Individual Details
Countess Godgifu "Lady Godiva"
(Ca 1000 - )
thePeerage.com
Godiva (?)1
F, #464871
Last Edited=7 Feb 2011
Godiva (?) married Leofric, Earl of Mercia, son of Leofwine, Ealdorman of the Hwicce.1
Citations
[S130] Wikipedia, online http;//www.wikipedia.org. Hereinafter cited as Wikipedia.
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From
http://www.ffish.com/family_tree/Descendants_Lady_Godiva/D1.htm
Descendants of Lady GODIVA (c.1010-1067)
First Generation Next
1. Godgifu,1 2 daughter of Thorald, Sheriff of Lincoln, was born about 1010 in, England, died on 10 Sep 1067 about age 57, and was buried in , England. Another name for Godgifu was Lady Godiva.
Birth Notes: FamilySearch has b. abt. 980, Mercia.
Research Notes: From Ancestral Roots, Line 176A-2:
"LEOFRIC... m. prob. by 1030 (pos. as her 2nd husb.) Godgifu (or Godiva), b. prob. abt. 1010, sister of Thorold of Buckingham, sheriff of Lincolnshire. Godgifu's ancestry is uncertain, but she was evidently of an old, noble family. She is the 'Lady Godiva' of legend. They had one known child... Aelfgar"
Godgifu married Leofric,2 3 son of Leofwine, Earl of Mercia and Alwara, by 1030. Leofric was born on 14 May 968 in Mercia, England and died on 31 Aug 1057 in Bromley, Stafford, England at age 89. Another name for Leofric was Leofric III Earl of Mercia.
Research Notes: From Ancestral Roots, Line 176A-2:
"LEOFRIC, d. Bromley, co. Stafford, 31 Aug. 1057, founder of the church of Coventry, seen as thegn from 1005, 'dux' from 1026, Earl of Mercia by 1032..."
Noted events in his life were:
• Founder: of Church of Coventry.
• Thegn: 1005.
• Dux: 1026.
• Earl of Mercia: by 1032.
The child from this marriage was:
+ 2 M i. Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia 2 4 was born about 1002 in, England, died after 1062 in , England, and was buried in Coventry, Warwickshire, England.
previous Second Generation Next
2. Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia 2 4 (Godgifu1) was born about 1002 in, England, died after 1062 in , England, and was buried in Coventry, Warwickshire, England. Another name for Ælfgar was Ælfgar III Earl of Mercia.
Noted events in his life were:
• Earl of East Anglia: 1053.
• Earl of Mercia: 1057.
• Banished: 1058.
Ælfgar married Ælfgifu,2 5 daughter of Æthelred II "the Redeless", King of England and Ælfgifu, of York,. Ælfgifu was born about 997 in, England. Another name for Ælfgifu was Elgifu Princess of England.
Children from this marriage were:
+ 3 F i. Edith 2 6 was born about 1034 in, England and died after 1086.
+ 4 M ii. Eadwine .5
+ 5 M iii. Morkere .5
+ 6 M iv. Burchard .5
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From http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/anglo-saxon/flowers/godiva.html
Lady Godiva (Godgifu)
"Among his other good deeds in this life, he and his wife, the noble countess Godgiva, who was a devout worshipper of God, and one who loved the ever-virgin St. Mary, entirely constructed at their own cost the monastery there [Coventry], well endowed it with land, and enriched it with ornaments to such an extent, that no monastery could be then found in England possessing so much gold, silver, jewels, and precious stones."
John of Worcester, Chronicle
In this annal for 1057, the death of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, one of the three great earls of eleventh-century England, is recorded. A powerful political figure, it was Leofric who supported Harold's claim to the throne on the death of his father Cnut in 1035 and who averted civil war by mediating the quarrel between Edward the Confessor and Earl Godwin in 1051. Both Leofric and his young wife, Godgifu, whose name means "God's Gift," were benefactors of the church, most notably the monastery at Coventry.
The legendary story of Lady Godiva is found in the Flores Historiarum by Roger of Wendover (died 1236). There he recounts that her husband, in exasperation over being implored to reduce the onerous taxes on the citizens of Coventry, agreed to do so if she would ride naked through the marketplace. This she did, covered only by her long hair:
AD 1057...."Having founded this monastery by the advice of his wife the noble countess Godiva, he [Leofric], at the prayer of a religious woman, placed monks therein, and so enriched them with lands, woods, and ornaments, that there was not found in all England a monastery with such an abundance of gold and silver, gems and costly garments. The countess Godiva, who was a great lover of Gods's mother, longing to free the town of Coventry from the oppression of a heavy toll, often with urgent prayers besought her husband, that from regard to Jesus Christ and his mother, he would free the town from that service, and from all other heavy burdens; and when the earl sharply rebuked her for foolishly asking what was so much to his damage, and always forbade her ever more to speak to him on the subject; and while she on the other hand, with a woman's pertinacity, never ceased to exasperate her husband on that matter, he a last made her this answer, 'Mount your horse, and ride naked, before all the people, through the market of the town, from one end to the other, and on your return you shall have your request.' On which Godiva replied, 'But will you give me permission, if I am willing to do it?' 'I will,' said he. Whereupon the countess, beloved of God, loosed her hair and let down her tresses, which covered the whole of her body like a veil, and then mounting her horse and attended by two knights, she rode through the market-place, without being seen, except her fair legs; and having completed the journey, she returned with gladness to her astonished husband, and obtained of him what she had asked; for earl Leofric freed the town of Coventry and its inhabitants from the aforesaid service, and confirmed what he had done by a charter."
