GODIVA, go-di'va, a legendary English heroine. She was the wife of Leofnc, Earl of Mercia and Lord of Coventry in the reign of Edward the Confessor. The inhabitants of Coventry having on one occasion offended their master, he punished them by inflicting so heavy a fine that they were unable to pay it. In their distress they appealed to Lady Godiva to inter cede for them, saying that if they paid the fine they must starve. Godiva, sympathizing with the people, went to her lord to plead that, for her sake, the tax might be remitted. Leofric, when she persisted in her entreaties, at last said half jocularly and half contemptuously, that he would grant her request if she would ride naked through the town of Coventry. Having first re ceived permission from her lord to fulfil the condition imposed Godiva caused it to be made known on what terms the earl had agreed to relieve the people from the tax, and then pro claimed that on a certain day no one should leave his house before noon, that all windows and other apertures in the houses should be closed and that no one should even look out until noon waspast. She then mounted naked on
her palfrey, rode through the town and returned; and Leofric, in fulfilment of his promise, and in admiration of his wife's heroism, freed the inhabitants from the burdens he had im posed on them. Only one person, the story says, attempted to look out, and he was immediately struck blind. The incident is commemorated by a stained glass memorial in Saint Michael's Church, Coventry. A medimval pageant cele brating Godiva's ride was a feature of Coventry fair for several centuries, and recen attempts to revive the pageant have been made. Consult Tennyson's (Godiva); and Harris's 'Story of Coventry' (London 1911).