President Macron’s loan of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum is the perfect way to mark King Charles III’s first state visit of his reign. It ticks all the boxes.
It’s the greatest relic of Anglo-Norman royal history, probably commissioned in the 1070s by Odo of Bayeux, William the Conqueror’s half-brother, who became the Earl of Kent after the Conquest. And the tapestry’s extreme beauty – strictly speaking, it’s an embroidery – appeals to the King’s aesthetic side.
