Lady Godiva

Was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman that is even more well known because of the legend that surrounds her.

The legend first appears in the 13th century and tells about an appeal Godiva made to her husband to reduce the taxes of the people he ruled over. The husband apparently agreed on one condition if Godiva would ride naked through the Coventry town.

She agreed to this condition and issued a proclamation ordering everyone in town to stay in their houses and lock their windows, after which she rode naked through the streets covered by only her hair. Everyone was grateful and shut their windows and doors according to the demand, everyone except Tom, who is known till this day as the “Peeping Tom’.

More recent explications described that Godiva might not have ride the town completely naked, but instead wearing just a white under garment, without sleeves, and without her noble jewellery, as such symbolising a strip of her status.

The story is intended to tell the story of a woman’s sacrifice for her people, the extent to which nobility would renounce their higher status for the good of their people. Another possible understanding of the legend is to show the pious attitude of women, and the undignified attitude of ‘Peeping Tom’, of a man trying to rub that innocence from a woman.