Chapter 3: The Mysterious Lady

Scene 1: William and Harold arrive at Rouen - with a mysterious scene to their right

Scene 7 of 32

William and Harold ride with soldiers to Williams’s palace at Rouen, and now William has the hawk! William sits while Harold talks to him. The mysterious incident between a woman named Aelfgyva and a priest, on the far right, seems to have nothing to do with the main story, but it may have been well known in the 11th century. It might refer to a sexual scandal: the man in the lower border is naked in the original tapestry, but he has been provided with shorts by the Victorian embroiderers who made this copy.