Bayeux tapestry arrives in London: 68 facts about medieval embroidery

After nearly a thousand years in France and two prior refusals, the Bayeux Tapestry has crossed the Channel to rest, briefly, at the British Museum — a loan so fraught with risk that those who made it possible say it will never happen again. The 11th-century embroidery, stitched by unnamed women to commemorate a conquest that reshaped England, carries within its linen threads the weight of wars, revolutions, and near-destructions. Its arrival in London is less a cultural exchange than a reckoning with how fragile the things we call permanent truly are.