A Complete Guide to HeraldryFox-Davies, Arthur Charles
History
A Complete Guide to Heraldry
Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles
Heraldry -- Great Britain
Concerning the Bayeux tapestry and the evidence it affords, Woodward and
Burnett's "Treatise on Heraldry," apparently following Planché's
conclusions, remarks: "The evidence afforded by the famous tapestry
preserved in the public library of Bayeux, a series of views in sewed work
representing the invasion and conquest of England by WILLIAM the Norman,
has been appealed to on both sides of this controversy, and has certainly
an important bearing on the question of the antiquity of coat-armour. This
panorama of seventy-two scenes is on probable grounds believed to have been
the work of the Conqueror's Queen MATILDA and her maidens; though the
French historian THIERRY and others ascribe it to the Empress MAUD,
daughter of HENRY III. The latest authorities suggest the likelihood of its
having been wrought as a decoration for the Cathedral of Bayeux, when
rebuilt by WILLIAM'S uterine brother ODO, Bishop of that See, in 1077. The
exact correspondence which has been discovered between the length of the
tapestry {15} and the inner circumference of the nave of the cathedral
greatly favours this supposition. This remarkable work of art, as carefully
drawn in colour in 1818 by Mr. C. STOTHARD, is reproduced in the sixth
volume of the _Vetusta Monumenta_; and more recently an excellent copy of
it from autotype plates has been published by the Arundel Society. Each of
its scenes is accompanied by a Latin description, the whole uniting into a
graphic history of the event commemorated. We see HAROLD taking leave of
EDWARD THE CONFESSOR; riding to Bosham with his hawk and hounds; embarking
for France; landing there and being captured by the Count of Ponthieu;
redeemed by WILLIAM of Normandy, and in the midst of his Court aiding him
against CONAN, Count of BRETAGNE; swearing on the sacred relics to
recognise WILLIAM'S claim of succession to the English throne, and then
re-embarking for England. On his return, we have him recounting the
incidents of his journey to EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, to whose funeral
obsequies we are next introduced. Then we have HAROLD receiving the crown
from the English people, and ascending the throne; and WILLIAM, apprised of
what had taken place, consulting with his half-brother ODO about invading
England. The war preparations of the Normans, their embarkation, their
landing, their march to Hastings, and formation of a camp there, form the
subjects of successive scenes; and finally we have the battle of Hastings,
with the death of Harold and the flight of the English. In this remarkable
piece of work we have figures of more than six hundred persons, and seven
hundred animals, besides thirty-seven buildings, and forty-one ships or
boats. There are of course also numerous shields of warriors, of which some
are round, others kite-shaped, and on some of the latter are rude figures,
of dragons or other imaginary animals, as well as crosses of different
forms, and spots. On one hand it requires little imagination to find the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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