Once-in-a-millennium moment: Medieval masterpiece Bayeux Tapestry finally goes on show in London

LONDON — Dramatic, bloody and occasionally lewd, the Bayeux Tapestry has lived for nearly a millennium as a hand-stitched tale of a conquest that changed the course of history.Now the medieval masterpiece is making history itself, having left France for the first time in centuries to go on display in London’s British Museum — a show so popular that tickets sold out long in advance of its public opening on Thursday.

Roughly 230 feet long, it tells the story of the fight for the British crown between William the Conqueror, a duke from Normandy, and the last Anglo-Saxon monarch, Harold II, also known as Harold Godwinson, which culminated with the gruesome Battle of Hastings on Oct.14, 1066.

Add to GoogleBayeux Tapestry on display in London after nearly 1,000 years02:34Transported earlier this year to London in a secretive, high-tech operation, the ancient tapestry, which NBC News was given exclusive access to earlier this week, is now highlighting the modern detente between Britain and France, whose history is defined by centuries of rivalry, colonial ambitions and bloody conflict on land and sea.The tapestry is “often described as the nation’s pin code because it’s this one really seismic moment in British history, where a single event happened and it caused huge change,” Millie Horton-Insch, the project’s curator at the British Museum, said in an interview on Monday.

After William became king, she said he “invited with him a whole new ruling class of people.” In addition to changing the systems of government and the language, the new monarchy introduced a new type of architecture, she said.“It really changed the landscape of this country,” she added.“It really is a change that’s still felt today in many ways,” the curator said.

LFPN/A.Cazin; Jonathan Brady/PA via Getty ImagesVery little is known about the tapestry’s inception, although the general consensus is that it was crafted within a decade of the events it so colourfully po...