Chapter 3: The Mysterious Lady

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

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.