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July 10 is Lady Godiva Day, Coventry, England  

Lady Godiva by William Holman Hunt, 1856

Who was the naked lady on the horse?  

Lady Godiva – Godgyfu as her name was originally – really did exist and was a Saxon noblewoman and patron of the arts, married to Leofric, Duke of Mercia in England. The couple moved to Coventry, Warwickshire, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire (where Leofric had earned his fortune and title from the mutton trade). It is known that Leofric began spending large amounts of taxpayers’ money, as politicians are wont to do, on grandiose public works, while the people of Coventry, as people are wont to do, lived in poverty.

The legend says that Godiva, generous and strong-willed, was outraged at a poll or tax that Leofric was planning to levy on the people of Coventry, and she persistently asked him to lift the imposition, or at least use the money for the provision of works of art that the peasants might enjoy. Leofric laughed so much that he injured his left wrist slightly as he fell off his stool in the hall of the village burghers. However, the nouveau-riche gentleman offered her a deal: if his wife would ride naked on horseback through the town, then he would agree to waive the tax.

“The ancient Greeks, he pointed out, and those coarser Romans as well, viewed the nude human body as one of the highest expressions of the perfection of Nature. Nudity was not seen as erotic in any sense, but as purity, and a celebration of the wonderful form of a sensuous being displayed in all its marvelous glory for the betterment and appreciation of those enlightened enough to consider this aesthetic. To present a well formed nude body as an object of great beauty, even art, would be to offer a lesson of inestimable value to the simple peasants of Coventry, whose experiences and perceptions had never been enlightened to appreciate such perfection.

“If Lady Godiva truly believed in the crusade she was promoting, then she should lead it herself, and offer to the citizens of Coventry an example of the glorious beauty to be understood by careful consideration of a perfect nude human body.”   Source

The earliest record of the Godiva legend, written a century after the supposed event, states:

"Ascend," he said, "thy horse naked and pass thus through the city from one end to the other in sight of the people and on thy return thou shalt obtain thy request." Upon which she returned: "And should I be willing to do this, wilt thou give me leave?" "I will," he responded. Then the Countess Godiva, beloved of God, ascended her horse, naked, loosing her long hair which clothed her entire body except her snow white legs, and having performed the journey, seen by none, returned with joy to her husband who, regarding it as a miracle, thereupon granted Coventry a Charter, confirming it with his seal.
From the Flores Historiarum by Roger of Wendover (d. 1236)

This medieval scribe is renowned for his exaggeration and politically biased embellishment; Wendover is more a collector of stories and legends than a genuine historian.

The legend is garbled

However, a fact that has almost been lost in the millennium since Godiva lived is that the good lady herself possessed the village of Coventry outright and she needn’t have begged Leofric to suspend or repeal any tax imposed upon it. Godiva controlled the collection of these herself. As Octavia Randolph points out:

“The reason for this persistent misrepresentation is simple, but profound in its implications to the unfolding of the tale. Because Anglo-Saxon woman – indeed all women in England – had by the time of even the earliest extant retelling lost the extensive property (and other personal and legal) rights they had enjoyed prior to the disaster of 1066, chroniclers wrote from the perspective of Norman law and mores.”   Source

Coventry has long hosted an annual fair. Her procession at Southam, near Coventry, formerly included images of the goddesses Holda (white) and Hela (black), and Godiva herself might be an ancient representation of the Celtic horse goddess, Epona (pictured at right). As the centuries rolled by, as part of the festivities, a nude woman would reenact Godiva's ride. From at least 1678 onward, the reenactment* – supposedly held on the anniversary of the original ride – was a Coventry staple and continued annually with little interruption until the mid-19^th Century, originally as part of Coventry's Great Whitesun Fair. Actresses in a kind of body stocking (‘fleshings’) played the parts of Godiva and her handmaids. In 1854, however, a truly nude woman on a horse crashed the pageant, creating much consternation amongst the Victorian burghers, who suspended the pageant for eight years.  The Annual Godiva Procession, Coventry continues, however, and is a tourist drawcard for the industrial city of Coventry.

One source claims September 10, 1067 as the date of the death of  Godgyfu. However, an old encyclopedia says: “She probably died a few years before the Domesday survey of 1085 and 1086, and was buried in one of the porches of the abbey church.”   Source

*The Godiva procession, a commemoration of the legendary ride instituted on May 31, 1678, as part of Coventry fair, was celebrated at intervals until 1826. From 1848 to 1887 it was revived, and continued into the 21st century.
Source: Wikipedia

 

 

Coventry's procession in 1862

So it was on July 10, 1040, that the good townsfolk of Coventry, in their gratitude shielded their eyes when the lady rode through town. The sole exception – the voyeur known to us as Peeping Tom, was struck blind for his rudeness.

In the Forenoone all householders were Commanded to keep in their Families shutting their doores & Windows close whilest the Duchess performed this good deed, which done she rode naked through the midst of the Towne, without any other Coverture save only her hair. But about the midst of the Citty her horse neighed, whereat one desirous to see the strange Case lett downe a Window, & looked out, for which fact, or for that the horse did neigh, as the cause thereof. Though all the Towne were Franchised, yet horses were not toll-free to this day.
From the account of Humphrey Wanley (1672 - 1726) 

Note that the first record of Peeping Tom, above, was made fully 600 years after the event and, like Godiva’s great amount of hair that flowed down and covered her nakedness, was probably added by puritanical churchmen.

750 women naked for peace