Remarks by His Majesty The King at the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition, British Museum

Monsieur le Président, Madame Macron, your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Je ne saurais vous dire combien mon épouse et moi-même sommZ-heureux d’être parmi vous ce soir, au British Museum, après avoir admiré la Tapisserie de Bayeux – présentée ici au Royaume-Uni pour la première fois au cours de sa longue et remarquable histoire.

[TRANSLATION: I cannot tell you how delighted my wife and I are to be with you this evening at the British Museum, having just admired the Bayeux Tapestry — here on display in the United Kingdom for the first time in its long and remarkable history.]

Monsieur le Président, let me first extend my deepest appreciation to you, and to the French people, for the trust you have placed in the United Kingdom by agreeing to this unprecedented loan. I well remember our discussing this possibility during our State Visit to France in 2023; it is a particular joy therefore, to see the hope become reality. Indeed, it is thanks to the certainty you have always had – and which I very much share – that we are here this evening in order that the Tapestry should be seen, in London, for the benefit of the peoples of both our countries, the best possible symbol of that 'Entente amicale', of which we have both spoken so fondly…
Je vous remercie mille fois.

Anyone studying the Tapestry’s scenes in detail will notice that even in the eleventh century, historic events rarely happened without extensive discussion, careful planning and a great deal of organisation beforehand. Let me, therefore, express my sincere gratitude to our respective envoys, along with the diplomats, officials, conservators, security and police forces, and all those in both our countries who have worked tirelessly to make this loan possible.

The Bayeux Tapestry tells a story familiar to most people in this country: the events of 1066, the Battle of Hastings and the Norman Conquest — a moment that changed the course of these islands forever. It also tells the story of the beginning of what I like to think of as the French side of my Family's history in these islands. Indeed, I was honoured to host you, Monsieur le Président, last year in the very Castle that William, Conqueror and Duke of Normandy, built at Windsor. I would just note, at this stage, that whilst I am undoubtedly the direct descendant of King William I, I am informed that the 13th Century Treaty of Paris may sadly affect any claims to be the current duc de Normandie…!

The Tapestry’s story is one of ambition and uncertainty, of oaths and journeys, of ships, councils, kings, comets and consequences. Yet it is not merely an English story, nor only a Norman one. Indeed, from the moment of its creation, it may have brought together our two peoples – commissioned in Normandy, yet most likely to have been embroidered in Canterbury by English craftspeople. The Bayeux Tapestry – or the Canterbury Embroidery as it might just have been called… – recounts a conflict, yet here it is today, nearly a thousand years later, as a precious symbol of trust, at a time when trust seems sadly to be in short supply between Nations. I cannot help but feel that its protagonists, on both sides of the Channel, would look with satisfaction on the Franco-British gathering here today, and be pleased that our two great nations, which share such fundamental values, have prospered together, across the tides of History. As Shakespeare said in The Tempest, “what is past is prologue”. We have defended our values together in times of peril; we continue do so today across the World.

It once depicted warriors crossing the Channel; yet today it forms part of a cultural exchange that will see some of the British Museum's own precious artefacts travel to France in return, in a spirit of friendship. Indeed, next year, the Sutton Hoo Treasures will be seen in Caen — these astonishing treasures from the Anglo-Saxon world of the seventh-century, whose craftsmanship speaks of a society connected not only to these islands, but to continental Europe and far beyond. Alongside this, the twelfth-century Lewis Chessmen, discovered in the Scottish Hebrides, with their kings and queens, bishops and warriors, will be on display in Rouen, along with a series of Renaissance drawings.

These seventy metres of memory and artistry remind us, therefore, that our two Nations have been bound together for almost a millennium. The moments depicted in the Tapestry echo into our own days. What is the truth of the oath that Harold supposedly swore to William on the bones of saints, as portrayed in the Tapestry? Dare I say, a far cry from the expert negotiations carried out to agree communiqués after more modern Franco-British summits...

It was then, and remains now, a commonplace truth that neither of us can fully tell our own story without the other…
Monsieur le Président, comme vous l’avez si élé-gamment évoqué dans cette même salle l’année dernière, l’histoire de la Tapisserie n’est pas terminée. Il appartient à chaque génération d’y ajouter à son tour quelques points, tissant ainsi, ce soir et de géné-ration en géné-ration, la trame de notr-histoire commune.

[TRANSLATION: Monsieur le Président, as you said so eloquently in this Great Hall last year, the story of the Tapestry is not finished. It falls to each generation to add its own stitch to the fabric of our shared history, from this evening and into many generations to come.]

Monsieur le Président, Madame Macron, Ladies and Gentlemen, may this Tapestry — and the treasures that will travel in return — stand as symbols not only of our shared past, but our shared future: a future woven, as it should be, by Britain and France together.