© Alamy
In the mid-11th century, the parsimonious Earl of Mercia ruled over Coventry and nearby towns and villages in the west Midlands of Anglo-Saxon England. He’d imposed a heavy tax on the people of Coventry, one that his wife, Lady Godiva, found to be greatly unjust. She begged and pleaded with him to repeal the tax, but to no avail.
Godiva continued to petition the earl day after day, week after week, until finally he answered her demands with a proposition. He suggested that if Godiva was willing to undress, mount her horse and ride naked through the streets of Coventry, from one end of the town’s market to the other, he would acquiesce to her wishes. Godiva, determined to do whatever was necessary to help her people, agreed to her husband’s demand.