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The cloth
It is an embroidery nearly 70 metres long, not a true tapestry
The Bayeux Tapestry is nearly 70 metres long and 50 centimetres tall. Technically it is an embroidery, since the images are stitched rather than woven. It was worked in wool thread on coarse linen, using four stitches and ten natural dye colours.
58scenes on the surviving cloth, with Latin captions
A crowd
It shows 623 people, 994 animals and 41 ships
The cloth now consists of 58 scenes. The surviving piece depicts 623 human figures, 994 animals, 438 plants, 37 buildings and fortifications, and 41 ships and boats. The final scenes are missing.
Who made it
A French legend credits Queen Matilda, scholars say Bishop Odo
French legend said the tapestry was made by Queen Matilda, wife of William the Conqueror, and her ladies. Scholars in the 20th century concluded it was probably commissioned by William's half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux, who appears on it four times. It was probably made in England.
“Its survival almost intact over nine centuries is little short of miraculous.”
Sylvette Lemagnen, a former conservator of the tapestry
1729
It nearly did not survive the French Revolution
The earliest known written reference to the tapestry is a 1476 inventory of Bayeux Cathedral. In 1729 it was rediscovered by scholars, when it was displayed annually in the cathedral. It was kept in the cathedral treasury until the late 18th century, narrowly escaping destruction during the French Revolution.
On loan
In 2026 it left France for the first time
The tapestry presents the Conquest from a viewpoint highly favourable to William, leading some historians to read it as propaganda. In September 2026 it travelled outside France for the first time in its history, on loan to the British Museum in London while the Bayeux museum is renovated. It is due back by July 2027.
Day 4, afternoon
It comes after Abbaye aux Hommes. Then Bayeux Cathedral.
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The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Bayeux Tapestry, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.