Latest news with #BattleOfHastings
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Happy Valley's James Norton and Game Of Thrones' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau wage war as BBC drops action-packed first trailer at period drama King & Conqueror
Happy Valley 's James Norton and Game Of Thrones ' Nikolaj Coster-Waldau wage a bloody war in the BBC 's first trailer for blockbuster period drama King & Conqueror. The upcoming eight-part series is set to hit screens this August, and tells the story of the Battle of Hastings, one of the most famous in English history. On October 14, 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, defeated England's Saxon army, killed King Harold II and seized the throne - becoming William the Conqueror. Harold of Wessex and William of Normandy were two allies who were forced to turn on each other after they found out that King Edward the Confessor had promised both of them the crown. In King & Conqueror, James Norton plays Harold of Wessex and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau portrays William the Conqueror. The trailer shows snippets of gripping drama, and offers a glimpse of the deft exploration of the two men. Emily Beecham plays Edith Swanneck who was one of the wealthiest magnates in England before the battle, and may have been Harold's first wife. William the Conqueror's wife, Matilda of Flanders, is played by Clemence Poesy. Other stars in the series include Eddie Marsan as King Edward, Juliet Stevenson as Lady Emma, Jean-Marc Barr as King Henry and Luther Ford as Tostig. Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is known for his role as Jamie Lannister, Knight of the Kingsguard, in the hit TV series Game Of Thrones. He also starred in the 2013 horror Mama, The Other Woman, Shot Caller and Nightwatch. Meanwhile James Norton played the notorious criminal Tommy Lee Royce in British crime drama Happy Valley. Other TV shows and films he has starred in include Grantchester, War & Peace and McMafia. It was previously revealed that the makers of the programme shunned England and shot all of its King & Conqueror scenes in Iceland. They used the unlikely locations of a campsite and nature reserve in Iceland, with Film In Iceland, the country's film commission, offering the production generous financial incentives. Productions that shoot in the country can claim a rebate of up to 35 per cent of total costs. Historians accept that the battle could not be filmed there because it was wooded then, but now comprises fields and hedgerows. However, they say that it could have been filmed in an area such as the New Forest. Instead, producers – who include Norton – chose Hjallaflatir, a campsite in the Icelandic nature reserve of Heiomork. The campsite's rocky appearance could hardly look more different to the terrain of the historic battlefield, both now and in the 11th century. From a series spokesperson: 'King & Conqueror is set across multiple European territories – including Normandy, France, Flanders and Norway, alongside England. Iceland was chosen for a multitude of reasons including its variety of landscapes that can represent these different parts of Europe from 1,000 years ago.'
The Guardian
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘History's most devastating document of war': the simple yet graphic details of the Bayeux tapestry
'Angli et Franci' – these Latin words embroidered on the Bayeux tapestry may be the first time those cartoon rivals, the English and the French, were named together. But in one of the shifts from triumph to horror that make this epic work of art still gripping almost a millennium after it was made, the full sentence reads: 'Here at the same time the English and French [or Angles and Franks] fell in battle'. Below the black lettering, horses and chainmailed riders are thrown about and upside down in a bloody tangle. In the lower margin lie corpses and a severed head. Now, in an unprecedented piece of cultural diplomacy between the Angli and Franci, this 70-metre long Romanesque wonder, preserved for centuries in Bayeux, Normandy, is to go on show at the British Museum. In exchange, Sutton Hoo treasures and the Lewis chessmen will go to France. When it opens in September 2026 this will surely be one of the British Museum's most popular shows ever – for every British schoolchild learns this is not just a work of art, but a document of our history and who we are. It will not disappoint. This is the most engaging depiction ever made of a mighty battle. Beside it, Rome's Dacian wars on Trajan's column or the Louvre's paintings of Napoleon's campaigns are cold. Imagine if Ridley Scott in his prime had made a film about the Battle of Hastings with severed body parts flying towards the screen as the Normans unleash hell: it still wouldn't be as thrilling as the gut-punch of the Bayeux tapestry. These deceptively simple, hand-stitched drawings pull you into a narrative of friendship and betrayal, vengeance and despair, unlocking unfiltered feelings and showing you war as both glorious exploit and futile carnage. One possible reason the Bayeux tapestry sees war so clearly is that it was made by women. Commissioned, it's believed, by Odo, bishop of Bayeux and William the Conqueror's half-brother, the