One of France’s most iconic historical artefacts will be loaned to the UK, President Emmanuel Macron announced yesterday (July 8).
The Bayeux Tapestry will be displayed at the British Museum in London for nine months (from September 2026 to June 2027), the president announced during a state visit to the UK.
Mr Macron previously proposed loaning the artefact to the UK in 2018 as a post-Brexit goodwill gesture, during a Franco-British summit. However, a need for urgent repairs delayed the measure for years.
Plans have now been finalised for the tapestry, which shows the exploits of William the Conqueror, including the Battle of Hastings in 1066, to be displayed in the UK.
The proposal has been met with widespread praise, including from the mayor of Bayeux, who has hailed the idea as ‘fantastic’, and is seen as a further step towards improving French and British relations in the wake of Brexit.
However, there are concerns that such a large move could further damage the tapestry, as it already has thousands of stains and missing pieces, and 30 large tears along its nearly 70-metre length.
“The Bayeux Tapestry is being moved for the wrong reasons,” said one historian to Le Monde.
“It's a priceless national treasure that shouldn't be used for soft power,” he added.
Long-awaited homecoming
It is the first time the artefact will travel overseas in its modern history – it has twice been relocated to Paris, first by Napoleon and then by the Nazis – although many believe the tapestry will be making a homecoming trip.
The general consensus among historians now is that the tapestry, dating from the 11th Century, was created in England.
More specifically, it was likely made by nuns in Barking Abbey, Canterbury, and commissioned soon after William’s victory against the Anglo-Saxons as a gift to the new monarch.
Likely commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux (coincidentally the half-brother of William the Conqueror) for the consecration of the city’s cathedral in 1077, the huge tapestry is actually a misnomer.
Tapestries are made using looms, whereas the artefact in Bayeux is technically a hand-stitched embroidery.
10-year reproduction is solo effort
Several re-creations of the tapestry have been made (including a Victorian version by the British ‘Leek Society’ that censored the explicit penises on the original).
The most recent re-creation is a solo effort. Swedish-born Mia Hansson started the mammoth project out of boredom in July 2016.
“I made some basic calculations… If I did five hours every day, I would have finished it in 10 years. I thought: ‘Brilliant, 10 years. I never have to think of what to do tomorrow,’” she told The Connexion in an interview last year.
Close to an end now, “it’s become one of those things I'm just going to have to finish, because if I stop now, I will be known as the woman who failed – and I don't fail,” she added.
You can read the full interview with Mrs Hansson here.
‘Missing scene’ to be produced
A ‘missing’ scene from the tapestry, said to show the coronation of William the Conqueror as the King of England at Westminster Abbey, is set to be produced as part of celebrations of the millennium of his birth.
The supposed missing piece would be the final scene in the tapestry, which now rather abruptly finishes at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It is unknown what happened to this missing piece, but if it existed, it was more than likely destroyed.
The additional section will not be physically added to the existing tapestry but complement it, as well as speak to the enduring legacy of the artefact and how interaction can reshape history.
French artist Hélène Delprat won a competition to create the scene, which will be displayed at the Château Guillaume-le-Conquérant in Falaise (Calvados).
Napoleon and Nazi removals
The planned exhibition in London is not the first time the tapestry has been relocated for soft power purposes.
The tapestry has been moved several times within Bayeux and Normandy itself, from its original resting place in the cathedral to its current dedicated museum, but has twice been sent to Paris.
Napoléon attempted to use the tapestry to whip Parisians into a fervour over a possible invasion of the UK in the early 1800s.
It was displayed in the Louvre in 1804 (after being placed in the Fine Arts Museum of Caen in 1803) with Napoleon keen to paint himself as the next ‘Conqueror’ of the British islands.
No attempt to repeat the exploits of William the Conqueror was made. However, Napoléon returned the tapestry to Bayeux as a way of thanks to the residents for keeping it in good condition throughout the centuries.
It largely remained in place, flitting between museum displays in the city, until World War Two.
Nazi officials in the Ahnenerbe, a pseudo-scientific branch of the SS that aimed to promote Hitler’s racial ideas, believed the tapestry held special significance.
The tapestry had ‘evidence’ of Germanic culture – not far from the truth, as the Viking ancestors of the Normans did in fact hail from Scandinavia – and was transported for further study by officials in the group, first to a nearby abbey, then to a chateau 175km away.
The Germans also likely saw the potential for propaganda in the tapestry and may have used it as part of efforts to rouse France for a potential invasion of the UK during the War.
By September 1944, it was transferred to the basement of the Louvre, and after the liberation of the capital, was safely back in the hands of Free French officials.
It was the focal point of a post-war exhibition in the Louvre, where it had its pick of spots to be displayed, as most of the artwork had been removed for protection during the conflict.
Upon its return to Bayeux, the city received funding to set up a dedicated museum for the artefact, which now draws around 400,000 tourists annually.
