Did the ride take place?

John Colliers picture of godiva

There is really no way of knowing. And as suggested previously, if it did happen then it would it have been the "ride through the town" that we all think it was?

The Domesday survey of 1086 -1087 says…"The Countess held Coventry. There are five hides(units of land). The arable employs 20 ploughs and there are 3 demsne (the Lords Estate) and 7 Bondmen (slaves). There are 50 Villeins and 12 Borders (peasants), with 20 ploughs. A mill pays 3 shillings a year. There is woodland, 2 miles long and the same broad"

So, not quite the "town" that is imagined from the literature. Leofric died in 1057 - his wife, Godiva, some say, 10 years after. So, if she died in 1067 - some 20 years before the Domesday book - it was probably an even smaller place than the Domesday book describes.

The earliest record of the ride that we have today  is from 1157. And who knows what embroidery has been applied to the story in the 100 years between the ride and this the first known record.

The following piece from 1572 was written by one Richard Grafton who was the Member of Parliament for Coventry.

(I would like to thank Octavia Randolph  from who's site I have extracted parts of the following piece)

But Gaufride sayth that this gentle and good Lady did not onely for the freeing of the said Citie and satisfying of her husbands pleasure, graunt vnto her sayde Husband to ryde as aforesayde: But also called in secret manner (by such as she put speciall trust in) all those that then were Magistrates and rulers of the said Citie of Couentrie, and vttered vnto them what good will she bare vnto the sayde Citie, and how shee had moued the Erle her husband to make the same free, the which vpon such condition as is afore mencioned, the sayde Erle graunted vnto her, which the sayde Lady was well contented to doe, requiring of them for the reuerence of womanhed, that at that day and tyme that she should ride (which was made certaine vnto them) that streight commaundement should be geuen throughout all the City, that euerie person should shut in their houses and Wyndowes, and none so hardy to looke out into the streetes, nor remayne in the stretes, vpon a very great paine, so that when the tyme came of her out ryding none sawe her, but her husbande and such as were present with him, and she and her Gentlewoman to wayte vpon her galoped through the Towne, where the people might here the treading of their Horsse, but they saw her not, and so she returned to her Husbande from the place from whence she came, her honestie saued, her purpose obteyned, her wisdome much commended, and her husbands imagination vtterly disappointed. And shortly after her returne, when shee had arayed and apparelled her selfe in most comely and seemly manner, then shee shewed her selfe openly to the peuple of the Citie of Couentrie, to the great joy and maruellous reioysing of all the Citizens and inhabitants of the same, who by her had receyued so great a benefite. 

Godiva portrayed in 1586 by Adam van Noort

At best the above is an over inflated and fanciful rendition of a possible simple act. There is no reason to suppose that the ride did not take place but in a city, or even a town?  Think more of a small village with a little chapel and few scattered dwellings and you possibly  have a better idea of the aspect that confronted Godiva on that day of the ride. 

Octavia writes...

But by far the most vital fact ignored in these retellings is that Godgyfu possessed the village of Coventry outright. She need not ask Leofric or anyone else to suspend or repeal any tax or toll upon it, as she controlled the collection of these herself. The sole exception was the heregeld, an onerous levy instituted by Cnut to pay for the king's personal body-guard. Until revoked by Edward the Confessor in 1051, it was a national tax, required of all. Godgyfu would not have been able to suspend it - but she certainly could have paid it from her own purse. 

The reason for this persistent misrepresentation is simple, but profound in its implications to the unfolding of the tale. Because Anglo-Saxon woman - indeed all women in England - had by the time of even the earliest extant retelling lost the extensive property (and other personal and legal) rights they had enjoyed prior to the disaster of 1066, chroniclers wrote from the perspective of Norman law and mores. As the tale became sentimentalised and ever-more erotically charged, the victimization of Godgyfu became paramount - she must become a virtuous victim, compelled by an unfeeling husband to perform (in the chronicler's eyes) a humiliating act, in a Coventry subjected, as was she, to his utter domination. There is no room in these later recountings for a woman of independence and intelligence, acting out of deep-seated devotion, and inspired by well-remembered (and in some instances, still enacted) pre-Christian agricultural rituals and Biblical acts of religious dedication and contrition. 

So did the ride take place? Quaint story or historical fact? The decision is yours as nobody really knows.

Each year in Coventry a procession takes place with a "Lady Godiva" riding a white horse at the front. Linked at the foot of the page are a few pictures taken from a procession a few years back.