"The noblest monument in the world relating to our old English history," as William Stukeley described it in 1746, it has been repeatedly described, discussed and reproduced, both in France and in England since 1730. The best coloured reproduction is that by C. A. Stothard in 1818, published in the sixth volume of Vetusta Monumenta; but in 1871-1872 the " tapestry " was photographed for the English education authorities by E. Dossetter.
Local tradition assigned the work to the Conqueror's wife. F.
Pluquet, in his Essai historique sur la vale de Bayeux (Caen,
1829), was the first to reject this belief, and to connect it with the
Conqueror's half-brother Odo, bishop of Bayeux, and this view, which is
now accepted, is confirmed by the fact that three of the bishop's
followers mentioned in Domesday Book are among the very few named
figures on the tapestry. That Odo had it executed for his cathedral
seems tolerably certain, but whether it was worked by English fingers or
not has been disputed, though some of the words upon it have been held
to favour that view. Freeman emphatically pronounced it to be "a
contemporary work," and historically "a primary authority . . . in fact
the highest authority on the Norman side." As some of its evidence is
unique, the question of its authority is important, and Freeman's
conclusions have been practically confirmed by recent discussion. In
1902 M. Marignan questioned, on archaeological grounds, the date
assigned to the tapestry, as the Abbe de la Rue had questioned it ninety
years before; but his arguments were refuted by Gaston Paris and M.
Lanore, and the authority of the tapestry was vindicated. The famous
relic appears to be the solitary survivor of a class, for Abbot Baudri
described in Latin verse a similar work executed for Adela, daughter of
the Conqueror, and in earlier days the widow of Brihtnoth had wrought a
similar record of her husband's exploits and death at the hard-fought
battle of Maldon (991) See E. A. Freeman, Norman Conquest, vol.
iii. (ed. 1875), with summary of the discussion to date;
Archaeologia, vols. xvii.-xix.; Dawson Turner, Tour in
Normandy (1820); C. A. Stothard's illustrations in Vetusta
Monumenta, vol. vi.; Gentleman's Magazine, 1837; Bolton
Corney, Researches and Conjectures on the Bayeux Tapestry
(1836-1838); A. de Caumont, " Un mot sur . . . la tapisserie de
Bayeux," in Bulletin monumental de l'institut des provinces,
vol. viii. (1841); J. Laffetay, Notice historique et descriptive
sur la tapisserie . (1874); J. Comte, Tapisserie de
Bayeux; F. R. Fowke, The Bayeux Tapestry (ed. 1898);
Marignan, Tapisserie de Bayeux (1902); G. Paris, "Tapisserie
de Bayeux," in Romania, vol. xxxi.; Lanore, "La Tapisserie de
Bayeux," in Bibliotheque de l'ecole des chartes, vol. lxiv.
(1903); and J. H. Round, " The Bayeux Tapestry," in Monthly
Review, xvii. (1904). (J. H. R.)
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