Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva by John Collier, c. 1897, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum

19th century equestrian statue of the legendary ride, by John Thomas, Maidstone Museum, Kent.

Godiva (Old English: Godgifu, "god gift"), often referred to as Lady Godiva, was an 11th century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry in order to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation imposed by her husband on his tenants. The name "Peeping Tom" for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend in which a man named Tom had watched her ride and was struck blind or dead.

Historical figure

Lady Godiva was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. They had one proved son Aelfgar, Earl of Mercia.^[1]

Lady Godiva's name occurs in charters and the Domesday survey, though the spelling varies. The Old English name Godgifu or Godgyfu meant "gift of God"; Godiva was the Latinised version. Since the name was a popular one, there are contemporaries of the same name.^[2][3]

If she were the same Godiva who appears in the history of Ely Abbey, the Liber Eliensis, written at the end of 12th century, then she was a widow when Leofric married her. Both Leofric and Godiva were generous benefactors to religious houses. In 1043 Leofric founded and endowed a Benedictine monastery at Coventry^[4] on the site of a nunnery destroyed by the Danes in 1016. Writing in the 12th century, Roger of Wendover credits Godiva as the persuasive force behind this act. In the 1050s, her name is coupled with that of her husband on a grant of land to the monastery of St Mary, Worcester and the endowment of the minster at Stow St Mary, Lincolnshire.^[5][6] She and her husband are commemorated as benefactors of other monasteries at Leominster, Chester, Much Wenlock and Evesham.^[7] She gave Coventry a number of works in precious metal made for the purpose by the famous goldsmith Mannig, and bequeathed a necklace valued at 100 marks of silver.^[8] Another necklace went to Evesham, to be hung around the figure of the Virgin accompanying the life-size gold and silver rood she and her husband gave, and St Paul's Cathedral, London received a gold-fringed chasuble.^[9] She and her husband were among the most munificent of the several large Anglo-Saxon donors of the last decades before the Conquest; the early Norman bishops made short work of their gifts, carrying them off to Normandy or melting them down for bullion.^[10]

The manor of Woolhope in Herefordshire, along with four others, was given to the cathedral at Hereford before the Norman Conquest by the benefactresses Wulviva and Godiva – usually held to be this Godiva and her sister. The church there has a 20th century stained glass window representing them.^[11]

Her mark, di Ego Godiva Comitissa diu istud desideravi [I, The Countess Godiva, have desired this for a long time], appears on a charter purportedly given by Thorold of Bucknall to the Benedictine monastery of Spalding. However, this charter is considered spurious by many historians.^[12] Even so it is possible that Thorold, who appears in the Domesday Book as sheriff of Lincolnshire, was her brother.

After Leofric's death in 1057, his widow lived on until sometime between the Norman Conquest of 1066 and 1086. She is mentioned in the Domesday survey as one of the few Anglo-Saxons and the only woman to remain a major landholder shortly after the conquest. By the time of this great survey in 1086, Godiva had died, but her former lands are listed, although now held by others.^[13] Thus, Godiva apparently died between 1066 and 1086.^[2]

The place where Godiva was buried has been a matter of debate. According to the Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham, or Evesham Chronicle, she was buried at the Church of the Blessed Trinity at Evesham, which is no longer standing. According to the account in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "There is no reason to doubt that she was buried with her husband at Coventry, despite the assertion of the Evesham chronicle that she lay in Holy Trinity, Evesham."^[2]

Dugdale (1656) says that a window with representations of Leofric and Godiva was placed in Trinity Church, Coventry, about the time of Richard II.^[14]

Legend

Lady Godiva statue by Sir William Reid Dick unveiled at midday on 22 October 1949 in Broadgate, Coventry, a £20,000 gift from Mr WH Bassett-Green, a Coventrian.^[15] (photograph taken in October 2011)

According to the popular story,^[16][17] Lady Godiva took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering grievously under her husband'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 strip naked and ride through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word and, after issuing a proclamation that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, she rode through the town, clothed only in her long hair. Just one person in the town, a tailor ever afterwards known as Peeping Tom, disobeyed her proclamation in one of the most famous instances of voyeurism.^[18] In the story, Tom bores a hole in his shutters so that he might see Godiva pass, and is struck blind.^[19] In the end, Godiva's husband keeps his word and abolishes the onerous taxes.

