Lady Godiva (Godgifu)
"Among his other good deeds in this life, he and his
wife, the noble countess Godgiva, who was a devout worshipper of God, and one
who loved the ever-virgin St. Mary, entirely constructed at their own cost the
monastery there [Coventry], well endowed it with land, and enriched it with
ornaments to such an extent, that no monastery could be then found in England
possessing so much gold, silver, jewels, and precious stones."
John of
In this annal for 1057, the death of Leofric, Earl of
Mercia, one of the three great earls of eleventh-century
The legendary story of Lady Godiva is found in the Flores
Historiarum by Roger of Wendover (died 1236). There he recounts that her
husband, in exasperation over being implored to reduce the onerous taxes on the
citizens of
AD 1057...."Having founded this monastery by the
advice of his wife the noble countess Godiva, he [Leofric], at the prayer of a religious
woman, placed monks therein, and so enriched them with lands, woods, and
ornaments, that there was not found in all England a monastery with such an
abundance of gold and silver, gems and costly garments. The countess Godiva,
who was a great lover of Gods's mother, longing to free the town of Coventry
from the oppression of a heavy toll, often with urgent prayers besought her
husband, that from regard to Jesus Christ and his mother, he would free the
town from that service, and from all other heavy burdens; and when the earl
sharply rebuked her for foolishly asking what was so much to his damage, and
always forbade her ever more to speak to him on the subject; and while she on
the other hand, with a woman's pertinacity, never ceased to exasperate her
husband on that matter, he a last made her this answer, 'Mount your horse, and
ride naked, before all the people, through the market of the town, from one end
to the other, and on your return you shall have your request.' On which Godiva
replied, 'But will you give me permission, if I am willing to do it?' 'I will,'
said he. Whereupon the countess, beloved of God, loosed her hair and let down
her tresses, which covered the whole of her body like a veil, and then mounting
her horse and attended by two knights, she rode through the market-place,
without being seen, except her fair legs; and having completed the journey, she
returned with gladness to her astonished husband, and obtained of him what she
had asked; for earl Leofric freed the town of Coventry and its inhabitants from
the aforesaid service, and confirmed what he had done by a charter."
Roger of Wendover, Flowers
of History
The Polychronicon, a fourteenth-century chronicle
by Ranulf Higden, says that, as a result, Leofric did excuse the town of all
taxes except those on horses. A later chronicle adds that Godiva requested the
townspeople to remain indoors during her ride. In the seventeenth-century,
Peeping Tom became part of the legend, being struck blind or dead when he
looked out his window. By the eighteenth-century, the story had assumed its
present form, by the nineteenth, its Victorian expression pictured below, and
by the Twentieth, a decorative element woefully misplaced in front of a
shopping center.
Then she rode forth, clothed on with chastity:
The deep air listen'd round her as she rode,
And all the low wind hardly breathed for fear.
Tennyson, Godiva
(1842)
Lady Godiva
(c.1898) by the Hon. John Collier (1850-1934) is in the
Two bibliographic notes:
Sometime before his death in 1095, Wulfstan, bishop of
the cathedral at
Both Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris were monks of