Secret sex scandal stitched into Bayeux Tapestry, says curator
Secret sex scandal stitched into Bayeux Tapestry, says curator
Sarah KnaptonMon, August 31, 2026 at 6:32 PM UTC
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The curator of the British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry exhibition believes this scene may depict one of Norman England’s biggest sex scandals
Millions of people will walk through the doors of the British Museum to see the Bayeux Tapestry in the coming months.
As they gaze at the 230ft length of the historic embroidery which depicts the history of the Norman conquest, they will have the opportunity to observe what its curator believes is a secret sex scandal.
For decades, scholars puzzled over the presence of a mysterious woman identified only as Aelfgyva, who was shown being caressed on the face by an unknown cleric, while a naked man posed suggestively below in a border.
Prof Michael Lewis, who has curated the upcoming exhibition, said he believes the woman may be Emma of Normandy, a wife to both King Aethelred the Unready and King Canute, the mother of Edward the Confessor – and crucially, the great-aunt of William the Conqueror.
When Edward the Confessor died without an heir, William used this family link as a key justification of his claim to the English throne and of the invasion that secured it.
Yet there were rumours that Emma had committed adultery with Alfwin, the Bishop of Winchester.
Prof Lewis (second left) pointing out a detail of the Tapestry to George Osborne, the chair of the British Museum and former Chancellor, and Catherine Pagard, the French culture minister - TOBY SHEPHEARD/AFP
Prof Lewis said the inclusion of the scene might have been a subtle nod to the alleged affair. Indeed, it could even have been intended to question William’s right to be king, or an attempt to damage his legitimacy.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, will open the exhibition alongside Andy Burnham on Wednesday.
The French president is the first EU leader to visit Britain since Mr Burnham, who is seeking closer ties with Europe, entered Downing Street.
The artefact, which was made in England in the 1070s, has only left Normandy twice since it was moved there shortly after completion – once in 1803, when Napoleon displayed it in Paris to whip up enthusiasm for his planned invasion of England, and again during the Nazi occupation.Tickets for the exhibition are unavailable for dates before April of next year. When bookings opened in July, people waited in an online queue for more than three hours before the museum’s website told them: “The queue is paused.”
France deployed a helicopter and riot police to guard the Bayeux Tapestry when it crossed the Channel later that month.
The extremely fragile 70 metre embroidery was held in a secure box suspended within a bright yellow lorry on its route through Normandy to the Eurotunnel, where it travelled on a secure chartered train.
Speaking on the History Extra podcast, Prof Lewis said: “When she came over from Normandy to marry Aethelred the Unready, she did take up an English name, Aelfgyva.
“The claim against Emma is that she was having an affair with Alfwin, who was the Bishop of Winchester.
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“The whole basis of William’s claim was the fact that Emma of Normandy was the mother of Edward the Confessor, and he owed his position in England to Norman intervention or Norman support.
“She is the legitimacy for William’s rule. That [naked] figure at the bottom, and the sexual scandal... then it kind of switches it completely against her. It undermines her legitimacy and therefore the legitimacy of the Norman Conquest.”
Credit: Youtube/ Bayeux Museum
The scene was depicted directly after a section that showed William and Harold Godwinson having a heated discussion in France in 1064, two years before they met at Hastings.
In that image, Harold appears to be gesturing to Aelfgyva, and it is assumed that the pair were discussing the succession, and who had the right to claim the throne. Harold initially vowed to support William’s claim although some historians think he did so under duress.
He later took the crown for himself with the backing of the English nobility following the death of Edward the Confessor in 1066, prompting the Norman invasion and his own death.
Emma of Normandy was the only woman to be crowned Queen of England twice and, as Canute’s wife, was also Queen of Denmark and of Norway, which may explain the Scandinavian-style arch that she was framed within.
After being accused of adultery, she is said to have undergone a “trial by ordeal” to prove her innocence by walking over nine red-hot ploughshares placed on the pavement in the nave of Winchester Cathedral.
According to legend, she sought the protection of St Swithun and was unharmed as she walked barefoot over the hot iron.
Dr David Musgrove, content director of History Extra, said: “Underneath the conversation between Harold and William in the palace, there’s another naked figure in the border who’s weirdly doing carpentry, naked. And the suggestion has been that is a man preparing kind of the ploughshares upon which Emma had to do the ordeal.
“If there was a scandal, if she was having this relationship with this bishop, then you can see the cleric as the bishop, and then the naked man beneath, with the prominent member... it would suggest this element of sex scandal.”
Dr Emily Winkler of Oxford University said the figure of Aelfgyva may depict Emma’s role at the heart of the fight for the crown.
“She’s still portrayed standing there nobly with a certain presence in this portico,” she said. “Is it because the scandal was talked about, but it didn’t really get anywhere?”
Prof Lewis added: “She was a powerhouse in English politics, both under Athelred to a degree, but particularly under Canute. I think she was fundamental to him in terms of maintaining control in England.
“She’s just such a dominant matriarch in this period. In some ways, it seems incredible that she’s not in the Bayeux Tapestry. So I like the idea that she might be.”
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
