Riddles of "Tapestry from Bayeux". "Creaking goose feathers ..." - historiography of the Norman conquest of England
Tapestry is an amazing source of information about the life and life of people in 1066. Here is a scene in which Duke William, or Guillaume or William (you can argue which is more correct, you can endlessly) gives Harold weapons. However, look - not so much his military outfit is very different from the armor of ordinary soldiers. First of all, it is a long chain mail with a slit and a helmet with a nosepiece and ... that's it. And for some reason, Harold's sword scabbard is covered with chain mail, so that his handle comes out of it through the slot. Why this is so is completely unclear! It is also interesting that William has striped and clearly knitted stockings on his feet.
"What is written with a pen, do not cut out with an ax"
The proverb is given in the book "Proverbs of the Russian people" (1853) by V.I. Dahl (section - "Diploma")
The proverb is given in the book "Proverbs of the Russian people" (1853) by V.I. Dahl (section - "Diploma")
Rarities stories. Last time we ended our story of the Bayeux tapestry with a story about how King Harold defeated the Norwegians at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and the ships of the Duke of Normandy's army went to sea and headed for the shores of England. But ... since all this has already happened and will never change, let's step aside a little from the purely historical description of the paintings on the tapestry and get acquainted with its own history, that is, where it came from, who embroidered it and how it has survived to this day. In addition, as it turned out, many readers of VO are more concerned about the question - how did people even know about the Battle of Hastings in addition to the "pictures" of Bayeux tapestry?
In fact, the earliest reports of the Battle of Hastings did not come to us from the British, or even from the Norman-Normans. It turns out that they were recorded in a completely different part of France, although also in the north. The times were then feudal, and one should not be surprised that all the then states, although they were considered subject to their monarch, in fact were a real patchwork quilt from the possessions of individual lords. France was no exception! The king's power here was strong only in his domain, and in the rest of the lands he was only ... their nominal ruler. For example, Normandy enjoyed great independence, and here's why.
All the persons on the tapestry are recognizable even without signatures. Here is Harold, who is very easy to recognize by his protruding mustache ...
The fact is that the Duchy of Normandy was formed in 911, after the King of France Charles the Simple (or the Simple, which sounds both more euphonious and more worthy) despaired of putting an end to the Viking raids, and decided to cede land near the city of Rouen to the Viking leader Rollo (or Rollon, in different sources in different ways) and lost! Duke Guillaume or Wilhelm in the Russian historiographic tradition was Rollon's great-great-great-grandson. The duchy gradually expanded, so that in 1066 its rulers were able to extend their power from the Cherbourg Peninsula to the mouth of the Som River. As such, the Normans who settled there by this time had become almost real French: they spoke French, followed French customs, and they also became Catholics. But they remembered well about their origin and were proud of their violent past. As for the French neighbors of the former Normans, they feared the strengthening of this duchy and did not mingle with the newcomers from the North.
To the north and east of Normandy lay the lands of Count Guy of Poitou and his relative Count Eustace II of Bolon. In the 1050s, both the one and the other were at enmity with Normandy, but when Duke William went to England, they supported him. Why? Yes, simply because they considered it beneficial for themselves! So it’s not even surprising that the earliest record of the Battle of Hastings was made by a French (and by no means Norman!) Bishop Guy of Amiens, who was the uncle of Count Guy of Poitou and at the same time a cousin of… Count Eustace of Bologna. And Bishop Guy wrote a detailed poem in Latin, which he called "The Song of the Battle of Hastings."
What a handsome man he is, if you look at him more closely!
They knew that it exists for a long time from other sources, but they found two copies of the "Song" of the XII century only in 1826, in the royal library of Bristol - and then quite by accident. It is possible to date the "Song" both in 1067 and 1074-1075, when Bishop Guy died. Interestingly, it gives a French (not Norman) version of the events of 1066. At the same time, its author made the hero of the Battle of Hastings not William the Conqueror (whom he calls Guillaume), but namely Count Eustace II of Bologna.
