changed history. In 1944 an armada from England invaded France and changed history.

And all I had to do was to just stand there and ponder.

Peace,   Bob