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

by Janina Ramírez

During the French Revolution it was confiscated as public property and used to cover munition loads.3 Napoleon moved it to Paris, but it eventually ended up back in Bayeux on a winding contraption which did terrible damage to the final scenes. The biggest threat to its survival came during the Second World War, when Himmler requested its removal to Germany as an example of ‘Germanic Art’. The SS-led research group the Ahnenerbe moved it to the Louvre. But a message intercepted by the coding team at Bletchley Park revealed it was to leave for a bunker in Berlin. Had this happened there’s no doubt it would have been destroyed or lost, as so many other irreplicable artworks were during the post-war era. When Himmler made his last-ditch attempt to take the Bayeux Tapestry, Allied forces had already stormed the beaches of Normandy and the Louvre was back in French hands. The tapestry was found safe in the museum’s basement and returned to Bayeux.