HistoryExtra
type: channel
link: https://www.historyextra.com
description: Home of Britain’s bestselling history magazine and award-winning podcast
date: 2026-02-27T10:15:19.000Z
update period: hourly
update frequency: 1
update base: 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00
items: Is the Bayeux Tapestry in "mortal danger"? I think that's the wrong question to ask
items: Just how many Bayeux Tapestries were there?
items: Why you should avoid hair-pulling, and cannibalism, at royal banquets
items: Michael Wood on women's contributions to the Bayeux Tapestry
items: Medieval warhorses: 5 moments horsepower changed the course of history
items: The Bayeux Tapestry is finally coming home to Britain – and you can see it next year
items: The 93 penises of the Bayeux Tapestry
items: “I counted the penises in the Bayeux Tapestry and I have no regrets”: what one Oxford professor found when he studied the rudest bits of the embroidery
items: The second Norman conquest: how William Rufus captured a forgotten kingdom
items: Norman women: the power behind the thrones

Is the Bayeux Tapestry in "mortal danger"? I think that's the wrong question to ask
type: item
date: 2026-02-26T17:24:25.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Medieval
subject: Norman
subject: Period
subject: Exhibitions
subject: Historical events
subject: Trends-News
description: Rather than focusing on the risk to the Bayeux Tapestry in its forthcoming loan to the British Museum, David Musgrove argues that we should be talking about how the massive media interest in the exhibition will surely be a huge reward for the venerable embroidery – and guarantee its long-term survival
encoded: It’s not often that a medieval embroidery gets broadcast across the huge electronic billboards at Piccadilly Circus. But that’s what happened on the morning of 26 February, as the British Museum made its first big splash to announce details of its forthcoming blockbuster Bayeux Tapestry exhibition (tickets go on sale 1 July). I was there to enjoy the experience, and it was a delight to see an artefact that I’ve spent a long time thinking about getting the full film-star treatment (I’m co-author of The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry). The exhibition is not without controversy. Questions have been raised by French campaigners and one celebrated English artist (David Hockney) on how fit the Bayeux Tapestry is to travel, and whether it’s right to subject this venerable artefact to the rigours of a trip from Normandy to London. These are reasonable concerns, but they miss the point. Yes, there is risk, but what about the reward? What does the Tapestry gain from being transported and displayed in such a high-profile way? I’d argue that, rather than putting the Tapestry at mortal danger of destruction, the loan guarantees its long-term survival and will be a boon for the tourist business in Bayeux to boot. What other medieval artwork or contemporary documentary source could hope to receive the wall-to-wall media exposure that the Tapestry is currently receiving? <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2026/02/20260226090016-92f3207-rotated-e1772119755759.jpg" width="1500" height="1000" alt="A busy city street with pedestrians and vehicles passes beneath a large digital billboard mounted on the side of a modern building. The billboard displays an advertisement for the British Museum, featuring a scene from the Bayeux Tapestry, with figures in period clothing and the words “REX,” “HAROLD,” and “The British Museum – From Egypt to…”. Surrounding buildings include shops with street‑level storefronts, and a white truck and van are visible in the foregr…