work was probably done in Canterbury by Anglo-Saxon noblewomen. When they embroidered a scene in which a woman and child flee a house torched by Norman warriors, it surely reflects a female experience of war. Yet it is not pacifist, or pro-Saxon. It tells the story of the Norman conquest from the Norman point of view. The Normans had been Vikings a couple of generations back, but by the 1060s they were part of a new European civilisation built on feudalism and chivalry. The tapestry takes you into their world, in which the most important thing you can do is make an oath before God – and the worst is to break it. That is what the Saxon noble Harold Godwinson is shown to do. In the first scene he's pally with the childless English King Edward, whom he hopes to succeed. Then he rides, moustache flying, to his manor, where he prays and banquets before starting a French trip. His ships are blown off course, he's held hostage but rescued by William of Normandy. They become battle brothers, attacking castles together. But not equals. In a scene fraught with passion, Harold stretches out his arms to touch holy relics as he swears loyalty to William. He swore! On relics! So when William hears that in spite of this ritual of subjection, Harold sits on the English throne, he doesn't hesitate. Ships are built, loaded with weapons and wine. The Normans come for Harold. The world here is boldly delineated, sharply lived. These people are so impulsive they don't worry about contradictions. Bishop Odo blesses the feast, as you'd expect. Then he is seen at the heart of battle. When it's looking like a slaughter with no winners, it is Bishop Odo who rallies the Normans. Suddenly it all goes their way. The technically advanced Normans control their horses with the new-fangled stirrup – they can ride and wield javelins at the same time. The Saxon shield wall shatters, the last survivors driven into small bands to be picked off. Harold is hit by that famous arrow, a straight black line sliding in under his helmet. 'Harold Rex interfectus est,' King Harold is killed. When the battle's lost and won, Britain is a different place. We don't see what came next, the castles, the harrying of the north, the Domesday Book – but all that, and Britain's entire future, is implied. William's steely knights become the architects of a new kind of national state. Sign up to Art Weekly Your weekly art world round-up, sketching out all the biggest stories, scandals and exhibitions after newsletter promotion The tapestry makes it a human story. William starts out as a generous noble saving his friend Harold. Anger turns him into something colder: his vengeance has a monstrous finality. Not just Harold but the Anglo-Saxon age has to die, all because of a broken oath and a failed bromance. 'Men, eh,' you can hear the women whisper as they create our history's most beguiling, devastating document. Numbers in brackets can be found on this visual guide. (23) In an emotional rite, Harold reaches wide to touch relics as he swears fealty to William as his overlord. William sits enthroned, commanding him. It's like a scene from Shakespeare. (38) You can see how recently the Normans were Vikings as William's war fleet sails. These longships look like Norse ships that survive at Roskilde, Denmark, as the historian Marc Morris has observed. The artistry is ravishing; each ship and sail is embroidered in coloured stripes. The beasts below are just for fun. (47) This scene is where the tale of chivalry turns brutally honest. For no apparent reason, the Normans burn a house as a woman and child get out just in time. The mother speaks to them as if asking: why? (51) Look, they're riding with no hands! In a river of steel, the Norman cavalry charge into action, a disciplined, irresistible force, their feet in hi-tech stirrups that let them concentrate on levelling their spears and using their shields. Even so, the fighting will become a bloody mess. (57) And it's all over. Harold stands among his last band of vassals, his hand on the arrow that has hit him in the eye or head. You feel his shock, trying in his final moment to remove the lethal shaft or just grabbing it in disbelief. At his feet, the dead are being stripped of their precious chainmail.
The Guardian
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘History's most devastating document of war': the simple yet graphic details of the Bayeux tapestry
'Angli et Franci' – these Latin words embroidered on the Bayeux tapestry may be the first time those cartoon rivals, the English and the French, were named together. But in one of the shifts from triumph to horror that make this epic work of art still gripping almost a millennium after it was made, the full sentence reads: 'Here at the same time the English and French [or Angles and Franks] fell in battle'. Below the black lettering, horses and chainmailed riders are thrown about and upside down in a bloody tangle. In the lower margin lie corpses and a severed head. Now, in an unprecedented piece of cultural diplomacy between the Angli and Franci, this 70-metre long Romanesque wonder, preserved for centuries in Bayeux, Normandy, is to go on show at the British Museum. In exchange, Sutton Hoo treasures and the Lewis chessmen will go to France. When it opens in September 