Then the English monk Edmer of Canterbury Abbey took up a quill pen and wrote a work entitled: "A History of Recent (Recent) Events in England" between 1095 and 1123 years. And what? It turned out that his characterization of the conquest of England also contradicted the Norman version of this event. True, as a source, this work has long been underestimated by historians. In the same XII century, there were other authors who, following Edmer, expressed sympathy for the defeated English, but justified the victory of the Normans by the fact that it led to the growth of spiritual values in the country and the strengthening of royal power.
The embroidery on the border is also very interesting. At first glance, it is not connected with the storyline of the main field. So, from the very beginning, fantastic birds and animals are depicted on it above and below. But how to understand this fragment below? After all, this is clearly a scene from Aesop's fable about the crow and the fox. And what does she represent here, and in general - why exactly did the embroiderers need her? It's a hint? For what?
The authors of these works in the first half of the XII century were the English: John Worchertersky, William of Molmesbersky and the Norman Oderic Vitalis, and in the second half the poet Weiss, also a Norman from Jersey. True, in the written works of the Normans, Duke William received much more attention. The biography of William the Conqueror is also known, which was written in the 1070s by one of his priests, William of Poiters. "The Acts of Duke William" (as his work was called) has come down to us incomplete, but in the form in which it was printed in the 1731th century, and his only manuscript was burned in XNUMX in a fire.
It is clear that the person who was always next to his ruler was well aware of everything that took place in his life, so "Acts ..." is the most detailed description of all the events of interest to us. But Wilhelm of Poiters himself is not without bias. Whenever possible, he tries to praise his duke, and condemns the usurper Harold. The purpose of his work is obvious — it is to justify the Norman invasion of England. Without a doubt, he embellished some events and even at times, apparently, simply lied about others, just to make the act of conquest legitimate and just.
There was another Norman - Oderic Vitalis - who also wrote a very interesting description of the conquest of England by William. Moreover, he used the works of many authors written in the XII century. Oderik was born in 1075 near Schrusberg. The mother was English, the father was Norman. At the age of 10, his parents sent the boy to a Norman monastery, where he became a monk and spent his whole life doing literary work. Sometime between 1115 and 1141, he wrote a Norman story called Ecclesiastical History. The author's copy of this manuscript has been perfectly preserved and today is in the National Library of France in Paris.
And after all, if it were one of Aesop's fables, there are several of them on the tapestry. For example, here on the border is a scene from a fable known to us as "The Wolf and the Crane", only in this case, most likely, a goose and a cat are embroidered here ...
Oderick's work is characterized by a duality caused by the fact that he spent his childhood in England and his mature life in Normandy. And he justifies the conquest of 1066, but writes about the cruelty of the conquerors, and forces William the Conqueror himself to name himself “cruel killer": They say, in 1087, on his deathbed, he made the following confession:
“I treated the local people with unjustified cruelty, humiliating the rich and the poor, unjustly depriving them of their own land; I have caused the death of many thousands due to hunger and war, especially in Yorkshire. "
Here on the border we see a scene of plowing and sowing and the implements used by the farmers.
Now let's get acquainted with the sources that tell us about the tapestry itself. It turns out that in the period between 1099 and 1102 a certain French poet Baudry was found, who was also the abbot of the Bourgeles monastery, who wrote a poem for Countess Adele Bloyskaya, daughter of William the Conqueror. And in her, he described in great detail the magnificent tapestry in her bedchamber, which was embroidered with gold, silver and silk threads, and depicted the conquest of England by her father. The tapestry was described in great detail by him, scene by scene. But it was not a Bayeux tapestry, since it is smaller and was created in a different manner, not to mention the fact that it was embroidered with more expensive threads. Perhaps, however, this "Adelie tapestry" is nothing more than a miniature copy of the Bayeux tapestry, which was actually in the Countess's bedchamber, but was later lost. Although, perhaps, the author somewhere saw the tapestry from Bayeux in the period before 1102, and then transferred what he saw to his poem. In support of this assumption, scientists who have studied this issue cite the following words:
“On this canvas are the ships, the leader, the names of the leaders, if, of course, it ever existed. If you could believe in his existence, you would see in him the truth of history. "
Until the XNUMXth century, no other sources were found about a tapestry with a story about the Conquest.