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Just how many Bayeux Tapestries were there?
type: item
date: 2025-10-30T09:00:37.000Z
creator: FSA
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Debate
subject: Medieval battles
description: As a new theory, put forward by Professor John Blair, questions whether the embroidery was unique, David Musgrove asks historians whether there could have been more than one ‘Bayeux Tapestry’
encoded: The Bayeux Tapestry is an amazing artefact – and it’s exceptional not least because of its very existence today. Precious few pieces of embroidery from the medieval period survive, let alone ones that are almost 70 metres long. And, of course, the story it tells – of the conquest of England by the Normans – is one of immense historical significance. So we rightly celebrate it, and excitement about its forthcoming loan from Bayeux to the British Museum is high. But what if this artefact wasn’t really so very exceptional at the time it was made? What if it was just one of several embroideries produced to commemorate the Norman victory over the English at the battle of Hastings in October 1066? Professor John Blair, an expert in the Anglo-Saxon period at the University of Oxford, believes that might be the case. “This is a reaction against the idea that the Tapestry had to be something extraordinary or unique, beyond the fact that it is an extraordinary and unique survival,” he says. “There are abundant references to decorative domestic hangings, but of course they had virtually zero chance of survival. The Tapestry is a wonderful piece of design, but the actual stitching isn’t particularly fine, and a big team of embroiderers in a workshop could have done it quite expeditiously.” Purported patron Why did the Tapestry survive when so few other embroideries did? Well, most scholars agree that it was probably made some time after the battle that it records, so in the mid-late 11th century, and likely on the orders of – or to curry favour with – Bishop Odo of Bayeux. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/10/Odo-blessing-the-feast4548webready-e50a4fb.jpg" width="1921" height="1281" alt="Bishop Odo, William’s half-brother, says grace before a feast. It’s thought that Odo commissioned the Tapestry to be displayed in his new cathedral in Bayeux (Image by Bayeux Museum)" title="Bishop Odo, William’s half-brother, says grace before a feast. I…

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Why you should avoid hair-pulling, and cannibalism, at royal banquets
type: item
date: 2025-09-17T14:42:02.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: General History
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical people
subject: US presidents
description: And other tips from history to avoid banquets going bad, in advance of King Charles III's state dinner with President Trump this week
encoded: There won’t be any cannibalism happening at the state banquet this week in Windsor Castle, in honour of the 47th US president, Donald J Trump. I haven’t seen the menu, but I think that’s a reasonable guess. I also suspect that Prince Harry won’t be in attendance, despite his recent trip to the UK and reconciliatory tête-à-tête with his father, King Charles III. However, if you believe this piece in The Times, while the king and his youngest son might be mending their relationship, Prince William cannot forgive his brother Harry for his apparent betrayal of trust in recent years. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/09/GettyImages-1147873570-25735a9.jpg" width="1024" height="683" alt="Donald Trump, dressed in a black suit, stands alongside Queen Elizabeth II, Melania Trump, Prince Charles, and Camilla. The women are all dressed in white dresses, and Elizabeth, Charles and Camilla are all wearing blue sashes" title="President Trump and the late Queen Elizabeth II at the last state banquet, during the president’s first term of office (Image by Getty Images)" /> That’s where the cannibalism comes in. Back in the 11th century, two brothers – one of them destined for the throne of England – had a pretty big falling out. It led to an event at a feast that most people would find very hard to forgive. I’m talking about Harold and Tostig Godwinson. Harold, of course, went on to become Harold II of England, after the death of Edward the Confessor in 1066. He had to defend his crown against Tostig, who had joined the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada in an attack on the country from the north. Harold beat Hardrada and Tostig at the battle of Stamford Bridge, and both of the would-be invaders were killed. The root of the brotherly tiff went back a few years before that. In 1063, according to the 12th-century historian Henry of Huntingdon (who is unique in offering us this account, so we ought to be sceptical about its veracity), at the royal hal…

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Michael Wood on women's contributions to the Bayeux Tapestry
type: item
date: 2025-09-17T08:00:01.000Z
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Historical events
subject: Historical people
subject: Medieval battles
subject: Medieval kings and queens
description: "We should remember the unknown women who made the Tapestry", writes Michael Wood
encoded: Like all readers, I am sure, I was thrilled to hear the news that the Bayeux Tapestry is coming to England next year. 1066 is the most important date in British history, and the Tapestry is the greatest single source, taking the tale from the last days of Edward the Confessor through the drama of Harold and William, the Norman invasion, and the defeat and death of Harold at Hastings. The Tapestry has been in Bayeux since the Middle Ages and has never left, save briefly during the Franco-German War and under Napoleon and the Nazis, who both sought to weaponise it prior to their own invasion attempts. But it was made in England in the aftermath of the Conquest, probably at Canterbury by English needlewomen. Scholars think that it was commissioned by the Conqueror’s brother Odo, bishop of Bayeux, who features prominently on the Tapestry along with his followers. One of those, Vitalis, is singled out and named, shown mounted and in full armour, reporting to William the whereabouts of the English army. Perhaps he was the leader of a scouting detachment who had gone ahead of the Norman army. Read more | The Bayeux Tapestry is finally coming home to Britain – and you can see it next year The artistic inspiration was the English school of manuscript painting in Canterbury, but there may have been Roman models, too. Trajan’s Column, in particular, depicts the emperor’s Dacian campaigns in a similar manner – like a strip cartoon. Odo himself had been to Rome; so, too, had Scolland, abbot of St Augustine’s Abbey, who may have designed the Tapestry – perhaps using a sketch book from his travels? It’s a huge artwork, some 68.3 metres long, but damaged at the end: perhaps as much as 3 metres is missing. It is generally agreed that the Tapestry originally finished with William’s crowning at Westminster at Christmas 1066 – a mirror image to the opening panel of the enthroned Edward the Confessor. Based on that assumption, a brilliant full-scale reconstruction has been completed by …

