---
title: 'Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/
description: 'An embroidered panel of the Bayeux Tapestry: Duke William, seated and pointing, watches Harold rest a hand on each of two reliquaries, while the titulus…'
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070.jpg)

# Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI

An embroidered panel of the Bayeux Tapestry: Duke William, seated and pointing, watches Harold rest a hand on each of two reliquaries, while the titulus above states that Harold here made an oath to Duke William. The tell is the sworn oath on relics as the story's opening cause: the sacred objects lend their weight to one side's claim, and the sequence that follows is built around it.

- **Date:** 1070
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** Commissioned probably by Bishop Odo of Bayeux under William I; embroidered probably in England (attribution from scholarship, not from the Tapestry)
- **Region:** [Western and Central Europe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=western-central-europe)
- **Country:** [Kingdom of England](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=kingdom-of-england)
- **Medium:** [Artwork](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=artwork)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [Norman England](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=norman-england)
- **Leader:** [William the Conqueror](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=william-the-conqueror)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Religion](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=religion)
- **Event:** [Norman Conquest](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=norman-conquest)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (photograph by Myrabella of the Bayeux Tapestry, Bayeux Museum)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bayeux_Tapestry_scene23_Harold_sacramentum_fecit_Willelmo_duci.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (11th-century work; photo CC0 by author, per Commons page) Photograph: Myrabella, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (2013); Bayeux Tapestry, Bayeux Museum

## Text on the object

Original (Latin) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
VBI HAROLD : SACRAMENTVM : FECIT :
VVILLELMO DVCI :

[right edge, start of next scene's titulus:] HIC HA[...]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Where Harold made an oath to Duke William.

[right edge:] Here Ha[...]
```

Colons are the embroidered word-dividers; the double V is the usual Latin spelling of W. The HIC HA fragment belongs to scene 24 and is cut off by the photograph's frame.

[← Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) [Seljuq gold dinar of Sanjar, dated 493 AH, with the Abbasid caliph named on one face →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/seljuq-gold-dinar-sanjar-caliph-name-1099/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (0130 · Transfer)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Bonaparte, Premier Consul de la Republique Francaise: Revue du Quintidi (Boilly, Levachez, Duplessis-Bertaux)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bonaparte-premier-consul-revue-du-quintidi-1802/) (Aug 17, 1802 · Transfer)