Some historians have discerned elements of Pagan fertility rituals in the Godiva story whereby a young "May Queen" was led to the sacred Cofa's tree perhaps to celebrate the renewal of spring ^[20] The oldest form of the legend has Godiva passing through Coventry market from one end to the other while the people were assembled, attended only by two knights.^[21] This version is given in Flores Historiarum by Roger of Wendover (died 1236), a somewhat gullible collector of anecdotes, who quoted from unnamed earlier writers.

Lady Godiva: Edmund Blair Leighton depicts the moment of decision (1892)

At the time, it was customary for penitents to make a public procession in their shift, a sleeveless white garment similar to a slip today and one which was certainly considered "underwear". Thus, some scholars^[who?] speculate, Godiva might have actually travelled through town as a penitent, in her shift. Godiva's story could have passed into folk history to be recorded in a romanticised version. Another theory has it that Lady Godiva's "nakedness" might refer to her riding through the streets stripped of her jewellery, the trademark of her upper class rank. However, both of these attempts to reconcile known facts with legend are weak; in the era of the earliest accounts, the word "naked" is only known to mean "without any clothing whatsoever".^[22]

The story was modified by printer Richard Grafton, MP for Coventry, elected 1562-63. Grafton was an ardent Protestant and sanitized the earlier story. In his version Godiva summoned the officials of Coventry and ordered them to shutter all windows and keep the general population within "upon a great pain".^[20]

The later story, with its episode of "Peeping Tom", appeared first among 17th century chroniclers.^[20]

The story is not found in the admittedly few sources contemporary with Godiva. Coventry was still a small settlement, with only 69 families (and the monastery) recorded in the Domesday Book some decades later. Lastly, the only recorded tolls were on horses. Thus, it remains doubtful whether there is any historical basis for the famous ride. The story is particularly doubtful since Countess Godiva would herself have been responsible for setting taxation in Coventry, Salic law, which excluded females from the inheritance of a throne or fief, not applying to Anglo-Saxon society. If only because of the nudity in the story, its popularity has been maintained, and spread internationally, with many references in modern popular culture.

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Images in art and society

The Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, in Coventry, maintains a permanent exhibition on the subject. The oldest painting, was commissioned by the County of the City of Coventry in 1586 and produced by Adam van Noort, a refugee Flemish artist. His painting depicts a "voluptuously displayed" Lady Godiva against the background of a "fantastical Italianate Coventry". In addition the Gallery has collected many Victorian interpretations of the subject described by Marina Warner as "an oddly composed Landseer, a swooning Watts and a sumptuous Alfred Woolmer".^[20] Colliers' Lady Godiva (above) was bequeathed by social reformer, Thomas Hancock Nunn. When he died in 1937 it was offered to the Corporation of Hampstead. Should the request be refused, presumably on grounds of propriety, the painting was to be offered to Coventry. This happened and it now hangs in the Herbert.^[1]

Gallery

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  Marshall Claxton: Lady Godiva (1850), the Herbert, Coventry

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  Lady Godiva at Maidstone Museum

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  Lady Godiva at Herbert Museum

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  Broadgate Clock, Coventry

References

Notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Lady Godiva

• Cecilia Parsons, "Countess Godiva", 1999, revised 2004: biography and developing legend
• BBC News – the unearthing of a stained glass window identified with Lady Godiva
• James Grout: Lady Godiva, part of the Encyclopædia Romana
• How Lady Godiva Got a Tax Break

v t e Herbert Art Gallery and Museum Artists David Gee Francis Skidmore Sydney John Bunney William Henry Brooke Ribbon and silk industry Cash's Stevengraph (Thomas Stevens) Medieval history Lady Godiva Godiva Procession Coventry Sallet Coventry Cross St. Mary's Priory and Cathedral Whitefriars, Coventry Science and engineering Joseph Gutteridge Related Organisations Coventry Heritage and Arts Trust Herbert Media People Donald Gibson John Bailey Shelton Sir Alfred Herbert Lunt Roman Fort Priory Visitor Centre Coventry History Centre