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Medieval warhorses: 5 moments horsepower changed the course of history
type: item
date: 2025-08-20T08:00:44.000Z
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
subject: Medieval kings and queens
subject: Medieval life
description: From William the Conqueror’s battle-winning cavalry to Richard III’s fatal final charge, Oliver H Creighton and Robert Liddiard explore five moments when horsepower changed the course of medieval history
encoded: 1. 1066 and all that Horses were involved in King Harold’s defeat at Hastings – but also in the demise of his Norman conqueror It’s one of the most famous of all medieval images. Harold II stands upon the battlefield at Hastings, desperately grasping at an arrow lodged in his eye. This incident – depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry – is credited with ending the English king’s life and extinguishing centuries of Anglo-Saxon rule. Yet look to the right of Harold and you’ll find an image that arguably goes even further in explaining his defeat: it depicts a sword-wielding warrior mounted upon a horse. The Norman conquest of England in 1066 was an era-defining event – and its centrepiece was the battle of Hastings. That clash is graphically represented on the Bayeux Tapestry, most memorably in the image of mounted Norman knights charging the line of Anglo-Saxon warriors on foot. It’s a powerful rendition of horses making history – and for William, Duke of Normandy, those animals proved critical in securing his victory. William began the day of the pivotal action, 14 October, by ordering reconnaissance missions, receiving intelligence from returning mounted scouts on the whereabouts of Harold’s forces. When the two armies later closed in to do battle, the Bayeux Tapestry shows us, the duke mounted his warhorse and exhorted his knights to “prepare themselves manfully and wisely” as they cantered towards the forthcoming engagement. During the nine-hour struggle, William was in the thick of the fighting – and two, or possibly three, of his horses were killed beneath him. The crucial part of the battle came when a rumour spread among the Normans that their commander had been killed. The duke hurriedly rode among his now-fleeing troops, his helmet raised to prove that he was alive, so preventing a rout. At this key moment it was the mobility provided by his mount that allowed William to be in the right place at the right time, averting disaster (for him). Despite the oft-repeated…

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The Bayeux Tapestry is finally coming home to Britain – and you can see it next year
type: item
date: 2025-07-08T16:00:59.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: With the loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the UK confirmed, David Musgrove explains the historical significance of the embroidery’s potential arrival on British soil…
encoded: The Bayeux Tapestry – the near 70-metre long, 11th-century embroidery that tells the story of the Norman Conquest – looks set to be finally coming to Britain, loaned from France in exchange for a loan of the Lewis Chessmen and the treasures of Sutton Hoo. The embroidery is expected to be displayed in the British Museum between September 2026 and July 2027, and holds the promise of being one of the biggest historical exhibitions ever staged on these shores, rivalling the blockbuster Tutankhamun show at the British Museum in 1972. Many scholars are in agreement that the Tapestry was originally made in the 11th century, not too long after the Norman Conquest in 1066, in England, and likely by English seamstresses in Canterbury. It has, however, been in Bayeux since at least the 15th century. Today, the artefact is the property of the French state. The news that British and French authorities had agreed that the Tapestry would come to the UK was initially made public in January 2018, and, speaking on 5 May 2025, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told HistoryExtra and BBC History Magazine that civil servants were still working on the loan. "The Bayeux Tapestry is a unique treasure,” said the Prime Minister, “and a symbol of the deep ties between Britain and France." "The conservation and protection of it is obviously crucial, and I know that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport continues to work closely with their counterparts in France on the planned loan." The loan coincides with the temporary closure of the Bayeux Tapestry's permanent home in Normandy, the Bayeux Tapestry Museum, while it undergoes refurbishment. That work includes an exciting plan to add an extension to the current 17th-century seminary building in which the Tapestry has been housed since 1983, and is scheduled to be completed by autumn 2027 – in time for the millennial commemorations of the birth of William the Conqueror. Following the announcement of the loan, the director of the British Museu…

