when thou returnest, thy petition shall be fulfilled. … Then the countess, beloved of God, loosened her hair thus veiling her body, and then, mounting her horse and attended by two knights, she rode through the market seen of none, her white legs nevertheless appearing; and having completed her journey, returned to her husband rejoicing, and … obtained from him what she had asked," for he forthwith gave the townsfolk a charter emancipating them from the aforesaid service.[27]
Naturally, the charter is not forthcoming, and historians have shrugged their shoulders at the mention of the story this many a day. It was not, however, until the time of Charles II. that the Godiva procession became a feature of Coventry fair. In 1678, we are told "Lady Godiva rode before the mayor to proclaim the fair" and the custom thus inaugurated obtains to this day. Of the window noted by Dugdale all traces disappeared amid the vandalism of the eighteenth century save a few fragments of glass now in the Archdeacon's chapel of Trinity Church, and of these one showing a tiny figure in a yellow dress riding a white horse and holding some foliage in the hand, is traditionally said to have formed part of the original design.[28]
GODIVA WINDOW
Such is the story which some accept undoubting, others dismiss as fabulous, and a third school, following the lead of Mr. Hartland[29] and perceiving in the tale elements which occur in the folk-lore of widely distant countries, regard as a reminiscence of heathen ritual, maybe some processional festivities of spring or summer.[30] In support of this contention it may be urged that the story is not peculiar to Coventry, that there is a good deal of evidence showing the part unclad or bough-clad women played in magical and religious rites,[31] that black-faced characters—whereof more presently—appear in festivals manifestly derived from heathendom, and that the "Peeping Tom" element may be part of the universal fairy tale which relates the punishment awaiting those who pry into sights forbidden. Moreover, the prominence given to the horse in the story is extremely suggestive. In one version it is the neighing of Godiva's steed that attracts the attention of the peeper, causing him to look forth from the window, whence it comes that in Coventry market there is no exemption from toll for horses.[32] It may not be too fanciful to recall in this connection the part played by the hobby-horse at folk-festivals, and the sacrificial character of the horse in Teutonic heathendom.[33]
HERALDIC TILE FOUND IN HALES STREET
The nearest variant of the Coventry story belongs to St. Briavel's in the Forest of Dean, like Coventry a woodland district. Here it is said that the wife of one of the Earls of Hereford won from her lord privileges of woodcutting for the commonalty by undergoing a like ordeal.[34] In a Dunster tradition the parallel is not so close. Here Sir John de Mohun's wife gained from her husband for the Dunster folk as much common land as she could make the circuit of, barefoot, in a day's space.[35]
Godiva is always traditionally represented riding on a white horse. It is curious that in an illuminated document formerly in possession of the Smiths' company, two Godivas appear, one a white woman on a white horse and another a black woman on an elephant—the last in allusion to the elephant and castle, the arms of the city.[36] Black-a-vised characters—explained by various theories[37]—are of common occurrence at festivals on May Day and Midsummer; it is only about forty years ago that a Jack-o'-green and his attendant sweeps ceased to parade the city on May Day, while at Southam, near Coventry, and possibly in Coventry also, a "black lady" rode in the "show fair" as well as Godiva.[38]
As for the "Peeping Tom" incident it may well be older than the eighteenth century, when the first printed allusion appears.[38] A ballad written about 1650 mentions that Godiva ordered all persons to keep within doors during her ride and shut their windows[39]; but in a Coventry version given in the MS. city annals[40]—dating, it appears, before the use of glass became common in domestic buildings—the peeper is said to "let down" a window, i.e. the wooden shutter of early times. The famous figure of Peeping Tom, mentioned in the city accounts in the year 1773,[41] still looks out of the northeast top window of the "King's Head" in Hertford Street. It is a wooden figure, thought to represent S. George, with armour of the time of Henry VII, broad-toed sollerets, and under a monstrous and absurd three-cornered hat is a bascinet. The arms, as far as the elbow, have been hacked away, and to the spectator in the street the figure is only visible from the waist upwards.
PEEPING TOM
For many people Coventry suggests Godiva. It is always well to bear in mind she was an authentic person, wife of Leofric, mother of Aelfgar, Earl of East Anglia, also buried in the monastery, grandmother of the Earls Edwin and Morkere, and of Aldgyth, first wife, then widow, of Gruffydd, Prince of Wales; then wife and widow of Harold, King of England. After Godiva's death, stories of her holy life and alms-deeds would be soon rife among the oppressed Saxons. It is noteworthy that Matilda, queen of Henry I., a sovereign of the old Saxon blood royal, and a most pious princess to boot, was called Godiva, no doubt in scorn of her birth, by the Norman courtiers.
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Harl. MS. 6195 f. 7.
[5] Poole, Coventry, 90. Elizabeth visited the city in 1565.
[6] Polyolbion, xiii.
[7] Some rough (?) Roman pavement was discovered in the Cross Cheaping during excavations at the end of the last century. Victoria County Hist. i. 246.
[8] Rashdall, Universities, ii. pt. ii. 323.
[9] Dugdale. Warw. i. 134.
[10] Ibid.
[11] A convent is properly a body of monks or nuns; a monastery or nunnery their habitation. The etymology of Coventry is dubious; but the popular derivation from the Lat. conventus is now discredited. The earliest form in which the word occurs is Cofantreo. Here treo = tree, and Dr. Hen. Bradley, to whom I am greatly indebted for information on this point, suggests a possible origin of the other syllables in a personal name, Cofa or Cufa; cf. Oswestry = Oswald's tree.
[12] See Matt. v. 20. This translation