biography
pronunciation:
[godiyva]
| sex:
| female
|
| lived:
| (11th-c)
|
| biography:
| An English lady and religious benefactress, who, according to tradition, rode naked through the market place at Coventry, in order to obtain the remission of a heavy tax imposed by her husband, Leofric, Earl of Chester (d.1057), upon the townsfolk (1040). The story first occurs in the Chronica of Roger of Wendover (1235). The related story of Peeping Tom, who looked through the closed shutters, did not appear in the legend until the 17th-c. |
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