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The 93 penises of the Bayeux Tapestry
type: item
date: 2025-04-25T06:30:53.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Medieval
subject: Membership
subject: Period
description: The Bayeux Tapestry tells the story of the Norman Conquest, and also contains 93 embroidered penises – Professor George Garnett explains why
encoded: Historians have counted lots of things in the Bayeux Tapestry – animals, ships, hands and plants. But nobody had counted the number of penises it contained until Oxford historian Professor George Garnett decided to take on the challenge. David Musgrove invites George to discuss his findings, and explain why this is, in fact, serious research that helps us better understand this vital account of the Norman Conquest of 1066.

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“I counted the penises in the Bayeux Tapestry and I have no regrets”: what one Oxford professor found when he studied the rudest bits of the embroidery
type: item
date: 2025-04-24T23:01:38.000Z
creator: Dr David Musgrove, FSA
subject: Medieval
subject: Period
subject: Discover / Apple News
description: More than six years since Professor George Garnett totted up the depictions of male genitalia in the famous Bayeux Tapestry – causing a media storm in the process – and he has no regrets. Speaking to Professor Garnett and fellow Tapestry scholar Dr Christopher Monk, David Musgrove reveals how the surprisingly explicit subject matter still has plenty to tell us about our medieval forebears
encoded: It’s not too often that medieval historians grab national headlines, but when you get an Oxford academic counting penises in a world-famous embroidery, you’re sure to arouse media attention. On HistoryExtra in 2018, Professor George Garnett of St Hugh's College at the University of Oxford published his findings on the number of male genitalia stitched in the Bayeux Tapestry – and its importance. He counted 93 penises and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the research went viral. “I think my academic colleagues were mostly very entertained,” Garnett revealed in a 2025 follow-up interview on the HistoryExtra podcast. “One of them said to me, ‘You’re not a historian of masculinity; you’re a historian of masculinities, 93 of them.’” On the podcast | The 93 penises of the Bayeux Tapestry Most likely created in the late 11th century, the Bayeux Tapestry depicts the events leading up to and including the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Beyond the grand battle narrative, the artwork is packed with curious details, some of which are surprisingly explicit. Garnett, following a rich academic tradition of counting items in the Tapestry, tallied up the number of penises it includes. “There are 88 attached to horses, and four – or possibly five – attached to human figures,” he explains. View Green Video on the source website What do the penises in the Bayeux Tapestry mean? Why so many? In the case of the horses, for the most part, the depiction of genitalia is simply anatomical detail, but there are some exceptions, notes Garnett. The designer of the Tapestry was evidently and – specifically – concerned with three horses’ penises in particular, he says. "The rest are just to demonstrate that the horses in question are stallions. But the ones that matter? They’re associated with important men.” Most notably, Harold Godwinson – who, as King Harold II, would die at Hastings – and his vanquisher, Duke William of Normandy, are shown on steeds with noticeably larger endowments. “William’s h…

