Lady Godiva

Many hundreds of years ago, in 1040, every city and town of England had its lord. The men and women of the town had to work for the lord. The lord also took money from the people to pay his soldiers and to buy what he needed for his wars.

Lord Leofric was lord of the town of Coventry. He was a very bad man and the people of Coventry had to pay him very much money. Lord Leofric had a wife, Lady Godiva, a kind and beautiful woman. She always spoke kindly to the people and the people loved her.

Lady Godiva often asked her husband not to take so much money from the people, but he only laughed at her. But she asked him again and again and at last he said: “All right, I'll do it, but for this you must ride naked on horseback through the streets of the town.”

“She won't do it,” he said to himself. But she did.

There are two stories about how she did it. The first says that she rode on horseback and that her hair was so long that it covered her naked body.

The other story says that the kind people of Coventry did not come out of their houses that day, and did not look out of their windows, till she finished her ride. Only one young man, whose name was Tom, looked out. He saw the naked woman and became blind.

There is a statue to Lady Godiva on horseback in the center of Coventry.