Comprehensions
The Legend of Lady Godiva
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In the early eleventh century, Leofric, Earl of Mercia, became the governor of the city of Coventry. When he first started governing the city it was a very small town. Leofric wasn't happy being the governor of a small town, he wanted to be the governor of am rich cultural city. So he decided to build Coventry into a city he could be proud of. Because he and his wife, Godiva, were religious people the first thing he built was an Abbey. The Abbey quickly became the center of the surrounding area's religious and social activities. Encouraged, Leofric decided to expand his public works program. To pay for all these new buildings Leofric increased the taxes on the ordinary people. Leofric's wife, Godiva, was a gentle, caring person. She felt that the lives of the ordinary people were hard enough without the added hardship of heavy taxes. She begged with Leofric to lower the taxes. As Leofric was proud of his of all the things he was building he refused. This situation went on for many years, Godiva pleading and Leofric refusing. Then one day Leofric decided that he had had enough of this arguement. He was sick and tired of it. So he told Godiva that if she was really serious about wanting him to lower taxes she would have to prove it. If she would ride her horse naked through the streets of coventry he would lower the taxes and stop all his building projects. At first Godiva thought that this was a stupid idea, but after some time she decided to do it because she realised that it was the only way that Leofric would lower taxes. So she agreed. Over the next few days Godiva thought and thought and then she came up with a plan of her own. She asked the townspeople to stay at home and lock their window shutters. The townspeople agreed because she was doing them a big favor. So on the big day, the day Godiva was to ride her horse naked through Coventry the streets were empty. Everybody had stayed home as they had promised.
Legend tells us that nobody looked at Godiva as she rode through the streets of Coventry except for Tom, the town's tailor. And he was struck blind for doing this. That's how we got the expression "peeping Tom" for someone who likes to spy on others. |