Femina: A New History of the Middle Ages, Through the Women Written Out of It

by Janina Ramírez

There does seem to be some consensus that it was most likely commissioned by William’s brother, Odo of Bayeux, although the potential role of Edward the Confessor’s wife Edith is noteworthy, and other suggestions abound too.

art-historical evidence points to the main monastery of his kingdom in Canterbury as the most likely place where the ideas and illustrations for the tapestry were developed.

intended for the nave of Odo’s other major bishopric and the anointing of his new cathedral in Bayeux, with the sections of linen carefully measured and plotted so the action falls at designated locations around the space.

70 metres in length, and like a film reel it is long and thin: only 50 centimetres or so in width.

But medieval art was rarely made to that brief. Even through the Renaissance and up to the nineteenth century, most artistic creativity was the work of skilled craftspeople creating the finest examples of useful objects.

these artefacts functioned in specific settings, such as a church or a home, and existed as part of design schemes alongside other decoration and articles that performed practical roles.

But when we see a medieval ceremonial comb or a page from an illuminated manuscript in a glass cabinet today, we are seeing it out of context.

Medieval artworks would play roles in sensory or ceremonial environments, where the smell of incense and crushed herbs, the sight of candles flickering, the sound of chanting and the sensation of cold stone underfoot created moments of drama.

Artefacts need context to fulfil their intended role.

The Bayeux Tapestry was functional. It may have been unfurled for feast-day celebrations,

women made the Bayeux Tapestry. Exactly who these women were, where they lived and worked are questions we may never be able to answer.

While the three artistic graces of painting, sculpture and architecture had been dominated by men, the creation of fabrics, from spinning wool to decorating textiles, was largely the realm of women.

skills. Some are now known as saints, including Eadburga and Ethelreda of Ely.24 The type of embroideries they created became known as ‘opus anglicanum’ (English work).

Popes became patrons of these English female artists, and opus anglicanum vestments are listed in Vatican inventories.25 William the Conqueror’s own chronicler, William of Poitiers, went so far as to write: ‘Everyone attests to the great needle-craft of English women in gold embroidery.’26

Maaseik Embroideries, are believed to be the oldest complete pieces of embroidered fabric to survive in Western Europe.

Forming part of a stole and maniple – the long strips of material worn around the neck of a priest and over their arm during mass – they do not date from the seventh century when Cuthbert died. But they are still early medieval, made in the tenth century and placed in the saint’s coffin when King Athelstan visited the shrine in 934.

their style and design mirror manuscript illustrations produced there around that time.

Inscribed on the back of both embroideries is ‘Ælfflæd ordered this to be made for the pious bishop Frithstan’. Ælfflæd was the second wife of King Edward the Elder (Æthelflæd’s brother), and she instructed them to be made around AD 915 for the Bishop of Winchester. These Cuthbert Embroideries provide evidence of a known and named woman commissioning and possibly creating an expensive and important piece of needlework for a specific patron;

The medieval embroiderers most likely worked together at Barking Abbey to create the tapestry. It had become the second-richest abbey in the country after securing royal patronage from King Edgar in the 970s, and as the king had the right to choose the abbess of Barking himself, a sequence of queens and royal women had held the position, including the wives of Henry I and King Stephen.

The nuns at Barking received the finest education available for eleventh-century women, reading biblical studies, ancient law, history, grammar and spelling, and hosted William the Conqueror there while his White Tower was being finished in London.

From analysis of the different hands at work on the Bayeux Tapestry it seems that the women worked alongside one another in close proximity, some helping to keep in place the individual sections while others embroidered, with the remaining linen collected together or held on a roller.

While we don’t have a full picture of how exactly it was created, a group of women from Leek made a replica in the 1880s, providing some insights into its production. Under the guidance of William Morris’s friend, Elizabeth Wardle, a team of at least 37 ‘shareholders’ (women who were associated with her school of art embroidery and dedicated their time to the project) were organised systematically.