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The second Norman conquest: how William Rufus captured a forgotten kingdom
type: item
date: 2024-05-13T09:12:57.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Norman
subject: Period
description: William of Normandy sailed across the Channel and conquered England in 1066 – or at least that’s how the story goes. Here, Sophie Thérèse Ambler and James Morris reveal how one northern stronghold remained untouched for another 26 years...
encoded: The Bayeux Tapestry depicts one of the best-known episodes in English history: the Norman Conquest of 1066. The cavalry of William, Duke of Normandy, ride into battle at Hastings against the army of King Harold Godwinson, bodies littering the ground. “Here King Harold has been killed,” proclaims the Tapestry’s text, and next: “The English have turned to flight.” Thus, Duke William became William the Conqueror, seized the kingdom, and imposed long-lasting Norman rule. We all know the Conquest of 1066 saw the Normans seize England – but this is not entirely true. In fact, William only seized the polity ruled by Harold: the Anglo-Saxon kingdom, whose royal heartlands lay in Wessex and London. But beyond the limits of Harold’s rule lay the Kingdom of Cumbria. This realm was not conquered by William in 1066, and it mostly maintained its independence for another generation. Only in 1092 did William’s son, William II – better known as William Rufus – annex the southern part of the kingdom to the English state, extending Norman rule in the north-west to Hadrian’s Wall. Fractured by conquest The answer to this question, perhaps, lies in its lack of longevity. Only emerging in the ninth century AD, the kingdom’s lands had originally been part of the mighty Kingdom of Northumbria, which in its heyday stretched from the Mersey to the Humber estuary in the south, and from Ayrshire to the Firth of Forth in the north. Famously, the Northumbrian kingdom cradled Christianity at Lindisfarne, the community founded by Saint Aidan and Saint Oswald and celebrated by its own great historian, Bede. Read more | Anglo-Saxon conversion: the coming of the cross (at the point of a sword) In the 860s, Northumbria was fractured by Viking conquest, with the Norse invaders establishing a kingdom south of the Tees, the English rulers at Bamburgh Castle taking the northeast from the Tyne to the Firth of Forth, and the Kingdom of Strathclyde – based around Glasgow – seizing the chance to expand southw…

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Norman women: the power behind the thrones
type: item
date: 2021-06-22T06:45:00.000Z
subject: Membership
subject: Norman
subject: Period
description: History tends to focus on kings, warriors and bishops – but a number of 11th-century women were hugely influential in war, state and church. Medieval historian Leonie Hicks introduces a quartet of powerful Norman women
encoded: This article might best begin by paraphrasing a popular bon mot: ‘behind every successful Norman man was a brilliant woman’. Here I will focus on four of them: Gunnor (c950–1031), Emma of Normandy (c985–1052), Matilda of Flanders (c1031–1083) and Sichelgaita (1040–1090). We are fortunate that enough evidence survives from the 11th and 12th centuries to provide insights into the lives, activities and roles expected of the women who married Normans, or who were themselves Norman and married into other ruling houses. Chronicles such as the History of the Normans by Dudo of Saint-Quentin, and works by Orderic Vitalis, Amatus of Montecassino and Anna Comnena, furnish us with glimpses into how these women were regarded by their contemporaries. In addition, charters, epitaphs and the remarkable Encomium Emmae Reginae – a lavishly illustrated document recounting events involving Cnut and his queen, Emma of Normandy – reveal how the women themselves might have wished to be remembered. Our knowledge of the lives of these women reflects the survival of the evidence, and also the Normans’ experiences across Europe. History records these women primarily because they married powerful men, forming politically significant unions. Gunnor’s marriage to Duke Richard I of Normandy sometime after 968 helped consolidate ducal power at a time when his influence did not extend much beyond the area centred on Rouen in the east of the region. She was a member of another Danish kin group and helped strengthen connections between the competing groups of Scandinavian settlers. Emma, daughter of Gunnor and Richard, sailed across the channel to marry Æthelred II (the ‘Unready’), king of the English, in 1002. This was an alliance designed to secure peace at a time of renewed Viking attacks on the English coast; a previous treaty reveals that raiders had been finding shelter in Norman harbours. Following Æthelred’s death in 1016, Emma married his successor by conquest, Cnut – and if she had any cho…

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