New research presents a fresh perspective on one of medieval Europe’s most famous artifacts, suggesting the Bayeux Tapestry may have originally been intended not for a church or ceremonial hall, but for communal viewing over meals at an English monastery.
The Bayeux Tapestry is a monumental embroidered narrative, about 224 feet long and several hundred kilograms in weight, which tells the dramatic events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. With the help of detailed scenes and short Latin inscriptions, it tells the story of William of Normandy’s invasion and his victory over King Harold II at the Battle of Hastings, a turning point that would reshape English history. Despite its fame, many of the basic questions about the early history of this tapestry remain unresolved: where it was first displayed and how it was meant to be experienced.
A new study, published in Historical Research by University of Bristol historian Benjamin Pohl, reexamines the design, message, and physical features of the tapestry to resolve these mysteries. Scholars generally agree that the Bayeux Tapestry was created in the 1080s at St. Augustine’s Abbey in Canterbury, during the leadership of Abbot Scolland, but its original setting has eluded consensus. Scolland, a Norman monk with connections to Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, oversaw the abbey in the years after the Norman Conquest and thus during the era most closely connected to the events depicted in the embroidery. Many scholars consider Odo of Bayeux, William the Conqueror’s half-brother, as involved in the commissioning or supporting the work, but his exact involvement is still debated.
The first known written record confirming the tapestry’s location is from 1476, when it appears in an inventory at Bayeux Cathedral in Normandy. Until that time, there is no clear record of where it was kept or displayed. Pohl’s study maintains that this gap in the record could be explained if the tapestry was originally intended for use within a monastic refectory, the common dining hall where monks came together daily to take meals with reading and reflection.
According to this interpretation, the refectory would have been a perfect space for a long, visually dense narrative to which one could attend gradually, rather than all at once. Viewing the tapestry during mealtimes could also resolve several apparent contradictions that have puzzled scholars for decades, including whether the work was addressed to a religious or secular audience, whether viewers needed to be literate to understand it, and whether its story presents Norman or English perspectives. In a monastic setting, the tapestry could function simultaneously as history, moral reflection, and communal storytelling.
The study notes that no direct physical evidence exists to confirm the tapestry’s having ever hung at St. Augustine’s Abbey. However, architectural and historical factors could somewhat explain this absence. The refectory of the abbey, planned in the late 11th century, was not completed until the early 12th century, raising the possibility that the tapestry was stored for many years before eventually leaving Canterbury and, centuries later, appearing in Bayeux.
While absolute proof may never come to light, the refectory hypothesis provides a coherent explanation for many of the tapestry’s unresolved mysteries.
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