Western Civilization I / Unit 10 WC1 0927 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Reading the Bayeux Tapestry's Pledge
The idea
The exam's visual sources include the Bayeux Tapestry, the embroidered account of the Norman conquest, and the scene the anchor uses shows Harold swearing an oath to William. The method for an image is three questions: who made it and for whom, what does the scene claim, and what does the claim justify. Read from a reproduction of the primary source.
In practice
Apply. Who made it: Norman patrons after ten sixty-six, in the winners' telling. What the scene claims: Harold, hands on relics, swore fealty to William, becoming his vassal. What that justifies: when Harold took England's crown, he broke an oath, and William's invasion became the punishment of a faithless vassal rather than a conquest. Now the exam's question: what does the image assume. Answer: that an oath on relics binds a man before God, that a vassal who breaks it forfeits his rights, and that the audience shares the feudal bargain of video 0906. The scene is an argument in thread.
Where people slip
A picture made by the victor is a claim, not a record; the English side left no tapestry. Do not answer that the scene proves Harold swore. Answer that it asserts he did, and explain why the assertion mattered.
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