General Notes

Alias:<ALIA> the famous Lady Godiva /Godgifu/
According to Brian Tompsett, UK Genealogist
(www.dcs.hull.ac.uk/public/genealogy/royal/):
" The famous lady Godiva who rode nude on her horse through Coventry!"
According to the Encycopaedia Britannica: " Anglo-Saxon gentlewoman
famous for her legendary ride while nude through Coventry, Warwickshire.
Godiva was the wife of Leofric, earl of Mercia, with whom she founded and
endowed a monastery at Coventry.  The chronicler Florence of Worcester
(d.1118) mentions Leofric and Godiva with respect, but does not refer to
the ride.  There is no evidence connecting the rider with the historical
Godiva. The earliest extant source for the story is the Chronica (under
the year 1057) of Roger of Wendover (d.1236).  He recounts that her
husband, in exasperation over her ceaseless imploring that he reduce
Coventry's heavy taxes, declared he would do so if she rode naked through
the crowded marketplace.  She did so, her hair covering all of her body
except her legs.  Ranulf Higden (d.1364), in his Polychronicon, says that
as a result Leofric freed the town from all tolls save those on horses. 
An inquiry made in the reign of Edward I shows that at that time no tolls
were paid in Coventry except on horses.  A later chronicle asserts that
Godiva required the townsmen to remain indoors at the time fixed for her
ride.  Peeping Tom, a citizen who looked out his window, appartently
became a part of the legend in the 17th century.  In most accounts he was
struck blind or dead.  The Godiva procession, from 1678 part of Coventry
Fair, is heald every seven or eight years."
A monument to Lady Godiva (Lady Godiva on a white horse) stands at Holy
Trinity Church in Coventry.