Most people have heard of the Bayeux Tapestry, but few know that the end of this account of the Norman invasion of England in 1066 was torn off the work at some time in the past. The “tapestry” was in fact a work of embroidery. It is currently displayed in Bayeux, France although it was actually made in England under the orders of Bishop Odo of Bayeux, the half-brother of William the Conqueror. Odo fell out of favor and the tapestry, made for his cathedral in Bayeux, was hung for public display only once a year during the feast of St. John the Baptist. No one knows for sure when the last part of the tapestry disappeared, but in 2013 a group of embroiderers in the Channel Island of Alderney stitched a final panel depicting the coronation of William the Conqueror in Westminster Abbey. Scholars have long thought the coronation would have been the culmination of the original work and thus the picture above shows how authentic was the work of the Alderney stitchers.
