Lady Godiva 990-1067

Lady Godiva is my 32nd Great Grandmother. 

She was born in Coventry on 5th September 990 to the Sheriff of Lincoln and Edith Malet.

She's most famous for riding on a horse naked through the streets of Coventry as a protest against the taxes imposed by her Anglo Saxon husband the Earl of Mercia, on the people of Coventry.  He said if she rode naked, he'd drop the taxes, so she did just that.  Good on you Godiva.

She was wealthy and was a church benefactor, donating large sums to a number of monasteries including the one at Chester.  She's so old she lived through the Norman Conquests of 1066 and she was mentioned in the Domesday Survey although she had died before it was published.

There are a number of paintings and sculptures of her and Godiva Chocolate is named in her honour.  She's also mentioned in a few songs and there's a film!

She died an old lady in approx. 1067 and is buried either in Evesham or Coventry, no-one's quite sure.

There is a Society of Descendants of Lady Godiva, based in the USA

Charlemagne, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire 2nd April 742 - 28 Jan 814

Charlemagne is my grandest relative and the one you'll have heard of; it will be agricultural labourers and dockers from here on.  He is my German Great Grandfather twice through 2 different branches of my family tree:

He is my 41st Great Grandfather through his marriage to Regina Reginopycrha Concubine a German.  She was his concubinage (not married)

He is my 36th Great Grandfather through his 2nd marriage to Hildegarde Swabia von Vinzgau Empress Franks, a German. 

He was King of the Franks who united most of Western Europe during the Middle Ages and laid the foundations for modern France and Germany. He took the Frankish throne from 768, became King of Italy from 774, and from 800 was the first recognized Roman emperor in Western Europe since the collapse of the Western Roman Empire three centuries earlier. The expanded Frankish state he founded is called the Carolingian Empire.

He had a concubine, 4 wives and 12 children so I'm sure he will pop up again via another route

His parents were Pepin the Short (King of the Franks) and Bertrada of Laon

He spoke a dialect of Old High German but also spoke Latin and Greek

An estimate of his height from a X-ray and CT Scan of his tibia performed in 2010 is 1.84 m (72 in). This puts him in the 99th percentile of tall people of his period, given that average male height of his time was 1.69 m (67 in).

He was Emperor for 13 years, died from pleurisy and is buried in Aachen Cathedral, Germany

One last thing.....Charlemagne was a lover of books. He had clerics translate Christian creeds and prayers into their respective vernaculars. Book production was completed slowly by hand, and took place mainly in large monastic libraries. Books were so in demand during Charlemagne’s time that monastic libraries lent out some books, but only if that borrower put up valuable collateral. At Charlemagne’s court, a court library was founded.  Charlemagne was a bibliophile and founded a court library during the ninth century. Some claims that add to Charlemagne's credit as a lover of books include during meals having books read out loud to him, and loving the books by St. Augustine.