Roger of Wendover, Flowers of History
The Polychronicon, a fourteenth-century chronicle by Ranulf Higden, says that, as a result, Leofric did excuse the town of all taxes except those on horses. A later chronicle adds that Godiva requested the townspeople to remain indoors during her ride. In the seventeenth-century, Peeping Tom became part of the legend, being struck blind or dead when he looked out his window. By the eighteenth-century, the story had assumed its present form, by the nineteenth, its Victorian expression pictured below, and by the Twentieth, a decorative element woefully misplaced in front of a shopping center.
Two bibliographic notes:
Sometime before his death in 1095, Wulfstan, bishop of the cathedral at Worcester, ordered a monk there to write a history of England. It traditionally has been assumed that this chronicle was written to 1118 by Florence, but it seems more likely that the Chronicle of Chronicles was compiled from 1124 to 1140 by another monk, John, using the material collected by Florence and that authorship should be ascribed to John of Worcester.
Both Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris were monks of St. Albans. Roger of Wendover began writing his Flores sometime after 1202, possibly as late as 1231, and continued it until 1234. From 1202, the material has no other surviving literary authority. More than half of Roger's work provided the basis for Matthew's more popular Chronica Majora, which he presented in abbreviated form as his own Flores Historiarum. Deleting some passages and adding others, Matthew Paris omits, in his retelling of the story, that Lady Godiva was accompanied on her ride but adds that her husband regarded it as a miracle because she remained unseen.
References: The Chronicle of John of Worcester: The Annals from 450 to 1066 (1995) edited by R. R. Darlington and P. McGurk, translated by Jennifer Bray and P. McGurk (Oxford Medieval Texts); Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History (1849) translated by J. A. Giles (Bohn's Antiquarian Library); The Flowers of History Collected by Matthew of Westminster (1853) translated by C. D. Yonge (Bohn's Antiquarian Library); Historical Writing in England c.550 to c.1307 (1974) by A. Gransden.
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From Wikipedia
Lady Godiva
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Godiva" and "Peeping Tom" redirect here. For other uses, see Godiva (disambiguation) and Peeping Tom (disambiguation).
Lady Godiva by John Collier, c. 1897, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum
Godiva (/ɡəˈdaɪvə/; Old English: Godgifu;[1] fl. 1010–1067) was an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to a legend dating at least to the 13th century, rode naked – covered only in her long hair – through the streets of Coventry to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation that her husband imposed on his tenants. The name "Peeping Tom" for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend in which a man named Tom watched her ride and was struck blind or dead.
Contents
1 Historical figure
2 Legend
2.1 Peeping Tom
3 Images in art and society
3.1 Gallery
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links
Historical figure
Lady Godiva statue by Sir William Reid Dick unveiled at midday on 22 October 1949 in Broadgate, Coventry, a £20,000 gift from Mr W. H. Bassett-Green, a Coventrian[2] (photograph taken in October 2011)
Godiva was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. They had one known son, Aelfgar.[3] The modern era Kingsbury family have claimed descent from Lady Godiva.[1][4][5][6][7]
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 form. Since the name was a popular one, there are contemporaries of the same name.[7][8]
If she is the same Godiva who appears in the history of Ely Abbey, the Liber Eliensis, written at the end of the 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[9] 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.[10][11][12] She and her husband are commemorated as benefactors of other monasteries at Leominster, Chester, Much Wenlock and Evesham.[13] She gave Coventry a number of works in precious metal by the famous goldsmith Mannig, and bequeathed a necklace valued at 100 marks of silver.[14] 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 in the City of London received a gold-fringed chasuble.[15] 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.[16]
19th-century equestrian statue of the legendary ride, by John Thomas, Maidstone Museum, Kent
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.[17]
Her signature, 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.[18] 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.[19] Thus, Godiva apparently died between 1066 and 1086.[8]
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."[8]
Dugdale (1656) says that a window with representations of Leofric and Godiva was placed in Trinity Church, Coventry, about the time of Richard II.[20]
Legend
The legend of the nude ride is first recorded in the 13th century, in the Flores Historiarum and the adaptation of it by Roger of Wendover; despite its considerable age, it is not regarded as plausible by modern historians,[citation needed] nor is it mentioned in the two centuries intervening between Godiva's death and its first appearance, while her generous donations to the church receive various mentions. According to the typical version of the story,[21][22] 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 on a horse 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.[23] In the story, Tom bores a hole in his shutters so that he might see Godiva pass, and is struck blind.[24] 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.[25] 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.[26] 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)
Other attempts to find a more plausible rationale for the legend include one based on the custom at the time 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 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, these attempts to reconcile known facts with legend are both weak; in the era of the earliest accounts, the word "naked" is only known to mean "without any clothing whatsoever".[27]
A modified version of the story was given by printer Richard Grafton, later elected MP for Coventry. According to his Chronicle of England (1569), "Leofricus" had already exempted the people of Coventry from "any maner of Tolle, Except onely of Horsse (sic.)", so that Godiva ("Godina" in text) had agreed to the naked ride just to win relief for this horse tax. And as a pre-condition, she required the officials of Coventry to forbid the populace "upon a great pain" from watching her, and to shut themselves in and shutter all windows on the day of her ride.[28] Grafton was an ardent Protestant and sanitized the earlier story.[25]
The ballad "Leoffricus" in the Percy Folio (ca. 1650)[29][30] conforms to Grafton's version, saying that Lady Godiva performed her ride to remove the customs paid on horses, and that the town's officers ordered the townsfolk to "shutt their dore, & clap their windowes downe," and remain indoors on the day of her ride.[31][32]
Peeping Tom
Wooden statue of Peeping Tom exhibited for the Coventry parade. Sketch by W. Reader (from an 1826 article)
The story of "Peeping Tom", who alone among the townsfolk spied on the Lady Godiva's naked ride, probably did not originate in literature, but came about through popular lore in the locality of Coventry. Reference by 17th-century chroniclers has been claimed,[25] but all the published accounts are 18th-century or later.
