What did the Norman’s Ever do for Us? ….. all day on the wireless today

Well, they were either a marauding band of super gangsters who stole a country, or just another group who crossed the seas to come, settle and make a contribution.

The Battle

Of course, like all the other collections of people from the Neolithic through to 1066 they left their mark in a heap of ways.

And that is what BBC Radio 4 is going to explore today.

It’s already started with segments on the Today Programme and will march on across the day with a few repeats tonight.

The background to all this is the arrival of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum and the official opening of the exhibition to the public.

The great, the good and others have already had sneak previews, and yesterday the King and Queen, the French President and our Prime Minister were invited to gaze on that famous tapestry which is in fact an embroidery not a tapestry. 

It came home in July and had a resting period but is now ready to be seen.is coming home.

I remain ambivalent at the event but that was for another blog and others I wrote back in July.*

So for now thank you BBC Radio 4 for what promises to be a memorable day for anyone who likes their history ….. even if it’s the Normans.

The first up will be What did The Normans Ever Do For Us? BBC Radio 4, when “Historians Dr Eleanor Parker, Professor Levi Roach and Alex Burghart MP, writers Kate Mosse, Muriel Zagha and Jade Cuttle trace how the Normans shaped British history and culture”.**

Followed by a heap of wireless articles.

And all available all day and on BBC Catch up by following the link.

Leaving me just to include from BBC Culture 'Chest-thumping machismo': The Bayeux Tapestry' reveals the bloody, bawdy truth about the Middle Ages.****

Postcards or comments to the blog will be welcomed on that question of were the Normans a marauding band of super gangsters who stole a country, or just another group who crossed the seas to come settle, and make a contribution?

Bishop Odo

P.S. and having listened to the first contribution which was What did The Normans Ever Do For Us? , if the remaining day's broadcast are as good, it will indeed be  a day to sit beside the wireless.  

That first programme was thoughtful, interesting and above all I learned something.

I had no idea that a group of English emigress settled in the Crimea at the invitation of the Byzantine Emperor and were there till the arival of the Tarters.

Pictures; bits from the Bayeux Tapestry, Ticket site, British Museum site 

*The Bayeux Tapestry, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Bayeux%20Tapestry

** What did The Normans Ever Do For Us? BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0030zjy

***Norman Day, BBC Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/schedules/p00fzl7j

**** 'Chest-thumping machismo': The Bayeux Tapestry, BBC Culture, https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20260820-the-medieval-manosphere-of-the-bayeux-tapestry

Cnut ......The Dane who became King of England ..... one to listen to

Now this was one I enjoyed.

Cnut, 1016-1035

All I wanted to know about King Cnut .... with  the waves at the sea shore added in.

"Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Danish prince who became a very effective King of England in 1016.

Cnut inherited a kingdom in a sorry state. 

The north and east coast had been harried by Viking raiders, and his predecessor King Æthelred II had struggled to maintain order amongst the Anglo-Saxon nobility too. Cnut proved to be skilful ruler. 

Not only did he bring stability and order to the kingdom, he exported the Anglo-Saxon style of centralised government to Denmark. Under Cnut, England became the cosmopolitan centre of a multi-national North Atlantic Empire, and a major player in European politics.

Cnut coin, 1016-1035

With, Erin Goeres, Associate Professor of Old Norse Language and Literature at University College London, Pragya Vohra, Lecturer in Medieval History at the University of York, and, Elizabeth Tyler, Professor of Medieval Literature and Co-Director of the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York

Producer Luke Mulhall"

Picture; English: Coins of Cnut, 1016-1035,2009, PHGCOM, Own work by uploader, photographed at the British Museum, I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide.

In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

*Cnut, In Our Time, Radio 4, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001kpty

Politics and the Bayeux Tapestry ....... one to listen to

Now who would have thought there were heaps of politics in that celebration of the Norman Conquest? 

The Battle

Added to which the programme, Women in Stitches: The Making of the Bayeux Tapestry, offers up so much more about the Normans, the English, and the woman who made it.

On BBC Radio 4, now and later to listen to again.

"The Bayeux Tapestry is coming to Britain in the near future. It’s among the world’s most famous works of art, but it's also a mystery: no one knows who made it. 

The stitching, though, is full of clues. Abigail Youngman seeks to reveal the truth about the lives of the women who stitched it, to unpick the secrets they left in plain sight, in the margins of the tapestry.

Bishop Odo

The Bayeux Tapestry records great historical events but its humanity is in the details: the little boy holding his mother's hand tightly as they flee their burning home; scenes of sexual violence; bawdy jokes at the Normans' expense. Scholarly opinion is divided, but some think it was stitched by Anglo-Saxon women who had experienced war and occupation first-hand.

The detail of the stitches

The main panels were probably designed by an Important Man (hence the focus on battles, on big sexy horses – surely the BMWs of their day – and political propaganda). 

But the margins of the tapestry may have been left to the imagination of the stitchers themselves: probably English women. This 'freehand' marginalia tell a different story, sometimes undercutting the message of the Norman conquerors in surprising ways. 

We can imagine the camaraderie and humour of the women sewing it, talking, about their personal tragedies, the terror they survived, the soldiers who were husbands and sons.

That comet

Read this way, the Tapestry becomes a tantalising portrait of a group of women who are largely unrepresented in history, speaking to us vividly from a thousand years ago.

Abigail Youngman uncovers fascinating and intimate details of these women's lives with the help of Dr Alexandra Makin, Dr Daisy Black, Dr Christopher Monk, Professor Gail Owen-Crocker and Dr Michael Lewis.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery"*

Pictures; detail from the Bayeux Tapestry, from the Bayeux Tapestry, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry

*Women in Stitches: The Making of the Bayeux Tapestry, https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001327r