The Bayeux Tapestry and beyond: different perspectives on the Norman Conquest of 1066

The Bayeux Tapestry provides an important and very visual narrative of the events leading up to the Norman Conquest, but it was created with the benefit of hindsight, and provides a particular perspective on the Conquest. This course examines how other sources provide additional evidence which, taken together with the Tapestry, provide a more complete picture of events, including the things the Tapestry ‘forgot’ to mention, including the important role of women in the politics of the time. The sources considered include textual evidence from England, Normandy and Scandinavia, as well as coinage, where recent finds are fundamentally changing our understanding.