Lady Godiva

      Street-sellers ply their wares amongst the jostling crowds. There's a smell of stale beer and sweat, the clanking of tankards and raucous laughter. A horse whinnies, and a barrow rattles as it's pushed off the cobbled street. Then the sound of cheering and shouting as the Procession, with its colourful banners and streamers, turns out of High Street into Earl Street. People lean out of the upper-storey windows of half-timbered houses, their merry laughter and chatter drowned out by the 'root-toot-toot' of fifes and drums.
      Around the street corner comes the Captain of the Guards, sunlight flashing off the blade of his sword as it's held in front of him. He's followed by two Lieutenants, then City Guards - two and two - resplendent in their colourful uniforms. Next comes the man playing the part of St George, armed and mounted - those who watch know the tradition that the Saint was born in Coventry.
      Then four bugle horns - 'tara-tara '. After the horns comes another city streamer, waved back and forth in the bright morning air. Next the fifes and drums, whose strident sounds had already announced the Procession before it arrived. And then more Guards accompany the High Sheriff in all his dignity. There's a little space after that, and an expectant hush from the crowd. Then comes the person everyone has been waiting for - Lady Godiva.
      She is sitting side-saddle on a white horse with purple and gold trappings and is wearing a close-fitting white tunic and cloak, which covers all her body except for the legs. Walking on either side is the Town Crier and the Beadle. More streamers and banners are waved, there's a rousing cheer from the crowd, and caps are thrown in the air.
      This was the Procession which took place in Coventry each year to proclaim the Great Fair. Godiva was not originally a part of it, but some sort of procession had probably taken place ever since the Middle Ages when a Charter for the Fair had been granted by Henry III. But it was not until 1678 that we first hear of Godiva being represented in it. That was more than 500 years after the incident which gave birth to the popular legend.

      It was in the first half of the 11th-century that Earl Leofric of Mercia, one of the four all-powerful lords who ruled England under king Canute, married Countess Godiva or Godgifu. She was sister of the Sheriff of Lincoln, and a wise, pious, and very beautiful lady. The two of them resided at Leofric's seat in Coventry, whose citizens were oppressively taxed. Godiva, who developed a great fondness for the place and its people, tried to intervene with her husband on their behalf.
      Accounts of the story appear in several ancient chronicles, all of which broadly agree. The earliest is by Roger of Wendover, who says in his ':Flowers of History' that Leofric rebuked his wife for interfering. But she "never ceased to worry her husband on that matter, until at last he answered out of exasperation, 'Mount your horse naked, and ride through the market of the town ... and when you return, you shall have what you ask.'"
      Leofric thought that would be the end of the matter, that this modest lady would never think of doing such a thing. But, says Roger, "the Countess ... mounted her horse naked, letting down the hair and tresses of her head so that her whole body was veiled except for her very beautiful legs." And when she had finished her famous ride, continues Roger, she returned to her husband, "who was so filled with admiration for what she had done that he granted to the people a charter of freedom." Towards the end of the 14th-century, a picture of Leofric and his Lady was set up in a window of Coventry's Trinity Church. It depicted the Earl with his right hand holding a charter on which these words were written: "I, Luryche, for the love of thee, Doe make Coventre Toll-free."

Out of respect for Godiva and her self-sacrificing action on their behalf, the citizens had agreed to stay behind their doors during her ride. No mention was made by Roger or other early sources of Peeping Tom, the "inquisitive tailor" who was supposed to have looked out at Godiva as she passed, being struck blind as a result. This part of the story was added on, it is thought, by 17th-century antiquary William Camden, who visited the City and was shown a wooden effigy purporting to be of the unfortunate tailor.                The effigy formerly looked out of a top window in various parts of the city. It was kept in the Hotel Leofric for many years, but it can now be seen in a window of the Cathedral Lanes Shopping Centre where it overlooks the statue of Godiva in the city centre at Broadgate. The armour-clad figure, carved from a single piece of oak, is probably that of St George. It has been painted many times, and has been much hacked about, probably to suit his leaning posture at the window from which he gazed and partly to satisfy souvenir hunters. In a poem of 1842, a local poet wrote:

"O Tom how could'st thou act so rude           To lady chaste and kind?           It proves thou wast of wicked heart,           Likewise ungrateful mind.           But hadst thou known thy precious sight           Would the sad forfeit be,           Thy rashness ne'er had prompted thee           To peep at this lady."

 

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