King Charles, Macron and Burnham to preview Bayeux Tapestry display

King Charles, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham are to preview one of the blockbuster cultural events of the year, when they get to view the Bayeux Tapestry at the British Museum.

The visit on Wednesday comes ahead of the medieval tapestry going on public display in London from 10 September.

The 70m (230ft) tapestry, originally embroidered in England but kept for centuries in France, tells the story of the Norman Conquest and the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

President Macron said the loan of the national treasure until July 2027 was a "powerful symbol" of the close ties between the UK and France.

King Charles and Queen Camilla, Andy Burnham and his wife Marie-France van Heel, and Emmanuel Macron and Brigitte Macron will be shown key scenes in the tapestry, including the Coronation of King Harold and his death in battle.

School children from the UK and France will attend the event, with the King and the French president expected to make speeches marking the historic loan.

Sending the tapestry to the British Museum had been announced by Macron during the French state visit to the UK in July 2025, as an emblem of the strong partnership between the countries.

There had been some worries that moving the fragile tapestry could risk causing damage, but French government sources said ahead of the royal preview: "The display conditions at the British Museum are ideal."

The French authorities welcomed the way that visitors in London would see the tapestry lying flat, rather than upright, with this believed to be better for the conservation of the fibres, sewn more than 900 years ago.

It is believed that the final scenes of the tapestry have been lost or destroyed, as it has not always had such careful owners. In the 18th Century, during the French Revolution, it was rescued from being cut up to make covers for soldiers' carts.

At a state banquet hosted by King Charles in Windsor, Macron had said the missing end of the tapestry was a symbol that "in the great mural of Franco-British history, the end is yet to be written - it is up to us to do it".

This trip to the British Museum will be the first official joint engagement carried out together by King Charles and Andy Burnham since he became prime minister in July.

Burnham said the tapestry exhibition would be a chance to celebrate the "shared heritage" between the UK and France.

"The return of the Bayeux Tapestry to England is a landmark moment in the history of our two nations," he said.

French government sources said the occasion will also be an opportunity for President Macron to get to know Burnham.

Support for Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East, and relations with the European Union will be among the topics for the two leaders, say French sources.

Small boats crossing the Channel are likely to be discussed, as well as those Norman versions embroidered on the tapestry.

The Bayeux Tapestry records a much earlier chapter in Anglo-French relations, when King William of Normandy fought King Harold for the throne of England.

Using dyed wool stitched onto linen, it shows the competing claims to the throne, the Normans sailing across the Channel and the decisive Battle of Hastings, in which Harold was killed, allowing William the Conqueror to become monarch.

The tapestry, believed to have been embroidered by English women for the new Norman rulers in the 1070s, includes 58 separate scenes, with 627 human figures, 737 animals, 37 ships and 23 trees, with a Latin narration accompanying the images.

As part of this cultural diplomatic exchange, the UK is lending France one of the British Museum's prize exhibits - treasures from the Anglo-Saxon Sutton Hoo burial.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: "Britain and France have a unique shared history and nothing symbolises it more than the Bayeux Tapestry.

She said "a generation of British children will remember it for the rest of their lives".

There was strong demand for tickets to see the tapestry, with the exhibition already sold out until the end of 2026.

The next tickets, covering visits between January and March 2027, will be available from the British Museum from 21 October.

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