King hails 'unprecedented' Bayeux Tapestry exhibition in London

King Charles, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham are being shown the landmark Bayeux Tapestry exhibition at the British Museum.

The visit on Wednesday evening comes ahead of the medieval tapestry going on public display in London from 10 September, which seems set to be one of the blockbuster cultural events of the year.

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, Burnham and his wife Marie-France van Heel, and Macron and wife Brigitte are being shown key scenes in the tapestry, including the Coronation of King Harold and his death in battle.

School children from the UK and France are attending 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 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 is the first official joint engagement carried out together by the King and 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.