This is what it is - the Cathedral of the Most Holy Theotokos in Bayeux, an architectural monument of the XI-XV centuries
Service in the cathedral. Note the exceptionally high Gothic vault!
But on the other hand, in 1476, an inventory of the property of the Bayeux Cathedral was compiled, in which it is written that the cathedral belongs to “a very long and narrow linen canvas on which figures and commentaries on scenes of the Norman conquest are embroidered". Documents confirm that every summer this embroidery was used to decorate the nave of the cathedral during religious holidays. So goose feathers, as you can see, and the works of the Anglo-Norman and French monks told us a lot of interesting things about that time, as well as that in 1476 this tapestry already existed, was used by the clergy of Bayeux Cathedral and was located there!
The tapestry is very informative even in the smallest detail. For example, scene 43: Bishop Odo blesses the first feast that Duke William (this is already the English reproduction of the name of the Conqueror) and the Norman barons spend on English soil. The bishop can be recognized by the sheared tonsure, as well as by the fish that lies in front of him. There are no forks or spoons - only knives. There are no plates either, instead of them in front of the feasting there are round bread cakes. Above them the inscription: ET HIC EPISCOPUS CIBU [M] ET POTU [M] BENEDICIT (Here the bishop blesses food and drink)
In 1562, Bayeux Cathedral was ravaged by the Huguenots during the Wars of the Faith. They destroyed William the Conqueror's gift - the gilded crown, and at least one other tapestry that remained unnamed. But the monks learned about the upcoming attack on the cathedral and handed over their most valuable treasures to the local authorities. In any case, the death of the tapestry was then avoided. As for the "discovery" of tapestry for historical science, it should begin with Nicolas-Joseph Focolt, governor of Normandy from 1689 to 1694. He was an educated man, so after his death in 1721 his papers were transferred to the library of Paris. And among them were the stylized drawings from the first part of the tapestry. It is possible that their daughter Focolta, who was spoken of as a girl famous for her drawing skills, did them. Be that as it may, but already in 1724 the researcher Anthony Lancelot (1675-1740) reproduced them in an academic journal, and thus images from the Bayeux tapestry first saw the light of day in print. Only then no one knew what kind of drawings they were and where they came from. Fortunately, Lancelot realized that he was in front of an outstanding work of medieval art, although he had no idea what it was: a bas-relief, a figurative composition on the choir of a church or on a tombstone, perhaps a fresco, a mosaic, and maybe a tapestry. Moreover, he determined that this is only a small part of a large work, although he could not even imagine how long it could be.
Drawings by Bernard de Montfaucon
The truth about what these drawings were was discovered by the Benedictine historian Bernard de Montfaucon (1655-1741). Being familiar with the work of Lancelot, he set himself the task of finding this mysterious masterpiece and ... found it. In October 1728, he met with the abbot of the Abbey of Saint Vigor in Bayeux, and he, being a local resident, told him that the drawings were made from old embroidery, which is kept in Bayeux Cathedral. This is how the tapestry became the property of all mankind and the subject of interest ... although sometimes not always scientific.
And also on the border of the tapestry are depicted a lot of absolutely fantastic animals and birds ... For example, here is such a blue animal of an incomprehensible breed. Embroider this, insert it into a frame, hang it on the wall in your apartment, and admire ... a piece of "real Bayeux embroidery!"
Well, what fate befell him in the future will be described in one of the following materials.
To be continued ...
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