Where I differ with you is on the specific meaning of the figures in the border below. Most definitely, in my opinion, Ælfgyva and the cleric are being talked about by Harold and William. I think imagining possibilities is a good thing.
I think you've used your novelist's imagination as a skilful tool of enquiry.
Monk's Modern Medieval Cuisine Februat 2:05 PM Is he not (the duke) a man who has cheated death many times and earned the respect of his enemies? He laughs at Harold’s suggestion that the Witan should prefer a boy over a man such as him, a boy descended from dubious lineage. He has already dismissed Edgar, having heard the scandal of Edmund Ironsides’ mother Aelfgyva, who it was said, had tricked her husband into believing her sons were his when they were really the sons of a priest and a workman. Nonetheless, he is undaunted by what Harold is telling him. William listens, shows interest in what the Englishman has to say, after all he is going to need him when Edward dies. Harold knows that William has never been named atheling, but he is very careful how he presents his case. Harold mentions, carefully – very carefully – because Edward, the king, has told him to be so, that King Edward has declared his great nephew, Edgar, grandson of the courageous Edmund Ironside, as the atheling, which means that the boy is someone who is throne-worthy, therefore a future candidate to the throne.
Harold embarks from his home in Bosham to Normandy with his personal guard. I am however presenting you with a possibility, having been unable to discover any other indisputable explanation for the woman’s role embroidered into the legend with the hints of scandal that have been attributed to a particular woman of that name. I am not in any way stating that I have cracked the mystery, or that I have finally found the answer. It is not a hypothesis that can be proven, but merely a suggestion and an interpretation of what this scene might signify. So what are the implications of such a suggestion? This is what I believe, could be… what the Bayeux Tapestry is trying to convey. Especially if you were a Norman, hearing scandalous tales passed from one person to another like a Chinese whisper. One can imagine it would not have been that difficult to mistake one person for another when there were so many women with the same name around at the same time. After studying the tapestry, the possible candidates and the possible links to the story quite thoroughly, I can come up with no other explanation other than it is a case of mistaken identity where a certain lady’s story has been wrongly attributed to another.
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