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
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