Invited to a ceremony at the British Museum around the Bayeux tapestry loan, Emmanuel Macron received an unusual promise from actor James Norton, star of the new BBC King and Conqueror series: the Normans will not be caricatured, but shown “equity” against the Anglo-Saxons defeated in 1066.
Diplomacy can sometimes take unexpected paths. During a ceremony at the British Museum in early July, celebrating the Bayeux tapestry loan agreement in the United Kingdom, Emmanuel Macron was sent a rather singular promise. James Norton, who embodies King Harold in the next BBC historical series King and Conquerorassured him that Guillaume the Conqueror would not be presented as a tyrant without nuances.
“I quickly reassured him: we told the French story, the Norman story, with as little as possible,” the British actor told the British actor Telegraph. “We wanted to avoid the hero and villain scheme. The idea is that some spectators are in the Harold camp, others in that of Guillaume. I promised Macron that we had been fair. »»
A Franco-British exchange
The series, which also stages Nikolaj Coster-Waldau-the ex-jaime Lannister Game of Thrones – in the role of the Duke of Normandy, wants to revisit the Norman conquest of England in 1066 with a “shared” approach. A way of tempering the historical stories that have denounced the “Norman yoke” imposed on the Anglo-Satings for centuries.
Bayeux tapestry is almost 70 meters long
Kamil Zihnioglu/AP/SIPA/© Kamil Zihnioglu/AP/SIPA
This telescoping between fiction and cultural diplomacy occurs while the Bayeux tapestry, 11th century masterpiece, is about to leave Normandy for the first time in nine centuries. She will be exhibited in London during the renovation of her museum. In exchange, France will host several Anglo-Saxon treasures, including objects from the Sutton Hoo site and the famous Lewis chess pieces.
However, the loan of this tapestry makes a few teeth cringe in France. A petition has already gathered more than 40,000 signatures to oppose its transfer to England. A “heritage crime” according to the signatories who alert on the great fragility of the work old about 1,000 years old.