According to an 1826 article submitted by someone well-versed in local history and identifying himself as W. Reader,[33] there was already a well-established tradition that there was a certain tailor who had spied on Lady Godiva, and that at the annual Trinity Great Fair (now called the Godiva Festival) featuring the Godiva processions "a grotesque figure called Peeping Tom" would be set on display, and it was a wooden statue carved from oak. The author has dated this effigy, based on the style of armour he is shown wearing, from the reign of Charles II (d. 1685). The same writer felt the legend had to be subsequent to William Dugdale (d. 1686) since he made no mention of it in his works that discussed Coventry at full length.[34] (The story of the tailor and the use of a wooden effigy may be as old as the 17th century, but the effigy may not have always been called "Tom". See 1773 date below, and the alternate suggested name "Action".)
W. Reader dates the first Godiva procession to 1677,[35] but other sources date the first parade to 1678, and on that year a lad from the household of James Swinnerton enacted the role of Lady Godiva.[36]
The English Dictionary of National Biography gives a meticulous account of the literary sources.[37] The historian Paul de Rapin (1732) reported the Coventry lore that Lady Godiva performed her ride while "commanding all Persons to keep within Doors and from their Windows, on pain of Death" but one man could not refrain from looking and it "cost him his life"; Rapin further reported that the town commemorates this with a "Statue of a Man looking out of a Window."[38]
Next, Thomas Pennant in Journey from Chester to London (1782) recounted how "the curiosity of a certain taylor overcoming his fear, he took a single peep".[39] Pennant noted that the person enacting Godiva in the procession was not fully naked of course, but wore "silk, closely fitted to her limbs", which had a colour resembling the skin's complexion.[39] (In Chester's time around 1782 silk was worn, but the annotator of the 1811 edition noted that a cotton garment had since replaced the silk fabric.[39]) According to the Dict. Nat. Biog., the oldest document that mentions "Peeping Tom" by name is a record in Coventry's official annals, dating to 11 June 1773, documenting that the city issued a new wig and paint for the wooden effigy. There is further description given on the Godiva procession under the sub-article Lady Godiva in popular culture.
There is also said to be a letter from pre-1700, stating that peeper was actually Action (pronounced Actæon?), Lady Godiva's groom.[40]
Additional legend proclaims that Peeping Tom was later struck blind as heavenly punishment, or that the townspeople took the matter in their own hands and blinded him.[41]
The Peeping Tom story is absent from the few sources contemporary with Godiva. It has been pointed out that Tom (Thomas) is not an Anglo-Saxon name, and therefore hardly likely to be a name of a townsperson governed by Leoffric. 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, did not apply in 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.
Portal icon England portal
Images in art and society
Main article: Lady Godiva in popular culture
The Lady Godiva Clock in Coventry displays her naked ride through the city and Peeping Tom's voyeurism
The Herbert Art Gallery and 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".[25]
Colliers' Lady Godiva (above) was bequeathed by social reformer Thomas Hancock Nunn. When he died in 1937, the painting was offered to the Corporation of Hampstead. He specified in his will that should his bequest be refused by Hampstead (presumably on grounds of propriety) the painting was then to be offered to Coventry. The painting now hangs in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum.[3]
American sculptor Anne Whitney created a marble sculpture of Lady Godiva, now in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas.[42]
Godiva Chocolatier is named after Lady Godiva, and features a stylised rendition of her ride as its logo.
Gallery
Marshall Claxton: Lady Godiva (1850), the Herbert, Coventry
Lady Godiva at Maidstone Museum
Lady Godiva at Herbert Museum
Broadgate Clock, Coventry
References
Notes
"Kingsbury Hall, the Genealogy of a Family" by Kenneth J. Kingsbury, Gateway Press 2005.
