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Encyclopedia Britannica



GODIVA

This article appears in Volume V12, Page 174 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: GOA-GRA
GODIVA , a Saxon lady, who, according to the legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry to gain from her husband a remission of the oppressive
toll
  imposed on his tenants. The story is that she was the beautiful wife of Leofric,
earl
  of Mercia and lord of Coventry. The people of that city suffering grievously under the
earl
 's oppressive taxation, Lady Godiva appealed again and again to her husband, who obstinately refused to remit the tolls. At last, weary of her entreaties, he said he would grant her request if she would ride naked through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word, and after issuing a proclamation that all persons should keep within doors or shut their windows, she rode through, clothed only in her long
hair
 . One person disobeyed her proclamation, a tailor, ever afterwards known as Peeping Tom. He bored a hole in his shutters that he might see Godiva pass, and is said to have been struck blind. Her husband kept his word and abolished the obnoxious taxes.
The oldest form of the legend makes Godiva pass through Coventry market from one end to the other when the people were assembled, attended only by two soldiers, her long
hair
  down so that none saw her, " apparentibus cruribus tamer candidissimis." This version is given in Flores historiarum by Roger of Wendover, who quoted from an earlier writer. The later story, with its episode of Peeping Tom, has been evolved by later chroniclers. Whether the lady Godiva of this story is the Godiva or Godgifu of history is undecided. That a lady of this name existed in the early part of the I Ith century is certain, as evidenced by several ancient documents, such as the Stow charter, the Spalding charter and the Domesday survey, though the spelling of the name varies considerably. It would appear from Liber Eliensis (end of 12th century) that she was a widow when Leofric married her in 1040. In or about that year she aided in the
founding
  of a monastery at Stow, Lincolnshire. In 1043 she persuaded her husband to build and endow a
Benedictine
  monastery at Coventry. Her mark, "di Ego Godiva Comitissa diu istud desideravi," was found on the charter given by her brother, Thorold of Bucknallsheriff of Lincolnshireto the
Benedictine
  monastery of Spalding in ro51; and she is commemorated as benefactress of other monasteries at Leominster, Chester, Wenlock, Worcester and Evesham. She probably died a few years before the Domesday survey (1o85Io86), and was buried in one of the porches of the abbey church. Dugdale (1656) says that a window, with representations of Leofric and Godiva, was placed in Trinity Church, Coventry, about the time of Richard II. The Godiva procession, a commemoration of the legendary ride instituted on the 31st of May
1678 as part of Coventry
fair
 , was celebrated at intervals until 1826. From 1848 to 1887 it was revived, and recently further attempts have been made to popularize the pageant. The wooden effigy of Peeping Tom which, since 1812, has looked out on the world from a
house
  at the north-west corner of
Hertford
  Street, Coventry, represents a man in
armour
 , and was probably an image of St George. It was removed from another part of the town to its present position.


End of Article: GODIVA


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