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Lady Godiva
Godiva (sometimes Godgifu) was a Saxon lady, who, according to legend, rode
naked through the streets of Coventry in England, in order to gain from her
husband a remission of the oppressive toll imposed on his tenants.
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
female (clothed) horsemen. This version is given in Flores Historiarum by
Roger of Wendover (died 1236), a somewhat gullible collector of anecdotes, who
quoted from an earlier writer. The still later story, with its episode of
Peeping Tom, has been evolved by 17th century chroniclers. Whether the Lady
Godiva of this story is the Godiva or Godgifu ("gift of God") of history is
undecided.
The claim that Godiva's long hair effectively hid her from sight is generally
believed, like the story of Peeping Tom, to have been a later addition, but
compare Rapunzel. Certain other thematic elements are familiar in myth and
fable: the resistant Lord (Esther and Ahasuerus), the exacted promise, the
stringent condition, the test of chastity. Even if Peeping Tom is a late
addition, his being struck blind demonstrates the closely knit themes of the
violated Mystery, the punished intruder (compare Diana and Actaeon). One
element is not mythic: the power and independence of an Anglo-Saxon widow of
the upper class.
Nevertheless, that a lady of this name existed in the early part of the 11th
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 the chronicles
of Ely, 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 Bucknall, sheriff of Lincolnshire, to the Benedictine
monastery of Spalding; and she is commemorated as benefactress of other
monasteries at Leominster, Chester, Wenlock, Worcester, and Evesham. She is
mentioned in the Domesday survey of 1085, as one of the few Anglo Saxons to
retain land after the conquest, and the only woman mentioned as a landholder.
She probably died a few years later 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 May
31, 1678, as part of Coventry fair, was celebrated at intervals until 1826.
From 1848 to 1887 it was revived, and continued into the 21st century.
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 Saint George. It was
removed from another part of the town to its present position.
Source:
Wikipedia.com
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