The Victorian women realised that the most effective way to complete the project would be to create smaller sections that could then be stitched together. It seems the original embroiderers began to realise a similar thing as they worked on the Bayeux Tapestry.

It is possible that this was an unusual project and neither commissioners nor embroiderers had worked on anything of this scale before. The changing size of the sections shows they worked out how to stitch as a team most effectively and modified their practices as they went along.

But as the project progressed the seams became more sophisticated, some appearing almost invisible as the embroidered stitches continued over the break. The planning and coordination between members of the team was becoming increasingly streamlined, and as the embroiderers gained confidence with the project, the quality of their work improved.

unlike other examples of opus anglicanum, it deals almost exclusively with secular subject matter.

There are many similarities between the composition of the great victory friezes on the imperial Roman sculpture and the Bayeux Tapestry, which suggests Scolland may have drawn on it for artistic inspiration, perhaps even sketching it while in Rome.

tone is at odds with the celebratory mood throughout the rest of the tapestry. But comparison with Marcus Aurelius’s column presents another layer of symbolism. In the Roman version of a woman and child escaping, the lady has her breast exposed, with the suggestion of sexual violence as she shies away from the advances of a fully armed warrior.40 In the Bayeux image, the woman is dressed and veiled, while the two men are not heavily armed. The differences are subtle, but they disclose the Christian origins of the Bayeux Tapestry.

main narrative are appropriately dressed according to their status: soldiers in armour, nobility in finery and women veiled and covered.

This might explain a scene that otherwise makes the invading Norman army look destructive and cruel. It conjured up the glory of Rome.42 The very format of the column may have served as inspiration for Scolland, its unbroken continuous narrative leading him to develop a similar structure. By employing the skills of the renowned English embroiderers now under his command in Canterbury, a different medium was used: not stone but highly prized embroidered fabric.

While many other religious institutions across the country were destroyed and reconfigured along Norman lines, the reputation of Canterbury and its patronage under Scolland meant it wasn’t so negatively impacted.

In its very existence, the tapestry urged England’s Norman overlords to consider how the country’s educational and creative centres might be put to the service of the new regime, rather than ransacked or dismantled.

When looking for inspiration for the Bayeux Tapestry, the artists turned to even older manuscripts held at St Augustine’s Abbey.

Hastings, is based directly on an image from the St Augustine Gospel Book depicting Christ at the Last Supper. This manuscript was already legendary by the time of the Norman Conquest, as it had been brought to England by the first wave of Roman Christian missionaries at the end of the sixth century.

The suggestion that Odo was taking the role of Christ is sycophantic; an attempt by the subjugated to flatter their subjugator. But the English viewers may have also picked up on other subtle references to native sources, particularly in the decorative margins.

Alongside the 623 men, 201 of whom are armed with weapons including axes, swords, spears, clubs, bows and arrows, there are 37 ships, 35 hunting dogs and 190 horses – the trappings of male knights and warriors. A staggering 88 of these horses are depicted with large penises. There are four men with erections, too, and one flaccid penis is visible in the margin where an individual is being stripped of his chain mail.

The most important man on the tapestry rides the horse with the biggest phallus. The second largest belongs to the horse ridden by King Harold; the implication being that he is a worthy opponent, second only to William himself.

The embroidered penises on the original tapestry remind us not to project current or recent ideas about prudishness or censorship back through the centuries.

These scenes reflect moments of betrayal in the main narrative, such as when Harold is taken hostage. The scenes below or above mirror and enhance the message of the images in the centre.

Sexual images tie into the larger morality of the tapestry ... Its alk fable

Just as we consume gossip magazines and newspapers reporting on the latest indiscretions of politicians and celebrities, so viewers of the Bayeux Tapestry would have gleaned titbits of gossip from these images.

Women are conspicuous by their rarity; the presence of non-presence.