2026 this will surely be one of the British Museum's most popular shows ever – for every British schoolchild learns this is not just a work of art, but a document of our history and who we are. It will not disappoint. This is the most engaging depiction ever made of a mighty battle. Beside it, Rome's Dacian wars on Trajan's column or the Louvre's paintings of Napoleon's campaigns are cold. Imagine if Ridley Scott in his prime had made a film about the Battle of Hastings with severed body parts flying towards the screen as the Normans unleash hell: it still wouldn't be as thrilling as the gut-punch of the Bayeux tapestry. These deceptively simple, hand-stitched drawings pull you into a narrative of friendship and betrayal, vengeance and despair, unlocking unfiltered feelings and showing you war as both glorious exploit and futile carnage. One possible reason the Bayeux tapestry sees war so clearly is that it was made by women. Commissioned, it's believed, by Odo, bishop of Bayeux and William the Conqueror's half-brother, the work was probably done in Canterbury by Anglo-Saxon noblewomen. When they embroidered a scene in which a woman and child flee a house torched by Norman warriors, it surely reflects a female experience of war. Yet it is not pacifist, or pro-Saxon. It tells the story of the Norman conquest from the Norman point of view. The Normans had been Vikings a couple of generations back, but by the 1060s they were part of a new European civilisation built on feudalism and chivalry. The tapestry takes you into their world, in which the most important thing you can do is make an oath before God – and the worst is to break it. That is what the Saxon noble Harold Godwinson is shown to do. In the first scene he's pally with the childless English King Edward, whom he hopes to succeed. Then he rides, moustache flying, to his manor, where he prays and banquets before starting a French trip. His ships are blown off course, he's held hostage but rescued by William of Normandy. They become battle brothers, attacking castles together. But not equals. In a scene fraught with passion, Harold stretches out his arms to touch holy relics as he swears loyalty to William. He swore! On relics! So when William hears that in spite of this ritual of subjection, Harold sits on the English throne, he doesn't hesitate. Ships are built, loaded with weapons and wine. The Normans come for Harold. The world here is boldly delineated, sharply lived. These people are so impulsive they don't worry about contradictions. Bishop Odo blesses the feast, as you'd expect. Then he is seen at the heart of battle. When it's looking like a slaughter with no winners, it is Bishop Odo who rallies the Normans. Suddenly it all goes their way. The technically advanced Normans control their horses with the new-fangled stirrup – they can ride and wield javelins at the same time. The Saxon shield wall shatters, the last survivors driven into small bands to be picked off. Harold is hit by that famous arrow, a straight black line sliding in under his helmet. 'Harold Rex interfectus est,' King Harold is killed. When the battle's lost and won, Britain is a different place. We don't see what came next, the castles, the harrying of the north, the Domesday Book – but all that, and Britain's entire future, is implied. William's steely knights become the architects of a new kind of national state. Sign up to Art Weekly Your weekly art world round-up, sketching out all the biggest stories, scandals and exhibitions after newsletter promotion The tapestry makes it a human story. William starts out as a generous noble saving his friend Harold. Anger turns him into something colder: his vengeance has a monstrous finality. Not just Harold but the Anglo-Saxon age has to die, all because of a broken oath and a failed bromance. 'Men, eh,' you can hear the women whisper as they create our history's most beguiling, devastating document. Numbers in brackets can be found on this visual guide. (23) In an emotional rite, Harold reaches wide to touch relics as he swears fealty to William as his overlord. William sits enthroned, commanding him. It's like a scene from Shakespeare. (38) You can see how recently the Normans were Vikings as William's war fleet sails. These longships look like Norse ships that survive at Roskilde, Denmark, as the historian Marc Morris has observed. The artistry is ravishing; each ship and sail is embroidered in coloured stripes. The beasts below are just for fun. (47) This scene is where the tale of chivalry turns brutally honest. For no apparent reason, the Normans burn a house as a woman and child get out just in time. The mother speaks to them as if asking: why? (51) Look, they're riding with no hands! In a river of steel, the Norman cavalry charge into action, a disciplined, irresistible force, their feet in hi-tech stirrups that let them concentrate on levelling their spears and using their shields. Even so, the fighting will become a bloody mess. (57) And it's all over. Harold stands among his last band of vassals, his hand on the arrow that has hit him in the eye or head. You feel his shock, trying in his final moment to remove the lethal shaft or just grabbing it in disbelief. At his feet, the dead are being stripped of their precious chainmail.
