Godiva, Countess Of Mercia
| b 0980, Mercia, , , England |
| d 10 Sep 1067, |
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bur Coventry, , , England |
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| Thorold, Sheriff Of Lincoln |
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| |b 0955 |
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| Godiva, Countess Of Mercia |
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| |Leofric III, Earl Mercia |
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|m 1030 |
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| Mrs-Thorold Of Lincoln |
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| b 0960 |
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Children
Notes
Godiva, Lady (flourished about 1040-80), Anglo-Saxon noblewoman, wife of Leofric, earl of Mercia (flourished 1005-57). She is known to have persuaded her husband to found monasteries at Coventry (1043) and Stow. According to legend, she obtained a reduction in the excessive taxes levied by her husband on the people of Coventry by consenting to ride naked through the town on a white horse. Only one person disobeyed her orders to remain indoors behind closed shutters; this man, a tailor known afterward as Peeping Tom, peered through a window and immediately became blind. The oldest form of the legend is in the 13th-century Flores Historiarum (Flowers of the Historians). A festival in her honor was instituted as part of Coventry Fair in 1678.
Source: 'The World Book Encyclopedia', 1968, p G235. 'Godiva, Lady,' Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright (c) 1993 Microsoft Corporation. Copyright (c) 1993 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation
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© Copyright 1995, 1996 David L. Beckwith