Douglas, Alton; Moore, Dennis; Douglas, Jo (February 1991). Coventry: A Century of News. Coventry Evening Telegraph. p. 62. ISBN 0-902464-36-1.
Patrick W. Montague-Smith Letters: Godiva's family tree The Times, 25 January 1983
Samuel Timmins, A History of Warwickshire 1889
F. Smith ` Warwickshire Delineated' 1820
Adam Fox 'Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500-1700' 2000
P.R. Cross 'Lordship, Knighthood and Locality: A Study in English Society, C. 1180-1280' 1991
Ann Williams, ‘Godgifu (d. 1067?)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, October 2006 accessed 18 April 2008 (subscription or UK public library membership required)
"Anglo-Saxons.net, S 1226". Anglo-saxons.net. 13 April 1981. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
"Anglo-Saxons.net, S 1232". Anglo-saxons.net. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
"Anglo-Saxons.net, S 1478". Anglo-saxons.net. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
In the Stow charter, she is called "Godgife" (Thorpe, Benjamin (1865). Diplomatarium anglicum aevi saxonici: A collection of English charters 1. London: MacMillan. p. 320.)
The Chronicle of John of Worcester ed. and trans. R.R. Darlington, P. McGurk and J. Bray (Clarendon Press: Oxford 1995), pp.582–583
Dodwell, C. R.; Anglo-Saxon Art: A New Perspective, 1982, Manchester UP, ISBN 0-7190-0926-X (US edn. Cornell, 1985), pp. 25 & 66
Dodwell, 180 & 212
Dodwell, 220, 230 & passim
"flickr.com". flickr.com. 11 August 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
"Anglo-Saxons.net, S 1230". Anglo-saxons.net. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
K.S.B.Keats-Rohan, Domesday People: A prosopography of persons occurring in English documents 1066–1166, vol. 1: Domesday (Boydell Press: Woodbridge, Suffolk 1999), p. 218
Dugdale, William (1656). Antiquities of Warwickshire. London.
Joan Cadogan Lancaster. Godiva of Coventry. With a chapter on the folk tradition of the story by H.R. Ellis Davidson. Coventry [Eng.] Coventry Corp., 1967. OCLC 1664951
French KL (1992). "The legend of Lady Godiva". Journal of Medieval History 18: 3–19. doi:10.1016/0304-4181(92)90015-q.
Lady Godiva, Historic-UK.com
"The Historical Godiva", Octavia Randolph
Marina Warner. When Godiva streaked and Tom peeped The Times, 10 July 1982
"Lady Godiva (Godgifu)", Flowers of History, University of California San Francisco
"The Naked Truth". BBC News. 24 August 2001.
Grafton 1809, volume 1, p.148. Grafton, Richard (1809). Grafton's chronicle, or history of England: to which is added his table of the bailiffs, sheriffs and mayors of the city of London from the year 1189, to 1558, inclusive : in two volumes 1. London: P. Johnson. p. 148.
Hales, John W.; Furnivall, Frederick J., eds. (1868), "Leoffricus", Bishop Percy's folio manuscript: Ballads and romances (London: Trübner) 3, pp. 477–, pp.473-
A variant of this ballad is in Collection of Old Ballads (1723–25)
Hales & Furnivall 1868, 3:473-, vv. 53–60
DNB 1890 thus was inaccurate in stating that "This ballad first mention the order..", since Grafton had printed it earlier.
Reader, W. (1826). "Peeping Tom of Coventry and Lady Godiva". Gentleman's Magazine 96: 20., ib., "Show Fair at Coventry described". p.22- (with a sketch of Peeping Tom wooden statue)
Reader 1826, p. 22 "yet no one, including the late Sir W. Dugdale, even hints at the circumstance in question. We may safely, therefore, appropriate it to the reign of Charles II".
Reader 1826, p. 22 "In 1677 ... the Procession at the great Fair was first instituted."
Hartland, E. Sydney, Science of Fairy Tales, (1890), p.75, taken down from the Annals of Coventry, ms. D:"31 May 1678, being the great Fair at Coventry.. and Ja. Swinnertons Son represented Lady Godiva"
DNB 1890, "That one person disobeyed the order ... first stated by Rapin (1732) ... Pennant (Journey from Chester to London)(1782) calls him 'a certain taylor.' The name 'peeping Tom' occurs in the city accounts on 11 June 1773 when a new wig and fresh paint were supplied for his effigy."
Paul M. Rapin de Thoyras; N. Tindal Thomas (tr.) (1732). The History of England 1 (2nd ed.). J., J. and P. Knapton. p. 135.
Pennant, Thomas, The Journey from Chester to London 1811 edition, p.190
DNB 1890, "Poole quotes from the 'Gentleman's Magazine' a letter from Canon Seward (ca. before 1700) which makes the peeper 'a groom of the countess,' named Action (?Actæon)"
Leman Rede, "Peeping Tom", The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, (1838), Part the First, p. 115: "Tradition adds, that the people resolved to close up their houses ... but ... that one, whose name has not survived, looked forth upon her, and was stricken blind, as some affirm, by the vengeance of Heaven; or, according to others, was deprived of sight by the inhabitants." (A quote from a source merely identified as "a modern writer".)
