Who was Lady Godiva?

Long ago, in Anglo-Saxon times, the people of the town of Coventry, in England, were saved from paying very heavy taxes by the action of their countess Godiva, who rode naked round the town to prove to her husband, Earl Leofric, that she was ready to do almost anything to make her people’s life easier. This is legend, and in Coventry itself there are monuments to Lady Godiva, streets named after her, and even a clock which, every hour, re-enacts her ride. But who was the real Lady Godiva?

Godiva, or as she was probably called by her subjects, Godgifu, was a very wealthy landowner, and her prize possession was Coventry. She was married to Leofric, who was the Earl of Mercia, a big area covering all of the midlands and most of what is now the north of England. Both were Christians, and the ruins of a church they built in Coventry can still be seen. Legends has it that on her famous ride, Godiva asked the townspeople to go indoors and shut their doors and windows so that she would not be seen. She was disobeyed by a man who has become known as Peeping Tom, but he never saw her because he was struck blind by a divine light as he opened his window. Peeping Tom is a much later addition to the story, and probably did not exist at all. As to the question of Godiva’s nakedness, many stories change over the year. One word changed for another with a slightly different meaning can make a great difference to a story, and it is more than likely that instead of riding naked, Godiva rode in Coventry without the usual badges of her rank as Countess of Mercia. She may also have ridden unattended, something which was never done in those violent times when Viking raids were still part of everyday life. The legend says that Leofric was so impressed by her goodness and trust in her people that he lowered the hated taxes, and Godiva has become a local heroine. We shall never know the exact truth of the story, because like so many other legends it was never written down, and merely passed on by word of mouth. But every child in Coventry knows the story, and even today, Lady Godiva is a heroine.