The Bayeux Tapestry is something of a miraculous survival from the Middle Ages. Nearly intact, and as vibrant today as it was when new, the tapestry was produced in the immediate aftermath of the Norman Conquest of 1066, when the fates of the kingdoms of England and France were, on a single day in October of that year, fundamentally altered ever after. The tapestry was conceived with a role to play in managing and shaping the memory of the violent events of 1066.

Historian Samuel Collins explores the agenda and arguments laid out on the Bayeux Tapestry and what the latest scholarship reveals about the strategies its makers employed for rendering a biased account of the months leading up to the Battle of Hastings.