President's tapestry gesture risks rousing Anglo-French rivalry

In a gesture of abiding friendship, or perhaps a subtle act of diplomatic trolling, French President Emmanuel Macron will offer to loan Britain a famed tapestry depicting the French conquest of England during his visit to the UK on Thursday.

The 40-year-old French leader likes to accompany his diplomacy with symbolic moves and gifts as he seeks to underline his message that France is returning to its rightful place as a great international power.

On a trip to Beijing, he offered the Chinese president a French stallion, while Russian leader Vladimir Putin was given a tour around an exhibition at the Versailles Palace last year that marked 300 years of Franco-Russian friendship.

In Britain on Thursday, Macron will offer to transport the 70-metre-long (230-foot) Bayeux Tapestry to Britain for the first time, in an unprecedented and technically difficult journey for the priceless thousand-year-old artwork.

"It will not be before 2020 because it's an extremely fragile cultural treasure which will be subject to major restoration work before being transported anywhere," an official in Macron's office said Wednesday.

The tapestry, which dates from around 1077, depicts the famed Battle of Hastings when William the Conqueror from France defeated English forces in southern England.

The story of the 1066 military defeat, in which the English King Harold famously died after taking a French arrow in the eye, is still taught to British school children and is a founding moment in the long and bloody history of Anglo-French rivalry.

Gallic joke?

Many historians and politicians on Monday welcomed the gesture as a friendly act that underlined the two countries' shared history and intermingled blood at a time when Britain is leaving the European Union.

"It's an absolutely fantastic opportunity for British people from around the country to come, I hope to the British Museum, and see it in all its glory," said Tom Tugendhat, chairman of a foreign affairs committee at the British parliament.

"This is a real demonstration on how diplomacy is done," he told BBC radio.

But other commentators wondered exactly what Macron was trying to say by focusing on an inglorious moment in British military history.

The Times newspaper published a cartoon showing Macron in Middle Ages military garb skewering British Prime Minister Theresa May: "Emmanuel The Conqueror: It's One In The Eye for Theresa Regina."

Writing on Twitter, broadcast journalist Robert Peston commented that "lending the UK a magnificent depiction of the last time this country was invaded and subjugated is a wonderful Gallic joke by Emmanuel Macron."

Argument over origins

The loan might also reopen an unsettled argument about the creators of the tapestry, which has rarely moved from its home in a museum in Bayeux in France.

It was displayed in Paris in 1804 and again briefly at the Louvre Museum there in 1945.

"There is a reasonable case that it could have been made in Canterbury" in southern England, British historian David Musgrove, who authored a book on the subject, told the BBC.

"There's a lot of stylistic elements in the tapestry which would suggest it."

Other theories are that it was made in Bayeux itself or perhaps in an abbey in the Loire region of central France.

French historian Pierre Bouet said the tapestry should be seen by Britons as evidence of the role of France in the country's history.

The tapestry "is a reminder of the military exploit of the founder of the current royal dynasty," Bouet told AFP. "Even if he doesn't descend directly from him, Prince Charles is aware that he has the blood of William the Conqueror in his veins."

The British royal family still has the French words "Dieu Et Mon Droit" (God and my Right") on its coat of arms.

The story of the loan was first reported in the British media by the BBC and The Times.

Macron will hold talks with May at a Britain-France summit at Sandhurst, a British military academy outside London, on Thursday.

The discussions are expected to focus on migration, Britain's demands during its negotiations to leave the EU, and increased defence cooperation.