The Legend Of Lady Godiva Finally Explained

You've heard of Lady Godiva, even if it's just because of chocolate. But you may not know all the details of the Lady Godiva story. Did she really ride naked through the streets to protest high taxes? Or is that just a myth? Here's the legend of Lady Godiva finally explained.

The answer to your first question is yes, Lady Godiva was a real person. She lived in 11th century England and was married to a powerful earl by the name of Leofric, who ruled Mercia and Coventry. But if you believe the historical records, the real Godiva didn't really do much, as those records barely mention her.

She appears to have had at least one son, Alfgar, who became Earl of East Anglia. She also had a granddaughter who married King Harold II and became queen of England at least temporarily, since Harold died rather spectacularly at the Battle of Hastings just one year after their wedding.

So Godiva's official historical record is mostly just about her offspring, which is kind of how things went when you were a woman in the middle ages. No matter what you did, people really only remembered the deeds of your husband, your sons, or the men your daughters married. So while Godiva might not have been noted much by contemporary historians, that doesn't necessarily mean she wasn't noteworthy. It's just that no one wrote down most of the things she did.

Godiva is a name that has sort of evolved over the centuries, probably because it sounds nicer than her real name, which was "Godgifu." Godgifu means "good gift," but it's kind of a mouthful. Imagine eating a piece of Godgifu chocolate!

Godgifu wasn't only not Godiva, she also wasn't a lady. According to How Stuff Works, in 11th century Anglo-Saxon England, an earl's wife would have been referred to as "the earl's wife" or even worse, as "the earl's bed-partner."

In Godiva's time, "Lady" was reserved for the queen and the queen alone, so Godiva's granddaughter would have briefly been "Lady," but Godiva herself would not have used that title. So her true and accurate name and title would have been Leofric Eorl's Gebedda Godgifu. Now put that on a piece of chocolate. To hear the rest of the legend of Lady Godiva finally explained, watch the full video.

Lady Godiva was a real person | 0:15
Her name wasn't Godiva, and she wasn't a lady | 1:10
The pious woman | 1:51
No clothes | 2:29
But is it true? | 3:47
Those wacky pagans | 4:33
Peeping Tom | 5:27
Not how taxes work | 6:20
What if it was true? | 7:12
Long hair, don't care | 8:00
Coventry loves its local heroine | 9:04

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