"SIRIS - Smithsonian Institution Research Information System". siris-artinventories.si.edu. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
Godiva (?)1
F, #464871
Last Edited=7 Feb 2011
Godiva (?) married Leofric, Earl of Mercia, son of Leofwine, Ealdorman of the Hwicce.1
Citations
[S130] Wikipedia, online http;//www.wikipedia.org. Hereinafter cited as Wikipedia.
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From
http://www.ffish.com/family_tree/Descendants_Lady_Godiva/D1.htm
Descendants of Lady GODIVA (c.1010-1067)
First Generation Next
1. Godgifu,1 2 daughter of Thorald, Sheriff of Lincoln, was born about 1010 in
Birth Notes: FamilySearch has b. abt. 980, Mercia.
Research Notes: From Ancestral Roots, Line 176A-2:
"LEOFRIC... m. prob. by 1030 (pos. as her 2nd husb.) Godgifu (or Godiva), b. prob. abt. 1010, sister of Thorold of Buckingham, sheriff of Lincolnshire. Godgifu's ancestry is uncertain, but she was evidently of an old, noble family. She is the 'Lady Godiva' of legend. They had one known child... Aelfgar"
Godgifu married Leofric,2 3 son of Leofwine, Earl of Mercia and Alwara, by 1030. Leofric was born on 14 May 968 in Mercia, England and died on 31 Aug 1057 in Bromley, Stafford, England at age 89. Another name for Leofric was Leofric III Earl of Mercia.
Research Notes: From Ancestral Roots, Line 176A-2:
"LEOFRIC, d. Bromley, co. Stafford, 31 Aug. 1057, founder of the church of Coventry, seen as thegn from 1005, 'dux' from 1026, Earl of Mercia by 1032..."
Noted events in his life were:
• Founder: of Church of Coventry.
• Thegn: 1005.
• Dux: 1026.
• Earl of Mercia: by 1032.
The child from this marriage was:
+ 2 M i. Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia 2 4 was born about 1002 in
previous Second Generation Next
2. Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia 2 4 (Godgifu1) was born about 1002 in
Noted events in his life were:
• Earl of East Anglia: 1053.
• Earl of Mercia: 1057.
• Banished: 1058.
Ælfgar married Ælfgifu,2 5 daughter of Æthelred II "the Redeless", King of England and Ælfgifu, of York,. Ælfgifu was born about 997 in
Children from this marriage were:
+ 3 F i. Edith 2 6 was born about 1034 in
+ 4 M ii. Eadwine .5
+ 5 M iii. Morkere .5
+ 6 M iv. Burchard .5
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From http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/anglo-saxon/flowers/godiva.html
Lady Godiva (Godgifu)
"Among his other good deeds in this life, he and his wife, the noble countess Godgiva, who was a devout worshipper of God, and one who loved the ever-virgin St. Mary, entirely constructed at their own cost the monastery there [Coventry], well endowed it with land, and enriched it with ornaments to such an extent, that no monastery could be then found in England possessing so much gold, silver, jewels, and precious stones."
John of Worcester, Chronicle
In this annal for 1057, the death of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, one of the three great earls of eleventh-century England, is recorded. A powerful political figure, it was Leofric who supported Harold's claim to the throne on the death of his father Cnut in 1035 and who averted civil war by mediating the quarrel between Edward the Confessor and Earl Godwin in 1051. Both Leofric and his young wife, Godgifu, whose name means "God's Gift," were benefactors of the church, most notably the monastery at Coventry.
The legendary story of Lady Godiva is found in the Flores Historiarum by Roger of Wendover (died 1236). There he recounts that her husband, in exasperation over being implored to reduce the onerous taxes on the citizens of Coventry, agreed to do so if she would ride naked through the marketplace. This she did, covered only by her long hair:
AD 1057...."Having founded this monastery by the advice of his wife the noble countess Godiva, he [Leofric], at the prayer of a religious woman, placed monks therein, and so enriched them with lands, woods, and ornaments, that there was not found in all England a monastery with such an abundance of gold and silver, gems and costly garments. The countess Godiva, who was a great lover of Gods's mother, longing to free the town of Coventry from the oppression of a heavy toll, often with urgent prayers besought her husband, that from regard to Jesus Christ and his mother, he would free the town from that service, and from all other heavy burdens; and when the earl sharply rebuked her for foolishly asking what was so much to his damage, and always forbade her ever more to speak to him on the subject; and while she on the other hand, with a woman's pertinacity, never ceased to exasperate her husband on that matter, he a last made her this answer, 'Mount your horse, and ride naked, before all the people, through the market of the town, from one end to the other, and on your return you shall have your request.' On which Godiva replied, 'But will you give me permission, if I am willing to do it?' 'I will,' said he. Whereupon the countess, beloved of God, loosed her hair and let down her tresses, which covered the whole of her body like a veil, and then mounting her horse and attended by two knights, she rode through the market-place, without being seen, except her fair legs; and having completed the journey, she returned with gladness to her astonished husband, and obtained of him what she had asked; for earl Leofric freed the town of Coventry and its inhabitants from the aforesaid service, and confirmed what he had done by a charter."
