King Charles hails 'unprecedented' Bayeux Tapestry loan at the British Museum

King Charles has hailed the "unprecedented loan" of the Bayeux Tapestry to the British Museum, calling it the "best possible symbol" of the closeness between the UK and France, BBC royal correspondent Sean Coughlan reports.

The King viewed the medieval embroidery in London on Wednesday, a week before it goes on public display, and spoke in both French and English to guests including President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

What the King said about the Bayeux Tapestry

Charles told the audience he was a direct descendant of one of the tapestry's key figures — William, Duke of Normandy, whose army invaded and defeated King Harold at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. The tapestry "tells the story of the beginning of what I like to think of as the French side of my family's history in these islands", he said.

Speaking inside the Great Court of the museum, the King said the opponents depicted in the work — the Normans and Anglo-Saxons — would have been glad to see this togetherness between France and the UK — "two great nations, which share such fundamental values". He described the tapestry's story as "one of ambition and uncertainty, of oaths and journeys, of ships, councils, kings, comets and consequences", adding: "Yet it is not merely an English story, nor only a Norman one. Indeed, from the moment of its creation, it may have brought together our two peoples."

Macron and the museum on a loan first floated in the 1930s

George Osborne, the museum's director, described the display as the "most ambitious exhibition we've ever mounted". Macron said a loan of the "masterpiece" had first been proposed in the 1930s, but that he was delighted the idea had come to fruition, describing the loan as an example of how "we are united" and a "reminder of what our countries can do if they join forces".

The 70m (230ft) tapestry, originally embroidered in England but kept for centuries in France, tells the story of the Norman Conquest. The King and Queen saw it alongside Macron in the atmospheric darkness of the museum. JOE has rounded up everything Andy Burnham has done since coming to power, and also reported that a royal shipwreck carrying Charles I's treasure was found off Scotland after 400 years.