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Her husband, Leofric III, Earl of Mercia and Lord of Coventry, raised taxes on the townsfolk to the point of oppression. Godiva was upset on behalf of the people's suffering, and asked that Leofric lower the taxes. He refused, but she kept asking and wouldn't give up. At last, fed up, he said he'd lower the taxes if she rode naked through the town. So she did, and Leofric was bound by the honour code of the time to do what he'd promised and lower the much-ballyhooed taxes.

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All these people were real historical figures, with the same names. Godiva--or Godgifu--herself was born c. 980, and died in 1067; her name means "god's gift". Leofric III lived from 968 to 1057. They were married in 1040 (or 1030, either date of which may be a typo on Wikipedia), when Godiva was already a widow. With Leofric, Godiva may have had three sons: Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia (d. 1062), Hereward "the Wake", and another whose name is unknown.

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Nevertheless, the Naked Ride itself is probably legendary. It's still an admirable story imo. I think it's sad that most people don't know Godiva's true, honourable motives, and just get hung up on the "OMG she rode NAKED!".

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As always, your good friend Wikipedia has more: http://snipurl.com/mgqi.

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Miranda

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Proud adopter of 15 punctuation marks; see my profile for their names.