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'''Lady Godiva''' Leofric was Earl of Mercia. At some point he married a woman named Godgifu ("God's Gift") whose name has come to us as Godiva. She is most famously known for her legendary ride while naked through Coventry to protest her husband's high taxes on the populace. That this could have actually occurred is very doubtful. It is not noted by any contemporary chronicler and it would have been quite newsworthy certainly. The story is first recited about 200 years after her probable death. ==Primary sources=== *Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, G.N. Garmonsway (tr,ed). J.M.Dent Ltd, London 1972 (reprint 1992), pg 159 : "The Laud Chronicle (E) — 1036 [1035] (footnote: E has misplaced the vacant annal for 1036) In this year Cnut passed away at Shaftesbury, and he is buried in the Old Minster, Winchester. Soon after his passing there was a meeting of all the councillors at Oxford, and earl Leofric and almost all the thanes to the north of the Thames, and [Cnut's] household troops in London, elected Harold as regent of all England...." ==Secondary sources== *[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/anglo-saxon/flowers/godiva.html "Godiva"] at Encyclopaedia Romana online, among other things they claim the Chronicle ascribed to Florence was actually writen by John of Worcester from 1124 to 1140 *The 1985 EB has this to say<blockquote>fl c 1040-1080, Anglo-Saxon gentlewoman famous for her legendary ride while nude through Coventry, Warwickshire</blockquote><blockquote>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.</blockquote><blockquote>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 that he would so if she rode naked through the croweded marketplace. She did so, her hair covering all of her body except her legs. Ranulf Higdon (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 the time no tolls were paid in Coventry except on horses. A later chronicle assets that Godiva required the townsmen to remain indoors at the time fixed for her ride. Peeping Tom, a citizen who looked out his window, apparently became a part of the legend in the 17th century. In most accounts he was struck blind or dead.</blockquote>
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