Roger of Wendover, Flowers of History
The Polychronicon, a fourteenth-century chronicle by Ranulf Higden, says that, as a result, Leofric did excuse the town of all taxes except those on horses. A later chronicle adds that Godiva requested the townspeople to remain indoors during her ride. In the seventeenth-century, Peeping Tom became part of the legend, being struck blind or dead when he looked out his window. By the eighteenth-century, the story had assumed its present form, by the nineteenth, its Victorian expression pictured below, and by the Twentieth, a decorative element woefully misplaced in front of a shopping center.
Two bibliographic notes:
Sometime before his death in 1095, Wulfstan, bishop of the cathedral at Worcester, ordered a monk there to write a history of England. It traditionally has been assumed that this chronicle was written to 1118 by Florence, but it seems more likely that the Chronicle of Chronicles was compiled from 1124 to 1140 by another monk, John, using the material collected by Florence and that authorship should be ascribed to John of Worcester.
Both Roger of Wendover and Matthew Paris were monks of St. Albans. Roger of Wendover began writing his Flores sometime after 1202, possibly as late as 1231, and continued it until 1234. From 1202, the material has no other surviving literary authority. More than half of Roger's work provided the basis for Matthew's more popular Chronica Majora, which he presented in abbreviated form as his own Flores Historiarum. Deleting some passages and adding others, Matthew Paris omits, in his retelling of the story, that Lady Godiva was accompanied on her ride but adds that her husband regarded it as a miracle because she remained unseen.
References: The Chronicle of John of Worcester: The Annals from 450 to 1066 (1995) edited by R. R. Darlington and P. McGurk, translated by Jennifer Bray and P. McGurk (Oxford Medieval Texts); Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History (1849) translated by J. A. Giles (Bohn's Antiquarian Library); The Flowers of History Collected by Matthew of Westminster (1853) translated by C. D. Yonge (Bohn's Antiquarian Library); Historical Writing in England c.550 to c.1307 (1974) by A. Gransden.
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From Wikipedia
Lady Godiva
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Godiva" and "Peeping Tom" redirect here. For other uses, see Godiva (disambiguation) and Peeping Tom (disambiguation).
Lady Godiva by John Collier, c. 1897, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum
Godiva (/ɡəˈdaɪvə/; Old English: Godgifu;[1] fl. 1010–1067) was an 11th-century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to a legend dating at least to the 13th century, rode naked – covered only in her long hair – through the streets of Coventry to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation that her husband imposed on his tenants. The name "Peeping Tom" for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend in which a man named Tom watched her ride and was struck blind or dead.
Contents
1 Historical figure
2 Legend
2.1 Peeping Tom
3 Images in art and society
3.1 Gallery
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links
Historical figure
Lady Godiva statue by Sir William Reid Dick unveiled at midday on 22 October 1949 in Broadgate, Coventry, a £20,000 gift from Mr W. H. Bassett-Green, a Coventrian[2] (photograph taken in October 2011)
Godiva was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. They had one known son, Aelfgar.[3] The modern era Kingsbury family have claimed descent from Lady Godiva.[1][4][5][6][7]
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 form. Since the name was a popular one, there are contemporaries of the same name.[7][8]
If she is the same Godiva who appears in the history of Ely Abbey, the Liber Eliensis, written at the end of the 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[9] 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.[10][11][12] She and her husband are commemorated as benefactors of other monasteries at Leominster, Chester, Much Wenlock and Evesham.[13] She gave Coventry a number of works in precious metal by the famous goldsmith Mannig, and bequeathed a necklace valued at 100 marks of silver.[14] 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 in the City of London received a gold-fringed chasuble.[15] 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.[16]
19th-century equestrian statue of the legendary ride, by John Thomas, Maidstone Museum, Kent
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.[17]
Her signature, 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.[18] 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.[19] Thus, Godiva apparently died between 1066 and 1086.[8]
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."[8]
Dugdale (1656) says that a window with representations of Leofric and Godiva was placed in Trinity Church, Coventry, about the time of Richard II.[20]
Legend
The legend of the nude ride is first recorded in the 13th century, in the Flores Historiarum and the adaptation of it by Roger of Wendover; despite its considerable age, it is not regarded as plausible by modern historians,[citation needed] nor is it mentioned in the two centuries intervening between Godiva's death and its first appearance, while her generous donations to the church receive various mentions. According to the typical version of the story,[21][22] 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 on a horse 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.[23] In the story, Tom bores a hole in his shutters so that he might see Godiva pass, and is struck blind.[24] 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.[25] 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.[26] 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)
Other attempts to find a more plausible rationale for the legend include one based on the custom at the time 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 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, these attempts to reconcile known facts with legend are both weak; in the era of the earliest accounts, the word "naked" is only known to mean "without any clothing whatsoever".[27]
A modified version of the story was given by printer Richard Grafton, later elected MP for Coventry. According to his Chronicle of England (1569), "Leofricus" had already exempted the people of Coventry from "any maner of Tolle, Except onely of Horsse (sic.)", so that Godiva ("Godina" in text) had agreed to the naked ride just to win relief for this horse tax. And as a pre-condition, she required the officials of Coventry to forbid the populace "upon a great pain" from watching her, and to shut themselves in and shutter all windows on the day of her ride.[28] Grafton was an ardent Protestant and sanitized the earlier story.[25]
The ballad "Leoffricus" in the Percy Folio (ca. 1650)[29][30] conforms to Grafton's version, saying that Lady Godiva performed her ride to remove the customs paid on horses, and that the town's officers ordered the townsfolk to "shutt their dore, & clap their windowes downe," and remain indoors on the day of her ride.[31][32]
Peeping Tom
Wooden statue of Peeping Tom exhibited for the Coventry parade. Sketch by W. Reader (from an 1826 article)
The story of "Peeping Tom", who alone among the townsfolk spied on the Lady Godiva's naked ride, probably did not originate in literature, but came about through popular lore in the locality of Coventry. Reference by 17th-century chroniclers has been claimed,[25] but all the published accounts are 18th-century or later.
