Bayeux tapestry

The Bayeux tapestry is a long embroided strip of cloth that visually encoded pictures recording the history of the Norman invasion of England. It is 70 metres (230 ft) long. It is not exactly a tapestry, as it was embroided. It was made in Kent, England, not Bayeux. It was found in Bayeux, hence the name.

It records very illuminating things. Normandy had been settled by Vikings a mere 150 years or so, before the invasion. The Norman people still had strong ties to Viking people. But they had made many adaptations. Normans made heavy use of horses, Vikings didn't. And the tapestry records this.

The tapestry records the kinds of armour worn then. They made heavy use of chain mail, and did not use the plate armour of armoured knights of later periods.

The tapestry records that Normans made extensive use of the dane-axe -- axes with handles almost as long as a spear. It is believed the Normans found these very effective weapons to fight cavalry.

And the tapestry records an early appearance of Halley's Comet, hundreds of years before Edmond Halley suggested it was a periodic comet,

The embroidery will leave France, and be loaned to the British Museum, for ten months, in September 2026, while the French museum it is housed in is renovated.