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'''Lady Godiva''' Copyright 2007, Will Johnson, [mailto:wjhonson@aol.com wjhonson@aol.com], Professional Genealogist, All Rights Reserved. This page is locked, if you'd like to add or correct anything, please email me. If you enjoy the research done here, consider making a [http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_xclick&business=wjhonson@aol.com&amount=15.00&item_name=Lady_Godiva_Fund financial contribution] to keep research like this going. [[Leofric, Earl of Mercia]] married a woman named Godgifu ("God's Gift") whose name has come down to us in legend as '''Lady Godiva'''. She is most famously known for her legendary ride while naked through Coventry to protest her husband's high taxes on the populace. That this could have actually occurred is very doubtful. It is not noted by any contemporary chronicler and it would have been quite newsworthy certainly. The story is first recited about 200 years after her probable death. Some sources say that Leofric and Godiva founded the monastery at Coventry, others that they expanded one which was already there. It is alleged that Aelfgar who is known from the ASC entry below to be Leofric's son, was also Godgifu's son. Aelfgar was made Earl of East Anglia in 1051, he succeeded his father upon the later's death in 1057 (ASC pg 188), but didn't enjoy his Earldom long, as he is said-to-have died in 1059. Aelfgar is supposed to have had a daughter Ealdgyth (Edith) who is said-to-have married Gruffydd ap Llewellyn who was Ruler of Gwynedd and Powys from 1039 and eventually by 1055 King of all Wales, united under him. That there was an alliance between Aelfgar and Gruffydd is shown by the ASC entries, which however do not specifically mention a marriage, or any relationship between Aelgfar and Gruffydd. Edith and Gruffydd's daughter Nest is said-to-be that Nest who is known to be the wife of Osbert FitzRichard. She is said to have been born in 1058 and gave birth to at least two children. All of this needs to be confirmed or denied by primary research. ==Primary sources== *Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, G.N. Garmonsway (tr,ed). J.M.Dent Ltd, London 1972 (reprint 1992) **pg 159 : "The Laud Chronicle (E) — 1036 [1035] (footnote: E has misplaced the vacant annal for 1036) In this year Cnut passed away at Shaftesbury, and he is buried in the Old Minster, Winchester. Soon after his passing there was a meeting of all the councillors at Oxford, and earl Leofric and almost all the thanes to the north of the Thames, and [Cnut's] household troops in London, elected Harold as regent of all England...." **pg 163 : "The Worcester Chronicle (D) — 1043 In this year Edward was consecrated king at Wincester on the first day of Easter. And in the same year, a fortnight before St Andrew's day, the king was advised to ride from Gloucester, and [with] earl Leofric and earl Godwine and earl Siward and their band came to Winchester...." **pg 174 : "The Laud Chronicle (E) — 1048[1051] ...Earl Siward and earl Leofric and many people with them from the north had come there to the king...." **pg 175 : "The Worcester Chronicle (D) — 1052 "...He sent then for earl Leofric and north for earl Siward and asked for troops from them." **pg 177 : "The Laud Chronicle (E) — 1048 [1051] "And then Odda was appointed earl over Devon, and over Somerset, and over Dorset, and over Cornwall; and Aelfgar, earl Leofric's son, was given the earldom which Harold had had." **pg 184 : "The Abingdon Chronicle (C) — 1055 "A short time after this there was a council in London, and earl Aelfgar, son of earl Leofric, was outlawed without having done anything to deserve his fate. Thereupon he went to Ireland, and added a force of eighteen ships to his own household troops, and sailed to king Gruffydd with that host; and he took him under his protection." **pg 188 : "The Laud Chronicle (E) — 1057 "Earl Leofric passed away, and Aelfgar, his son, succeeded to the earldom which his father had had." *[http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=show&page=Charters Anglo Saxon Charters site] **[http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=charter&id=1226 Charter S1226] : "Leofric, comes of Chester, founds Coventry Abbey..." [probably spurious, but *note* the conspicuous absence of Godgifu] **[http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=charter&id=1232 Charter S1232] : "Leofric, comes, and his wife (Godgifu), to St Mary's, Worcester..." **[http://www.anglo-saxons.net/hwaet/?do=get&type=charter&id=1233 Charter S1233] : "Godiva (Godgifu), wife of Leofric, to St Mary's, Stow..." ==Secondary sources== *[http://books.google.com/books?id=qSYJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA36&dq=godiva+coventry Dictionary of National Biography, "Godiva or Godgifu (fl. 1040-1080)"] transcribed [[Godiva (DNB1922)|here]] *"Living Descendants of Blood Royal", Vol 2, by Count d'Angerville, F.R.S.A. World Nobility and Peerage, London. 1962 pg 500 sub Koehler :<blockquote>"1) Griffith ap Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales, d 5 Aug 1063 (son of Llewellyn the Great, Prince of N Wales and his wife Angharat II, Queen of Powis); m Editha, dau of Elgar d 1059 Earl of Mercia.