First look at the upcoming series “King and Conqueror” which will be about the invasion of William of Normandy and the subsequent conquest of England. Coming in 2025 on BBC, with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Clémence Poésy as William I and Matilda of Flanders.
…this looks as if it indeed may be to my great interest, depending on how good it is, but as someone who literally once wrote a paper entitled “Why This Man Did Not Have a Mustache” in re: William of Normandy not having a mustache, I am Dismayed at their incorrect facial hair choices. This visual rendition looks to be based on the statue of William in his birthplace of Caen, Normandy, which DOES have a mustache:
That was sculpted in the 19th century and gave him a Fine Fierce Barbarian Mustache, but our actual contemporary depictions of William from the Bayeux Tapestry show him notably clean-shaven and at times with fair hair (which matches our scanty chronicle-based description of him as “fierce, fair, and extremely strong”)
Given that the Bayeux Tapestry is both a visual AND contemporaneous source (it was likely made in the latter years of William’s rule by his half-brother Odo), it seems to ME (as clearly they should have asked me, Historian Upon The Tumblrs) that its depiction should take precedent over a Victorian-era statue and thus he should not in fact have a mustache. Especially as the Normans are additionally and explicitly described as not having facial hair, leaving the Saxons confused as to why William had brought so many priests (i.e. clean-shaven men) with him. Not that I have strong feelings about this or anything, but also, you can’t make a TV series about William the Conqueror and not expect me to have strong feelings about it. With that, I shall bring this extremely niche and self-indulgent rant about historically inaccurate facial hair choices to an end, and note that I AM excite about this, again, if it is good. If not, they may find me under their beds in the middle of the night. Ahem.
EDITED TO ADD: Why is Harold the short-haired and clean-shaven one here? He was pretty much full Dane and an Anglo-Saxon king. He should have long hair and a beard. C’mon.
amhrancas 