William, now his liege lord, would be obliged to protect Harold, his new knight. But Harold would have had to make his own promises, and there seems no doubt that he did swear some sort of oath to the Duke. To the medieval mind, there was nothing more serious than an oath, and the tapestry maker makes it clear that this was a religious act by having a witness point to the word "Sacramentum". Harold's oath was indeed a kind of sacrament since it went right to the heart of the matter. What would happen to England after Edward died? Now the English said that Harold agreed to be William's man only in Normandy and that this had no bearing on the English succession. The Norman chroniclers, though, said Harold had sworn to help William take the throne of England.


威廉作为他的君主，有义务保护他的新骑士哈罗德，哈罗德则需要自行许愿，而他似乎确实对自己的君主进行了某种宣誓。在中世纪人看来，宣誓是最为庄重严肃的事。而挂毯的制作者，让一位目击者手指"圣礼"字样，说明此行为的宗教性质。哈罗德的宣誓的确神圣，因为它直接关系到一个核心问题，爱德华死后，英格兰将何去何从？现在英格兰人说，哈罗德只宣誓在诺曼底臣服于威廉，此举与英格兰王位争夺毫不相关，诺曼编年史上写的却是哈罗德誓助威廉，拿下英格兰这片江山。