The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry by David Musgrove

Author:David Musgrove
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
Published: 2021-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

A church fit for a king

Events move on very quickly indeed after the encounter between Harold and the King. The domed building Edward is seated in appears almost to overlap two towers next to an altogether larger structure, the newly consecrated Westminster Abbey (Scene 26). Running across the top of a long and complicated scene is the text hIC PoRTATVR CORPVS EADWARDI REGIS AD ECCLESIAM S[AN]C[T]I PETRI AP[OSTO]LI (Here King Edward’s body is being carried to the church of St Peter the Apostle). So now, suddenly, King Edward is dead.

We have arrived at this crucial moment of Edward’s demise very abruptly. So we should step back a little and assess the details before we delve into what has led up to it. Holding on to the shorter of the two towers is a precariously perched figure who is fixing a weathervane to the east end of the church of St Peter the Apostle – Westminster Abbey. Very little of the eleventh-century building commissioned by Edward remains today because it was largely demolished in 1245 to make way for a magnificent replacement under King Henry III (r. 1216–72), who was a devoted admirer of Edward the Confessor. Much scholarly debate has centred on how closely the detailed representation in the Bayeux Tapestry reflects what the building actually looked like in Edward’s time. Excavations have revealed that it had a crossing tower and an east end with two bays, which could be implied by the presence of two windows in the Tapestry. The Life of King Edward describes a church with a crossing, a central tower and numerous ascending spiral staircases, which could also be consistent with what is represented in the Tapestry. The final structure had towers at the west end, which are not visible in the embroidery, but experts agree these were completed later.

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