It is probably only Peeping Tom, who can claim to have seen Lady Godiva riding naked through the streets of Coventry. Not until a hundred years after the death of Lady Godiva in 1067 did the story become really well-known. It is as if the thought about the pious beauty who rode through the town naked has haunted the English imagination ever since. Since it’s so long time ago it’s difficult to know what Lady Godiva really did so that her name could be remembered for more than 900 years.
Lady Godiva was married to Earl Leofric, and she was considered to be clever, religious, and charitable. Leofric wasn’t that popular among the citizens like his wife, for he neither shared her piety nor her charity. When he needed a large sum of money, he heavily taxed the inhabitants of Coventry. When Lady Godiva told her husband not to do this, he answered – according to the legend which perhaps wasn’t far from the truth – that he wouldn’t end the heavy taxes until she had rode naked through Coventry on the fair day for he was certain that the vivacious woman never would do so.
Whether you believe it or not it seems a fact: Lady Godiva red naked through the marketplace. Although the most citizens of Coventry were gathered there, nobody saw anything else but her beautiful face and her beautiful legs since her long hair covered her body, as if it was an article of her clothing. At first Leofric got tremendously angry about the episode but then he found out that nobody had seen her naked body because of her long hair, and he immediately ended the taxation.
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