GODIVA NOT NAKED

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31441, 7 August 1967, Page 2

GODIVA NOT NAKED

(N.Z. Prtu Assn.—Copyripht) COVENTRY, Aug. 4. The naked truth about Lady Godiva is that she did not ride nude through the streets of Coventry, says a report prepared for the nine hundredth anniversary of her death. To help commemorate the

anniversary—on September 9 —the Coventry City Councilasked Joan Lancaster and Dr. Hilda Davidson to write a book. Miss Lancaster, formerly the city’s archivist, is now archivist for the Commonwealth Relations Office.

“Lady Godiva may have ridden in a beggar's garb on a

hone without a saddle,” she says.

“But we feel strongly that she would not ride around naked in the 11th century. That sort of thing just would not happen.”

She said ancient documents said only that Lady Godiva waa stripped of all signs of her rank, not that she was stripped naked. Lady Godiva’s ride was supposed to have been in protest against cruel taxes imposed on the people by her husband, Leofric.

"There is no real evidence to suggest that any protest took place,” said Miss Lancaster. “If she did ride through the streets it is much more likely that she waa stripped of all signs of rank to associate with the common people.” If the report is correct the world owes an apology to the original “peeping tom." A

Coventry tailor named Tom is supposed to have been the only citizen who peeped at her Ladyship on her ride.