Your article on the loan of the Bayeux tapestry to the British Museum states with admirable caution that Harold II is “represented in his final scenes in the embroidery with an arrow in his eye” (‘Of course we will give it back’: Bayeux tapestry set for secret journey across Channel, 3 June). But was this always the case?
In 1816 the Society of Antiquaries sent their historical draughtsman Charles Stothard to draw the Bayeux tapestry. Where the threads had worn away, he put in the stitch holes. These plainly show the arrow in Harold’s helmet, not his eye.
