Life in the High Middle Ages In this detail from the Bayeux tapestry, men pull a cart loaded with wine and spears to the ships with which Duke William of Normandy crossed the English Channel in his invasion of England in 1066. Medieval chronicles, songs, and stories focus on the heroic glories of battle, but logistics and supply were just as important to a medieval army as they are today. Now on display in Bayeux, France, the Bayeux tapestry is actually not a tapestry, but an embroidery panel measuring 231 feet by 19 inches that records the entire conquest.
(Musée de la Tapisserie, Bayeux, France/Bridgeman Images)