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
- 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
- Country
- Kingdom of England
- Medium
- Artwork
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Norman England
- Leader
- William the Conqueror
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- War and the military, Religion
- Event
- Norman Conquest
- Techniques
- TransferCard 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), 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
VBI HAROLD : SACRAMENTVM : FECIT : VVILLELMO DVCI : [right edge, start of next scene's titulus:] HIC HA[...]
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.
