The Bayeux Tapestry in its Christian Context

I was probably among the last few thousand visitors to see the Bayeux Tapestry before the museum closed its doors in September 2025 for a wholesale renovation, (and its possible temporary loan to the UK!) I had seen the historic artifact once before, 14 years ago, but pushing a small child around the viewing gallery wasn’t conducive to a detailed inspection.

This time, I was determined to get a close look at the amazing Anglo-Norman embroidery, fascinated as I had been with the Christian context of that turbulent time period. There is very little that is overtly supernatural depicted within the 58 scenes on the linen cloth, so much so that a series of BBC Extra podcasts repeatedly referred to it as “secular” artwork. That’s a big anachronism – the real distinction between things religious and secular came later – but it’s true that the hand of God extending from the heavens over the burial of Edward the Confessor is the only outward divine display. No angels, nor demons, nor anything remotely of that sort occupy the 68 metres of embroidery.

Nonetheless, the Christian context of the Bayeux Tapestry is very real and very significant. In fact, it’s a snapshot of some big societal changes that have been happening over the last 2,000 years, driven by the Christian story. Let me explain.

The story of the Bayeux Tapestry

First, a brief summary. The embroidery depicts the epic tale of Harold Godwinson and William of Normandy and how they faced each other in a battle to resolve the English succession crisis of 1066 AD. It shows Harold, who wasn’t part of the English monarchy bloodline but whose sister was married to the King, Edward the Confessor, travelling to Normandy, being briefly apprehended and saved by William, performing heroic actions in Brittany and swearing an oath to William. On his return to England, King Edward dies and Harold takes the throne. Across the channel, William, who had a very tenuous blood relation to Edward through Edward’s mother and his great Aunt, Emma of Normandy, is displeased. He assembles a large fleet of ships and takes his army over to England where they confront and defeat Harold.

It’s not an overtly Christian tale, and I have no doubt that the major players were generally not very Christian or ‘Christ-like’ people, perhaps most especially Harold and William. But everyone in the story was nominally Christian. And Christian interests were important influences to what happened, which had not always been the case just a few generations previously.

Pagans and Christians of the Viking Age

The Bayeux Tapestry marks the end of what we have traditionally called the Viking Age. This turbulent time was heralded with the brutal sacking of the church at Lindisfarne (north east England) in 793. For many years, pagan raiders from Scandinavia pillaged and looted across the British Isles, settled in Iceland, parts of Britain, Ireland and northern France and caused dramatic changes to kingdoms and dynasties. Both Harold’s and William’s ancestors were part of this pagan ‘Viking’ migration. But as time rolled forward, a slow but unmistakable permeation of Christian thought triumphed in the new wider European continent. So much so that descendants of the pagan “North Men” – the Normans – who had once pillaged important Christian sites, were led by William in 1066 in the famed Bayeux Tapestry invasion of England with backing from the Pope himself, (more on that and how it is shown in the Tapestry later). The point is that they were no longer Pagan, and the triumph of Christianity (or some form of it, at least) is undeniable.

That’s the basic Christian context of the Bayeux Tapestry – a period of change from pagan invaders to Christian champions. But there’s a lot more nuance to it.

Christian influence in the Middle Ages

In particular, there is evidence of Christian thinking influencing behaviour in this time period, curbing unbridled violence, at least in some measure. Some time before William fought Harold Godwinson at Hastings, the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne (crowned on December 25th, 800 AD) had initially conducted imperial expansion by forcing conversion and Christian baptism under the threat of the sword. But when Bishop Alcuin reprimanded him, telling him that this was not the Christian way, (“Faith is a free act of the will, not a forced act. We must appeal to the conscience, not compel it by violence. You can force people to be baptised, but you cannot force them to believe”), the policy was dropped. An early witness to the way that Christianity and the teachings of Jesus had some influence in a changing world.

It was the same Alcuin who had expressed horror at the pagan raid at Lindisfarne, and who theorised that the Vikings were instruments of God’s judgement for the sins of England. Christianity was therefore not only softening the ruthless, but providing the lens through which to interpret events, which proved to be very influential. Fast forward nearly 300 years later, through embattled Saxon kings and colourful Viking characters such as Sweyn Forkbeard and Canute the Great, the raid on the south coast of England by the Normans had an incredible similarity with Lindisfarne. The English chronicles would come to describe the Norman conquest as terrible judgement on the nation for their sins. “There King Harold was slain, and earl Leofwine his brother, earl Gyrth his brother, and many good men, and the French held the battlefield, as God granted them for the people’s sins.”

This time, however, it wasn’t a pagan invasion. William the Conqueror set sail with his invasion fleet under the Papal banner, which can be seen in the embroidery (at least, that’s one fairly solid interpretation). This had been granted him by the Pope by way of approval of his invasion and is recorded not only in the Tapestry but also in William of Poitier’s account. David Musgrove and Michael Lewis acknowledge an “interesting interpretation of the whole Tapestry is that it should be seen as a religious story, with William’s adventure essentially being a crusade to punish the oath-breaker Harold and reform the wicked practices of the English.”^[1] The Anglo-Saxons, it was believed, required judgement, and the Pope was willing to grant William the approval to execute this judgement and to reform the kingdom of England. Lindesfarne was repeated to 100 times order of magnitude, and this time by a nominally Christian ruler.

What was different about William’s conquest from the earlier Viking raids and the Danish conquest of 1016? Unlike Canute the Great, who maintained the status quo by killing all who opposed him, William simply chastised and punished those who attempted rebellion by seizing lands and allowing them the honour of buying back their property. Not perfect justice in 21st century standards at all, but a significant improvement on revelling in violence. The Norman conquest also changed attitudes towards chattel slavery at the time, even though much more soul searching would be needed on that topic in future centuries. This was all unheard of at the beginning of the so-called Viking age. Yet generations down the line, the influence of Christ was unmistakable, though faint.

The Christian context to the Bayeux Tapestry

I want to be clear that I don’t condone invading countries and committing mass slaughter, and I don’t particularly see true Christianity in the actions of these “Christian” dukes and kings. The battle of Hastings was a bloody and terrible day that sees no parallel with the teaching of Jesus. And yet, despite the imperfect Christianity that the pagan Vikings’ descendants embraced, the quiet teaching of Jesus was slowly but surely forging a Christian conscience that developed more and more through time until more and more people could actually access the text of the Bible for themselves. William the Conqueror’s invasion was part of a growing Christian recognition that the sins of the people, wherever and whoever, need to be purged and society needs to be reformed. A reformation of sorts that grew and and flourished in Western society to lead to multiple facets of modern life that we take for granted.

The Norman invasion was therefore not simply a land grab by an ambitious foreign Duke from the continent. It represents the changes that were afoot in Europe that had been ongoing since Jesus commissioned his followers to “go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them” (Matthew 28:19) and taught about confronting sin like sweeping out a house thoroughly (Matthew 12:43-45) or cutting off your hand if it offends (Matthew 5:27-30). Messages of dealing with human wickedness and sin, combined with a belief that this was a universal need – that all people needed saving and could be saved – created this conscience that influenced history. Though it was much distorted in an imperial form, the voice of Christ was heard through the noise of politics power and has shaped the world of today.

Related Content

For more on the intersection between the Bible and history:

• Episode 22: The Bible and History: “Don’t tire now, here comes Tyre!”
• Episode 7: The Bible and History
• Episode 35: The Jesus of History

^[1] David Musgrove and Michael Lewis, The Story of the Bayeux Tapestry: Unravelling the Norman Conquest, p150