</blockquote><blockquote>2) Nesta, d 1058; m (1) Trahaern, Prince of N Wales, d 1081; (2) Osbern, son of Richard FitzScrob, a Norman lord." citing DNB 2, 376</blockquote> **I correct "d 1058" to read "b 1058" **DNB is Dictionary of National Biography. The article 2, 376 is "Bernard (fl 1093) of Neufmarche" which I extract, in part, next. *[http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/View.aspx?dbid=6892&path=Beal+-+Browell.Dictionary+Of+National+Biography.BE.376&cr=1&sid=&gskw= Dictionary of National Biography (1922), 2, 376], "Bernard (fl. 1093), of Neufmarche (de Novo-mercatu), often called in English 'of Newmarch,' was the son of Geoffrey, son of Thurcytel, lord of Newmarche by the forest of Lions, and of Ada, daughter of Richard of Hugleville....He married the daughter of Osbern, son of Richard Fitz Scrob, the Norman lord who built his castle in Herefordshire before the Conquest....He married, probably as his second wife, Nest, the daughter of another Nest, daughter of Gruffyydd ap Llewellyn and his English wife Ealdgyth, though it is possible that the elder Nest was the wife of Osbern, and that her daughter was the only wife of Bernard....The date of his death is not known....In spite of the pious benefaction made by Nest to her husband's priory, her wickedness caused her son Mahel the loss of his father's estates. Mahel caught her lover coming from her, and beat and mutilated him. In revenge Nest went to King Henry and swore that her son was not the son of her husband Bernard. The king...made Nest's daughter Sibyl...heiress...and gave her in marriage to Miles FitzWalter, constable of Gloucester...." The article cites it's authorites as : "Giraldus Cambrensis, Itin. Kambriae, i. 12; Orderic, 606; Florence, 1088; Anglo-Sax. Chron. 1088; Brut y Tywysogion, 1091; Chron. de Bello, 34, 35; Monasticon, i. 545, iii. 264, 245; Freeman's Norman Conquest, iii. 132, v. 109, and William Rufus, i. 34, ii. 89-91." **Itin. Kambriae is Giraldus Cambrensis' work 'Itinerarium Cambriae ("Journey through Wales") writen in 1191. Giraldus lived from 1146 to 1223 and did not begin to write until these events were several decades in the past. *[http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/BookView.aspx?dbid=49030&iid=FLHG_AncestralRoots-0189&sid=&gskw=Record+Godiva&cr=1 Ancestral Roots, 7th edition, line 176] stating :<blockquote>2 Gruffydd I ap Llewellyn, Prince of North Wales, king of Gwynedd and Powys, 1039, and of Deheubarth, 1055, slain 5 Aug 1063; m as 1st husb., abt 1057, Edith (or Aldgyth) (176A-4), dau of Aelfgar (176A-3). (ASC 1035, 1051, 1053, 1055, 1057, 1058; CCN 444, 604). She m (2) abt 1064, (Harold II (1B-23), King of England, (CP VI, 451-453, DNB 23: 307; NGSQ 50 (1962): 76-77; Dict of Welsh Biog., cit., p 312)</blockquote> **ASC is the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle which I've transcribed above and which does *not* show this connection at all **CCN is Century Cyclopedia of Names, a very poor source for such an important connection *[http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/anglo-saxon/flowers/godiva.html "Lady Godiva"], by Aelius_Stilo@yahoo.com, at Encyclopaedia Romana online. Among other things they claim the Chronicle ascribed to Florence was actually writen by John of Worcester from 1124 to 1140 instead of Florence who died 1118. This attribution would allow relaxing her dates, since she could be as much as a generation younger than previously thought.<blockquote>"Among his other good deeds in this life, he and his wife, the noble countess Godgiva, who was a devout worshipper of God, and one who loved the ever-virgin St. Mary, entirely constructed at their own cost the monastery there [Coventry], well endowed it with land, and enriched it with ornaments to such an extent, that no monastery could be then found in England possessing so much gold, silver, jewels, and precious stones." The Chronicle of John of Worcester: The Annals from 450 to 1066 (1995) edited by R. R. Darlington and P. McGurk, translated by Jennifer Bray and P. McGurk (Oxford Medieval Texts)</blockquote> *The 1985 EB has this to say<blockquote>fl c 1040-1080, Anglo-Saxon gentlewoman famous for her legendary ride while nude through Coventry, Warwickshire</blockquote><blockquote>Godiva was the wife of Leofric, earl of Mercia, with whom she founded and endowed a monastery at Coventry. The chronicler Florence of Worcester (d. 1118) mentions Leofric and Godiva with respect, but does not refer to the ride. There is no evidence connecting the rider with the historical Godiva.</blockquote><blockquote>The earliest extant source for the story is the 'Chronica' (under the year 1057) of Roger of Wendover (d. 1236). He recounts that her husband, in exasperation over her ceaseless imploring that he reduce Coventry's heavy taxes, declared that he would so if she rode naked through the croweded marketplace. She did so, her hair covering all of her body except her legs. Ranulf Higdon (d.1364) in his 'Polychronicon', says that as a result Leofric freed the town from all tolls save those on horses. An inquiry made in the reign of Edward I shows that at the time no tolls were paid in Coventry except on horses. A later chronicle assets that Godiva required the townsmen to remain indoors at the time fixed for her ride. Peeping Tom, a citizen who looked out his window, apparently became a part of the legend in the 17th century. In most accounts he was struck blind or dead.</blockquote> *[http://www.genealogics.org/getperson.php?personID=I00027595&tree=LEO "Godgifu of Bucknall"] on Genealogics citing : 1) PA (1975) ref 130; and 2)Descendents of Leofric of Mercia (2002), John Ravilous and Rosie Bevan ==Further reading== *Paulvheath recommends in a posting to Gen-Medieval 14 Aug 2007 the book "Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings and Nobles" by W G Searle (1899), stating "He summarized the information known about Anglo-Saxon genealogies up to that time and carefully cited his sources, which can therefore be checked." *Doug McDonald in a posting to Gen-Medieval 14 Aug 2007 cites a source : Walter Lee Sheppard, "Are you a descendant of Lady Godiva", *National Genealogical Society Quarterly*, vol. 50, no. 2 [June 1962], pp. 74-78
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