Editing Bayeux Tapestry (section)

=== Background of the events depicted ===
[[File:Bayeux Tapestry scene1 Edward.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|right|[[Edward the Confessor]] sends Harold to Normandy]]In a series of pictures supported by a written commentary, the tapestry tells the story of the events of 1064–1066 culminating in the [[Battle of Hastings]]. The two main protagonists are [[Harold Godwinson]], recently crowned King of England, leading the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] English, and [[William I of England|William, Duke of Normandy]], leading a mainly [[Normans|Norman]] army, sometimes called the [[companions of William the Conqueror]].<ref name=musset />

William was the [[illegitimate]] son of [[Robert the Magnificent]], [[Duke of Normandy]], and [[Herleva]] (or Arlette), a [[tanner (occupation)|tanner]]'s daughter. William became Duke of Normandy at the age of seven and was in control of Normandy by the age of nineteen. His half-brother was Bishop [[Odo of Bayeux]].

King [[Edward the Confessor]], king of England and about sixty years old at the time the tapestry starts its narration, had no children or any clear successor. Edward's mother, [[Emma of Normandy]], was William's great aunt. At that time [[Succession to the British throne#England|succession to the English throne]] was not by [[primogeniture]] but was decided jointly by the king and by an assembly of nobility, the [[Witenagemot]].

[[Harold Godwinson]], [[Earl of Wessex]] and the most powerful noble in England, was Edward's brother-in-law. The Norman chronicler [[William of Poitiers]]<ref>William of Poitiers: ''Gesta Willelmi ducis Normannorum et regis Anglorum'', {{circa|1071}}.</ref> reported that Edward had previously determined that William would succeed him on the throne, and Harold had sworn to honour this, and yet later that Harold had claimed Edward, on his deathbed, had made him heir over William. However, other sources, such as [[Eadmer]] dispute this claim.