According to an 1826 article submitted by someone well-versed in local history and identifying himself as W. Reader,[33] there was already a well-established tradition that there was a certain tailor who had spied on Lady Godiva, and that at the annual Trinity Great Fair (now called the Godiva Festival) featuring the Godiva processions "a grotesque figure called Peeping Tom" would be set on display, and it was a wooden statue carved from oak. The author has dated this effigy, based on the style of armour he is shown wearing, from the reign of Charles II (d. 1685). The same writer felt the legend had to be subsequent to William Dugdale (d. 1686) since he made no mention of it in his works that discussed Coventry at full length.[34] (The story of the tailor and the use of a wooden effigy may be as old as the 17th century, but the effigy may not have always been called "Tom". See 1773 date below, and the alternate suggested name "Action".)
W. Reader dates the first Godiva procession to 1677,[35] but other sources date the first parade to 1678, and on that year a lad from the household of James Swinnerton enacted the role of Lady Godiva.[36]
The English Dictionary of National Biography gives a meticulous account of the literary sources.[37] The historian Paul de Rapin (1732) reported the Coventry lore that Lady Godiva performed her ride while "commanding all Persons to keep within Doors and from their Windows, on pain of Death" but one man could not refrain from looking and it "cost him his life"; Rapin further reported that the town commemorates this with a "Statue of a Man looking out of a Window."[38]
Next, Thomas Pennant in Journey from Chester to London (1782) recounted how "the curiosity of a certain taylor overcoming his fear, he took a single peep".[39] Pennant noted that the person enacting Godiva in the procession was not fully naked of course, but wore "silk, closely fitted to her limbs", which had a colour resembling the skin's complexion.[39] (In Chester's time around 1782 silk was worn, but the annotator of the 1811 edition noted that a cotton garment had since replaced the silk fabric.[39]) According to the Dict. Nat. Biog., the oldest document that mentions "Peeping Tom" by name is a record in Coventry's official annals, dating to 11 June 1773, documenting that the city issued a new wig and paint for the wooden effigy. There is further description given on the Godiva procession under the sub-article Lady Godiva in popular culture.
There is also said to be a letter from pre-1700, stating that peeper was actually Action (pronounced Actæon?), Lady Godiva's groom.[40]
Additional legend proclaims that Peeping Tom was later struck blind as heavenly punishment, or that the townspeople took the matter in their own hands and blinded him.[41]
The Peeping Tom story is absent from the few sources contemporary with Godiva. It has been pointed out that Tom (Thomas) is not an Anglo-Saxon name, and therefore hardly likely to be a name of a townsperson governed by Leoffric. 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, did not apply in 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.
Portal icon England portal
Images in art and society
Main article: Lady Godiva in popular culture
The Lady Godiva Clock in Coventry displays her naked ride through the city and Peeping Tom's voyeurism
The Herbert Art Gallery and 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".[25]
Colliers' Lady Godiva (above) was bequeathed by social reformer Thomas Hancock Nunn. When he died in 1937, the painting was offered to the Corporation of Hampstead. He specified in his will that should his bequest be refused by Hampstead (presumably on grounds of propriety) the painting was then to be offered to Coventry. The painting now hangs in the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum.[3]
American sculptor Anne Whitney created a marble sculpture of Lady Godiva, now in the collection of the Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas.[42]
Godiva Chocolatier is named after Lady Godiva, and features a stylised rendition of her ride as its logo.
Gallery
Marshall Claxton: Lady Godiva (1850), the Herbert, Coventry
Lady Godiva at Maidstone Museum
Lady Godiva at Herbert Museum
Broadgate Clock, Coventry
References
Notes
"Kingsbury Hall, the Genealogy of a Family" by Kenneth J. Kingsbury, Gateway Press 2005.
Douglas, Alton; Moore, Dennis; Douglas, Jo (February 1991). Coventry: A Century of News. Coventry Evening Telegraph. p. 62. ISBN 0-902464-36-1.