Al Arabiya
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Al Arabiya
What To Know About The Bayeux Tapestry, An 11th Century Masterpiece Of Historical Record
The Bayeux Tapestry–a 70-meter- (229 foot)-long medieval artwork that depicts the Norman conquest of England–will be displayed in Britain next year for the first time in 900 years. It will be exhibited at the British Museum in London from September 2026 to July 2027 as part of a bilateral celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the birth of William the Conqueror, the French nobleman who led the invasion. The loan was announced during French President Emmanuel Macron's state visit to the UK this week. Millions of Britons and people from around the world are expected to view this slice of English history–which is normally housed in France at a dedicated museum in Bayeux in Normandy–while it is on loan to the British Museum. The Bayeux Tapestry Museum will close later this year until 2027 for the construction of new facilities. Here is a brief history of the Bayeux Tapestry, which shines a light on the long and sometimes bloody links between Britain and France. Stitched in wool thread on linen cloth, the tapestry tells the story of the events surrounding the Norman invasion of England. The story begins in 1064 when Edward the Confessor, the king of England, sends his brother-in-law Harold Godwinson to offer his cousin William the Duke of Normandy the succession to the English throne. When Edward died, however, Harold has himself crowned king, and William set sail for England to reclaim the throne. The tapestry ends with the epic Battle of Hastings on Oct. 14, 1066, where William's Normans rout the Anglo-Saxon forces. Historians suggest the events leading to the invasion were a bit messier, but the artwork in thread tells the story of the victor. There are banquets, fleets of Viking-style ships, and battles between armored knights wielding swords and spears. The bodies of the dead and wounded are strewn about the battlefield, and one scene depicts Harold pulling an arrow from his eye. The story is told in 58 scenes that include 626 characters and 202 horses. While the tapestry is a work of art, it is also considered an accurate account of 11th century life, offering clues about architecture, armor, and ships. Historians believe the tapestry was commissioned by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, William's half-brother, shortly after the events it depicts. Exactly who crafted it is unknown, though evidence suggests the artisans were Anglo-Saxons, according to the Bayeux Tapestry Museum. For the first 700 years of its existence, the tapestry was a little known church artifact that was hung in Bayeux Cathedral once a year and stored in a wooden chest at other times. According to local lore, it was almost cut up in 1792 during the French Revolution but was saved by a local lawyer. The first public displays of the tapestry took place at Bayeux city hall in 1812. At the start of World War II, the tapestry was placed in an underground shelter in Bayeux for safekeeping, but by 1941 it had attracted the attention of the Nazis' pseudoscientific ancestral heritage unit, which removed it for study. By the end of the war, the tapestry was at the Louvre in Paris. After the Allied invasion of Normandy in June of 1944, The New Yorker magazine played off the parallel between those events and the Norman invasion of England nine centuries earlier. The cover of the magazine's July 15, 1944, edition showed Britain's King George VI, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill in a cartoon version of the tapestry alongside Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme Allied commander, and British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. British authorities highlighted the connection when they built a memorial in Bayeux to honor UK and Commonwealth soldiers who died in Normandy. 'We once conquered by William, have now set free the Conqueror's native land,' reads the inscription on the memorial. For those who cannot wait until next year, the Reading Museum 40 miles (65 kilometers) west of London has a full-size replica of the Bayeux Tapestry. The faithful replica was created in 1885 by 35 skilled female embroiders, according to the museum's website, though one thing you won't see in the Reading Museum's tapestry is genitalia. The Victorian artisans who created the replica worked off glass photographic plates that obscured the spicy details that were included in the original. 'Although a faithful copy, it's not quite exactly the same,' said Brendan Carr, the community engagement curator at the Reading Museum. 'There are differences that you can spot. So if any visitors to the museum might be shocked by, you know, body parts, then they're protected if they come to Reading.' Such niceties didn't stop an Oxford University historian from counting 93 penises, 88 belonging to horses and five to men in the original, but earlier this year Dr. Chris Monk, a consultant on medieval history, argued that that an appendage previously thought to be a scabbard was actually another example of male genitalia, pushing the number to 94. 'Male genitals are a mode of emphasis that articulate machismo,' Monk wrote in a blog post. 'A more testosterone-soaked scene is hard to find,' he wrote. 'Well, truthfully, there are plenty of scenes of political aggression and posturing in the Bayeux Tapestry: it reeks of male hormones!'
BBC News
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Bayeux Tapestry to return to the UK for first time in 900 years
The Bayeux Tapestry, which illustrates the famous Battle Of Hastings of 1066, will return to the UK for the first time in more than 900 part of an agreement due to be signed between the French and British governments. The deal will see the tapestry arrive in the UK at the British Museum next year on loan from British Museum, which is in London, will loan items to France in exchange, including seventh century Anglo-Saxon artefacts discovered at the Sutton Hoo ship burial site in Suffolk. The culture secretary Lisa Nandy, said: "The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most iconic pieces of art ever produced in the UK and I am delighted that we will be able to welcome it here in 2026. "The British Museum is one of the world's most visited museums and is a fitting place to host this most treasured piece of our nation's history." The 70-metre-long giant embroidered image, which is more than 900-years-old, shows the well known battle which saw William The Conqueror take the English throne from Harold Godwinson, becoming the first Norman king of tapestry is widely accepted to have been made in England during the 11th century after a bishop from Bayeux requested for it to be been on display in several locations across France since then, including the Bayeux Museum in Normandy most recently. "The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most important and unique cultural artefacts in the world, which illustrates the deep ties between Britain and France and has fascinated people across geographies and generations," said the director of the British Museum Nicholas Cullinan. "It is hard to overstate the significance of this extraordinary opportunity of displaying it at the British Museum."This will be the first time the Bayeux Tapestry has been in the UK since it was made, almost 1,000-years-ago."The tapestry will be displayed in the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery of the British Museum in September next year until July 2027.
