The Bayeux tapestry is many things: a public statement, a massive work of collaborative art, a staple of the teaching of British history. The 70-metre-embroidered cloth depicts the events of the Norman conquest, culminating in the 1066 Battle of Hastings and the death of Harold II.

Since its creation in the 11th century, the Bayeux tapestry has loomed large in English history and shaped the way we think about the events of 1066. However, the tapestry is other things too.

First, it is not actually a tapestry, but an embroidery. The images on the cloth are not woven into it, but worked in crewel threads (worsted wool yarn – crewel is the old Welsh word for wool) on top of a piece of linen.

We should use the correct terminology if we are going to place this piece into its rightful place in the history of women’s creative labour and especially embroidery. Embroidery may be typically considered a solo pursuit of little political importance but this is not the case, as the Bayeux creation clearly shows.

As someone who researches comics, war and violence, I see the Bayeux embroidery as a prime example of the importance of visual narratives for political myth-making and nation-building.

Needlework as historical........

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