Patrick W. Montague-Smith Letters: Godiva's family tree The Times, 25 January 1983
Samuel Timmins, A History of Warwickshire 1889
F. Smith ` Warwickshire Delineated' 1820
Adam Fox 'Oral and Literate Culture in England, 1500-1700' 2000
P.R. Cross 'Lordship, Knighthood and Locality: A Study in English Society, C. 1180-1280' 1991
Ann Williams, ‘Godgifu (d. 1067?)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, September 2004; online edn, October 2006 accessed 18 April 2008 (subscription or UK public library membership required)
"Anglo-Saxons.net, S 1226". Anglo-saxons.net. 13 April 1981. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
"Anglo-Saxons.net, S 1232". Anglo-saxons.net. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
"Anglo-Saxons.net, S 1478". Anglo-saxons.net. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
In the Stow charter, she is called "Godgife" (Thorpe, Benjamin (1865). Diplomatarium anglicum aevi saxonici: A collection of English charters 1. London: MacMillan. p. 320.)
The Chronicle of John of Worcester ed. and trans. R.R. Darlington, P. McGurk and J. Bray (Clarendon Press: Oxford 1995), pp.582–583
Dodwell, C. R.; Anglo-Saxon Art: A New Perspective, 1982, Manchester UP, ISBN 0-7190-0926-X (US edn. Cornell, 1985), pp. 25 & 66
Dodwell, 180 & 212
Dodwell, 220, 230 & passim
"flickr.com". flickr.com. 11 August 2007. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
"Anglo-Saxons.net, S 1230". Anglo-saxons.net. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
K.S.B.Keats-Rohan, Domesday People: A prosopography of persons occurring in English documents 1066–1166, vol. 1: Domesday (Boydell Press: Woodbridge, Suffolk 1999), p. 218
Dugdale, William (1656). Antiquities of Warwickshire. London.
Joan Cadogan Lancaster. Godiva of Coventry. With a chapter on the folk tradition of the story by H.R. Ellis Davidson. Coventry [Eng.] Coventry Corp., 1967. OCLC 1664951
French KL (1992). "The legend of Lady Godiva". Journal of Medieval History 18: 3–19. doi:10.1016/0304-4181(92)90015-q.
Lady Godiva, Historic-UK.com
"The Historical Godiva", Octavia Randolph
Marina Warner. When Godiva streaked and Tom peeped The Times, 10 July 1982
"Lady Godiva (Godgifu)", Flowers of History, University of California San Francisco
"The Naked Truth". BBC News. 24 August 2001.
Grafton 1809, volume 1, p.148. Grafton, Richard (1809). Grafton's chronicle, or history of England: to which is added his table of the bailiffs, sheriffs and mayors of the city of London from the year 1189, to 1558, inclusive : in two volumes 1. London: P. Johnson. p. 148.
Hales, John W.; Furnivall, Frederick J., eds. (1868), "Leoffricus", Bishop Percy's folio manuscript: Ballads and romances (London: Trübner) 3, pp. 477–, pp.473-
A variant of this ballad is in Collection of Old Ballads (1723–25)
Hales & Furnivall 1868, 3:473-, vv. 53–60
DNB 1890 thus was inaccurate in stating that "This ballad first mention the order..", since Grafton had printed it earlier.
Reader, W. (1826). "Peeping Tom of Coventry and Lady Godiva". Gentleman's Magazine 96: 20., ib., "Show Fair at Coventry described". p.22- (with a sketch of Peeping Tom wooden statue)
Reader 1826, p. 22 "yet no one, including the late Sir W. Dugdale, even hints at the circumstance in question. We may safely, therefore, appropriate it to the reign of Charles II".
Reader 1826, p. 22 "In 1677 ... the Procession at the great Fair was first instituted."
Hartland, E. Sydney, Science of Fairy Tales, (1890), p.75, taken down from the Annals of Coventry, ms. D:"31 May 1678, being the great Fair at Coventry.. and Ja. Swinnertons Son represented Lady Godiva"
DNB 1890, "That one person disobeyed the order ... first stated by Rapin (1732) ... Pennant (Journey from Chester to London)(1782) calls him 'a certain taylor.' The name 'peeping Tom' occurs in the city accounts on 11 June 1773 when a new wig and fresh paint were supplied for his effigy."
Paul M. Rapin de Thoyras; N. Tindal Thomas (tr.) (1732). The History of England 1 (2nd ed.). J., J. and P. Knapton. p. 135.
Pennant, Thomas, The Journey from Chester to London 1811 edition, p.190
DNB 1890, "Poole quotes from the 'Gentleman's Magazine' a letter from Canon Seward (ca. before 1700) which makes the peeper 'a groom of the countess,' named Action (?Actæon)"
Leman Rede, "Peeping Tom", The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, (1838), Part the First, p. 115: "Tradition adds, that the people resolved to close up their houses ... but ... that one, whose name has not survived, looked forth upon her, and was stricken blind, as some affirm, by the vengeance of Heaven; or, according to others, was deprived of sight by the inhabitants." (A quote from a source merely identified as "a modern writer".)
"SIRIS - Smithsonian Institution Research Information System". siris-artinventories.si.edu. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
Events
| Birth | Ca 1000 | Mercia | |||
| Alt name | Lady Godiva | ||||
| Alt name | Godifu | ||||
| Title (Nobility) | Countess |