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An Anglo-Saxon Tale: Lady Godiva
BBC ^ | before 2015 | unattributed

Posted on 01/03/2015 7:29:13 AM PST by SunkenCiv

Lady Godiva was married to Leofric, the 'grim' Earl of Mercer and Lord of Coventry, a man of great power and importance. The chronicler Florence of Worcester mentions Leofric and Godiva, but does not mention her famous ride, and there is no firm evidence connecting the rider with the historical Godiva.

In 1043 the Earl and Countess founded a Benedictine house for an abbot and 24 monks on the site of St Osburg's Nunnery, which had been destroyed by the Danes in 1016... Earl Leofric laid his founding charter upon the newly consecrated altar, which not only granted the foundation, but also gave him lordship over 24 villages for the maintenance of the house.

Lady Godiva endowed the monastery... supposed to have had all her gold and silver melted down and made into crosses, images of saints and other decorations...

The remains of the subsequent 13th-century church monastery, Coventry's first cathedral, can now be seen in Priory Row...

The earliest surviving source for the legend is the Chronica of Roger of Wendover for the year 1057. He wrote that Godiva pleaded with her husband to relieve the heavy burden of taxes he had imposed on the citizens of Coventry.

Weary of her persistence, Leofric said he would grant her request if she would ride naked through the town...

Her ordeal completed, Godiva returned to her husband, who fulfilled his promise to abolish the heavy taxes. According to Ranulf Higden's Polychronicon, Leofric freed the town from all tolls save those on horses. An inquiry made in the reign of Edward I shows that indeed, at that time, no tolls were paid in Coventry except on horses.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: anglosaxons; chronica; coventry; earlleofric; earlofmercer; edwardi; florenceofworcester; godsgravesglyphs; kingedwardi; ladygodiva; polychronicon; ranulfhigden; rogerofwendover; taxedenoughalready
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To: SunkenCiv

I sense a family reunion in the offing.

Oh no! I am related to Kings of France also!


41 posted on 01/03/2015 10:48:22 AM PST by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: elcid1970

OKden!

That would pose a lot of curiosity. Not welcome, either.


42 posted on 01/03/2015 11:40:19 AM PST by Monkey Face (If you tell the truth it becomes part of your past. If you tell a lie it becomes part of your future)
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To: blam

Odd. The horse is overdressed.


43 posted on 01/03/2015 11:41:23 AM PST by Monkey Face (If you tell the truth it becomes part of your past. If you tell a lie it becomes part of your future)
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To: Monkey Face
"Odd. The horse is overdressed."

(ahem) What horse.

44 posted on 01/03/2015 11:49:25 AM PST by blam (Jeff Sessions For President)
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To: SunkenCiv
I only wish it was acceptable in freeperland to use the actual internet verbage... a certain amount of context is lost in not being able to write T*TS or GT*O.
45 posted on 01/03/2015 12:51:57 PM PST by Rodamala
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To: blam

“So you finally got some clothes back on. Wonderful!

“If you ever pull that stunt again, I swear I’ll put you in a burka!!!”


46 posted on 01/03/2015 1:14:53 PM PST by elcid1970 ("I am a radicalized infidel.")
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To: SunkenCiv

That horse is happy


47 posted on 01/03/2015 2:15:24 PM PST by ronnie raygun (Empty head empty suit = arrogant little bastard)
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To: SunkenCiv

I wish I knew how to post a link to a website. Benny Hill does a version of Lady Godiva, and it’s on youtube.


48 posted on 01/03/2015 3:16:50 PM PST by EvilCapitalist (It's better to die free than live as a slave)
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To: EvilCapitalist
Benny Hill - Lady Godiva - YouTube

49 posted on 01/03/2015 4:52:50 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: mountainlion

As long as they’re real, no worries. :’) The last of the Plantagenet kings of England is estimated to have a million descendants in the US; his father is estimated to have ten million. :’o


50 posted on 01/03/2015 4:55:07 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: blam

Victorian-era painters are probably my overall faves, thanks blam!


51 posted on 01/03/2015 4:56:48 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: Rodamala

Hey, we can use it, just not in a post. I’m using it right now. ;’)


52 posted on 01/03/2015 4:58:05 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: vetvetdoug; mountainlion; Ditter; Monkey Face

wowzo, check out these search results:

http://www.google.com/search?q=genealogy+descent+of+Lady+Godiva


53 posted on 01/03/2015 5:00:57 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: left that other site

Swingin’ London wouldn’t have gotten off the ground.


54 posted on 01/03/2015 5:02:48 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Do have a source for that? It is not that I disbelieve you but it is an area I want to find out a couple things especially relating to DNA.


55 posted on 01/03/2015 5:05:06 PM PST by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: SunkenCiv

LOL!


56 posted on 01/03/2015 5:12:34 PM PST by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: SunkenCiv

For those who didn’t major in engineering:

Godiva was a lady who through Coventry did ride.
Showing all the villagers her lily white hide.
The most observant man of all, an engineer of course
Was the only one who noticed that Godiva rode a horse.

She said, “I’ve come a long, long way, and I will go as far
With the man who takes me from this horse and leads me to a bar
The man who took her from her steed and lead her to a beer
Was a bleary-eyed surveyor and a drunken engineer.

Godiva was a lady well-endowed there is no doubt
She never wore a stitch of clothes, just wound her hair about
The first man who did make her was a Engineer, of course,
But on just one beer an artsie queer had made Godiva’s horse.


57 posted on 01/03/2015 5:18:31 PM PST by nascarnation (....)
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To: SunkenCiv
Maybe I am directly descended from Lady Godiva on my fathers side, like the genealogist said but somehow it just struck me as odd. On our mothers side she said we were Mayflower descends too and that we also had an ancestor who arrived on the 2nd ship after the Mayflower.

Doesn't that sound like just a bit too much? I haven't sat down to go through the massive volumes that she prepared for us. Maybe when I do it will be a bit more believable.

58 posted on 01/03/2015 7:50:54 PM PST by Ditter
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To: SunkenCiv

Victorian painters of medieval themes are often referred to as pre-Raphaelite, following an artistic style thought to have existed prior to the Renaissance.

Various 19th Century renditions of “The Birth of Venus” make Lady Godiva look like a prude, especially as done by French painters.


59 posted on 01/03/2015 8:15:06 PM PST by elcid1970 ("I am a radicalized infidel.")
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To: mountainlion

NEHGS.


60 posted on 01/04/2015 5:34:31 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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