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Person Info

• Name: Gogdifu (Godiva) Of Buckingham, Lady Godiva
• Sex: F
• Birth: Abt 1010 ^b
• Death: 1080 ^d
• Burial: Porch Of The Battle Abbey ^u


Parents:

• Father:
  
• (Unk)

Family:
Marriage:

• Leofric Earl Of Mercia on Bef 1030 .^m1
  
• Leofric Earl Of Mercia Death: 31 Aug 1057 in Bromley, Co Stafford

Children:

1. Aelfgar Earl Of East Anglia Birth: Abt 1033 Death: Abt 1062

Bibliography

Sources for birth and parent Information

date:

abt 1010 [Ref: Weis AR7 #176A],

brother:

Thorold of Buckingham, sheriff of Lincs [Ref: Watney WALLOP #673, Weis AR7 #176A]

Turold the Sheriff [Ref: Keats-Rohan Lucy]

Sources for death Information

date:

abt 1080 [Ref: Watney WALLOP #673]

before 1086 [Ref: Keats-Rohan DP p218],

note:

[Ref: Wurts MCBarons p429]

Sources for burial Information

place:

Coventry [Ref: Watney WALLOP #673],

note:

[Ref: Wurts MCBarons p429]

Sources with Information about marriage to Leofric Earl Of Mercia

date:

prob by 1030 [Ref: Weis AR7 #176A],

names:

[Ref: Keats-Rohan DP p218],

child:

[Ref: Wagner PedigreeProgress #48, Watney WALLOP #673, Weis AR7 #176A]

Research Notes:
Godiva's ancestry is uncertain, but she was evidently of an old, noble family. She is the "Lady Godiva" of legend. [Ref: Weis AR7 #176A]

sister of Thorold of Buckingham, sheriff of Lincs [Ref: Watney WALLOP #673, Weis AR7 #176A]

The people of Coventrytown suffered grievously under the Earl's oppressive taxation, about the year 1040, whereupon Lady Godiva appealed to her husband, who refused to remit the tolls. At last, says the legend, he promised he would grant her request if she would ride naked through the streets of the town. After issuing a proclamation that all persons should keep within doors and draw their blinds, she rode through Coventry clothed only in her long hair. One person, a tailor, afterward known as Peeping Tom, disobeyed her instructions and is said to have been struck blind. Her husband kept his word, and abolished the obnixious taxes. The oldest form of the legend is given By Roger of Wendover, who quoted from an earlier unknown writer. The Godiva procession, instituted May 31 1678 as part of Coventry Fair, was celebrated at intervals until 1826. [Ref: Wurts MCBarons p429]

The story occurs in Roger of Wendover (1235). Some writers assert that Lady Godiva ordered all to remain indoors, which they did except for the famous Peeping Tom, but he is a later addition to the story. [Ref: Leo van de Pas SGM 6/23/1999]

An explanation of the Lady Godiva story could well be the survival of a Celtic pagan celebration in honour of the goddess-spirit, Epona. To celebrate the passage of the Moon across the night sky and, at the same time, the change from winter to spring, a tradition of a naked lady with long hair riding on a white horse had survived. Quite possibly Leofric, Earl of Mercia, had dared his wife, Godiva, to take the local girl's place in the procession. [Ref: Leo van de Pas SGM 6/23/1999]

Still another version, from Karl Hafele's Die Godivasage und ihre Behandlung in der Literatur (1929): the legend may have arisen from a misinterpretation of the statement that Lady Godiva "stripped herself" (denudata) of her worldy possessions, donating them to Coventry Abbey.
But I agree with VCH Warwick, vol. 8: the City of Coventry and Borough of Warwick, that it is more likely that the monks of Coventry, unable to suppress the pagan fertility cult, reoriented it by substituting the pious Countess Godiva for the fertility goddess who rode naked in an annual springtime procession. [Ref: Don Stone SGM 6/23/1999]

1086: name occ Domesday, when her name was entered in respect of lands not yet regranted [Ref: Keats-Rohan DP p218]



Pedigree of Gogdifu (Godiva) Of Buckingham, Lady Godiva
 /-----(Unk)
Gogdifu (Godiva) Of Buckingham, Lady Godiva



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