The Mortuary Arts by John Gregory Hancock

Another necklace went to Evesham, to be hung around the figure of the Virgin Mary accompanying the life-size gold and silver rood she and her husband had donated, and St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London received a gold-fringed chasuble. She gave Coventry a number of works in precious metal by the famous goldsmith Mannig and bequeathed a necklace valued at 100 marks of silver. She and her husband are commemorated as benefactors of other monasteries at Leominster, Chester, Much Wenlock, and Evesham. Mary, Worcester and the endowment of the minster at Stow St Mary, Lincolnshire. In the 1050s, her name is coupled with that of her husband on a grant of land to the monastery of St. Writing in the 12th century, Roger of Wendover credits Godiva as the persuasive force behind this act. In 1043, Leofric founded and endowed a Benedictine monastery at Coventry on the site of a nunnery destroyed by the Danes in 1016. Both Leofric and Godiva were generous benefactors to religious houses.

Bassett-Green, a Coventrian (pictured in 2011)Ī Godiva was recorded in the 12th century history of Ely Abbey, Liber Eliensis this, if the same as the figure in legend, would make Godiva a widow when Leofric married her. Lady Godiva, a statue by Sir William Reid Dick unveiled in 1949 in Broadgate, Coventry, a £20,000 gift from W. Since the name was a popular one, there are contemporaries of the same name. The Old English name Godgifu or Godgyfu meant 'gift of God' 'Godiva' was the name's Latinised form. Godiva's name occurs in charters and the Domesday survey, though the spelling varies. They had nine children one son was Ælfgar. Godiva was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. The name 'Peeping Tom' for a voyeur originates from later versions of this legend, in which a man named Thomas watched her ride and was struck blind or dead. Today, she is mainly remembered for a legend dating back to at least the 13th century, in which she rode naked – covered only in her long hair – through the streets of Coventry to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation that her husband, Leofric, imposed on his tenants. Lady Godiva ( / ɡ ə ˈ d aɪ v ə/ died between 10), in Old English Godgifu, was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Lady Godiva: Edmund Blair Leighton depicts her moment of decision (1892)

The Mortuary Arts by John Gregory Hancock