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LADY GODIVA
Some 900 years ago an extraordinary
occurrence took place on Market Day in the English midlands town of
Coventry.
Two monks at St. Albans Abbey in
Hertfordshire first recorded this amazing story in Latin. Roger of
Wendover wrote of it in the twelfth century and Mathew Paris in the
early thirteenth century. As the Abbey stood at an important
road junction, it would seem that the monks may have heard the story
from travellers who were on their way from the Midlands to London.
The astonishing tale that has
come down to us through the centuries, is that sometime in the
eleventh-century a proud, pious lady rode through Coventry on Market
Day completely naked, covered by nothing but her long hair!
Was this true? Apparently so!
Who was this pious medieval
streaker?
Lady Godiva was the lady, wife
of Leofric, the Earl of Mercia.
Earl Leofric was one of
the all-powerful lords who ruled England under the Danish King
Canute.
Lady Godiva was a rich landowner in her own right and
one of her most valuable properties was Coventry.
Leofric was a tyrant, he
tyrannised the Church and did not hold the same religious
convictions as his wife, nor her fondness for the Midlands and
its populace.
Lady Godiva by
John Collier
Courtesy of the Herbert Art Gallery
and
Museum, Coventry He mercilessly demanded from the
people of Coventry an oppressive tax called the Heregeld. This tax
paid for King Canute's bodyguard and Leofric made sure that the
people of Coventry paid it!
Lady Godiva pleaded with Leofric
to stop this hated tax and he is reputed to have said, "You will
have to ride naked through
Coventry before I will change my
ways".
He was quite sure that his demure,
modest wife would never do such a thing.
But Lady Godiva took him at his
word, and on Market Day in Coventry she rode naked, veiled only by
her long golden hair. As her hair was long enough to cover all her
body, only her face and legs could be seen.
Leofric was so stunned by the
whole incident that he believed it was a miracle that no one had
seen his wife's naked body, and he immediately "freed" the town from
paying the hated Heregeld, and at the same time ceased his
persecution of the Church
Leofric appears to have undergone
a religious conversion after this incident and he and Godiva funded
a Benedictine monastery in
Coventry where they were both
buried. Unfortunately all traces of this
monastery have long since disappeared.
By the 17th century the
story appears to have been altered slightly. The new version of the
story said that before her 'ride', Godiva sent out messengers to go
throughout the town insisting that all the people stay indoors with
their windows shuttered on the day. As she was very popular with the
people (unlike her husband) and every taxpayer realised that they
stood to gain from her 'heroic act', they did as she requested. 
Everyone complied with her request
except for one man who couldn't resist peeping, a tailor, 'Peeping
Tom'.
He was, the story goes, 'blinded by
the wrath of Heaven' for his temerity in not obeying the order.
A statue supposedly of Peeping
Tom, a strange wooden effigy, can be seen in Coventry's Cathedral
Lanes Shopping Centre. The eyes in this effigy appear blank, but
that may be because the paint has worn off over the years.
The annual Coventry Fair kept
alive the Godiva story until the Reformation when the festival was
banned and it was not revived until 1678.
From
this time on Godiva rode through the streets on a snow-white horse,
accompanied by a man whose chief skill lay in his ability to make
rude, suggestive gestures. Peeping Tom again!!
The Godiva Procession has
been revived in recent years and takes place annually in June.
Today a visitor needs only to look
in front of Coventry's Cathedral Lanes Shopping Centre to see a
replica of the sight which tradition insists struck Peeping Tom
blind!
©
HUK
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