The Godiva Procession is an annual procession in the city of Coventry, England, which re-enacts the story of Lady Godiva. Godiva Processions have been held in Coventry since the 17th century.
The Godiva Procession is an annual procession in the city of Coventry, England, which re-enacts the story of Lady Godiva. Godiva Processions have been held in Coventry since the 17th century.
The first written record of the Godiva Processions is in the Coventry City Annals of 1678. These celebrate and re-enact Godiva's legendary naked ride through Coventry, undertaken to persuade her husband to free the people of the city from the burden of oppressive tolls. Although Godiva certainly existed, the historicity of the ride itself is debated. Godiva, or Godgifu, meaning 'God's Gift', was the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. Apart from references to her donations of land and gifts, there are no mentions to Godiva in contemporary chronicles. The first mention of the ride was over 150 years after her death, and appeared in Wendover's Flores Historiarum in 1190, though this survives only in a fourteenth-century manuscript. [1]
In 1217/18 Henry III granted the Charter for the Great Fair in Coventry, the event with which the Godiva Procession came to be associated. The charter stated that the fair was to begin on the feast day of the Holy Trinity, and continue for eight days. [2] Such a fair would be of great economic benefit to the city and was usually celebrated with a parade by the civic authorities. However, it was over four centuries later that a representative of Godiva was introduced to this procession.
The Coventry Corporation records provide the earliest record of the Godiva Procession:
In this year (1677-8), in the Mayoralty of Mr Michael Earle, there was a new show on the summer, or Great Fair, of followers- that is boys sent out by the several companies, and each Company having new Streamers, and Lady Godiva rode before the Mayor to proclaim the Fair. [2]
The son of James Swinnerton took the part of Lady Godiva in this procession, and a medal was later struck to commemorate the event. [3] By 19th century the Godiva procession was firmly attached to the eight-day-long Coventry Fair. In June 1824, Ann Rollason's Coventry Mercury described the mayor, magistrates and Charter Officers, as well as numerous societies and children following Godiva in procession. [1]
The scale of the procession grew in the following years, and by 1829, the programme describes the order of the procession: led by city guards, St George, bugles and city banners, then Lady Godiva, followed by the civic leaders and staff, numerous bands, Companies such as carpenters and blacksmiths, each with their own banners and followers, then the many Benefit Societies, with their bands and followers. Towards the rear came Woolcombers representing the wool trade in the city, together with the mythical Jason with his Golden Fleece and drawn sword.
The first procession that encouraged the idea of Godiva riding naked was probably in 1842, when she wore a tight fitting, flesh coloured dress, causing fights among spectators trying to get a better view. By 1845, due to complaints about the procession, the Mayor, William Clark, promised to stop the event ‘which has too long disgraced our city’. The Coventry Herald, 25 April 1845, quoted a statement signed by all the main church leaders in the city regretting a proposal ‘during the approaching fair, to get up a procession similar in character to those by which the streets of this City were disgraced in 1842 and 1844’. Despite this, the procession did go ahead that year, and Godiva wore 'a tunic of white satin' and a 'girdle of the same kind' over her flesh coloured dress, with scarves thrown across her shoulders, a mantle, sleeves and a headdress with ostrich feathers. [1] After 1862 processions were held less frequently and did not reach the earlier level of notoriety. [1]
For a long time, the names of the women who impersonated Lady Godiva were not made public and by the beginning of 20th Century, an actress was usually employed. Godiva processions were held every three to seven years, and were sometimes organised to celebrate special occasions. [4] In 1902, in the procession marking the coronation of Edward VII, Vera Guedes, from the London Hippodrome, rode as Godiva. To celebrate the coronation of George V in 1911, the actress Miss Viola Hamilton rode in the procession, led for the first time by a nun, with 23,000 school children in the parade, and hundreds more dressed as various historical characters. [5] In 1919, Lady Godiva appeared in the full dress robes of a Saxon countess, with even her horse wearing trousers. This was Miss Gladys Mann, the first Coventry girl to act the role.
The first time a non-actress rode in the procession was in the Coventry Hospital Pageant in 1929, when Muriel Mellerup from Gloucestershire was Lady Godiva. [5]
The first Post war Godiva pageant was in 1951 for the Festival of Britain. There were sixty tableaux illustrating historical and industrial aspects. The organiser, Mr Leonard Turner, obtained 1500 period costumes, for tableaux which included the visit of Henry VII to Coventry in 1500 and a representation of the elephant and castle coat of arms, which included real elephants. The 5-mile-long procession was led by a London student and actress, Ann Wrigg, portraying Lady Godiva, surrounded by the now traditional lines of nuns. [4]
During the second half of the 20th century the Godiva aspect was lost and was replaced by Coventry Carnival. With the loss of the large firms and their apprentice schools in Coventry, this carnival dwindled and eventually ceased. However, in 1997 the Godiva procession was revived and in 2000 Coventry Carnival returned with arts group inspired costumes and tableaux. In 2003 the two combined to become the Godiva Carnival Procession which is associated with the three-day Godiva Festival held in Coventry's War Memorial Park.
Lady Godiva, in Old English Godgifu, was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries.
The Lord Mayor's Show is one of the best-known annual events in London as well as one of the longest-established, dating back to the 13th century. A new lord mayor is appointed every year, and the public parade that takes place as their inauguration ceremony reflects that this was once one of the most prominent offices in England and subsequently the United Kingdom.
Coventry, a city in the West Midlands, England, grew to become one of the most important cities in England during the Middle Ages due to its booming cloth and textiles trade. The city was noted for its part in the English Civil War, and later became an important industrial city during the 19th and 20th centuries, becoming the centre of the British bicycle and later motor industry. The devastating Blitz in 1940 destroyed much of the city centre, and saw its rebuilding during the 1950s and 60s. The motor industry slumped during the 1970s and 80s, and Coventry saw high unemployment. However, in the new millennium the city, along with many others saw significant urban renaissance and in 2017 it was announced that the city had been awarded the title of 2021 UK City of Culture.
A procession is an organized body of people walking in a formal or ceremonial manner.
A tableau vivant, French for 'living picture', is a static scene containing one or more actors or models. They are stationary and silent, usually in costume, carefully posed, with props and/or scenery, and may be theatrically lit. It thus combines aspects of theatre and the visual arts.
Lady Godiva Rides Again is a 1951 British comedy film starring Pauline Stroud, George Cole and Bernadette O'Farrell, with British stars in supporting roles or making cameo appearances. It concerns a small-town English girl who wins a local beauty contest by appearing as Lady Godiva, then decides to pursue a higher profile in a national beauty pageant and as an actress.
"The Godiva Affair" is the fourth episode of the seventh series of the British comedy series Dad's Army. It was originally transmitted on Friday 6 December 1974.
The ceremonies and festivities accompanying a formal entry by a ruler or his/her representative into a city in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period in Europe were known as the Royal Entry, Triumphal Entry, or Joyous Entry. The entry centred on a procession carrying the entering ruler into the city, where they were greeted and paid appropriate homage by the civic authorities, followed by a feast and other celebrations.
Lady Godiva of Coventry is a 1955 American Technicolor historical drama film, directed by Arthur Lubin. It starred Maureen O'Hara in the title role. Alec Harford, the English actor who portrayed Tom the Tailor, died eight months before the film's release.
Coventry Cross was an important landmark in the cathedral city of Coventry, England. Standing between Cuckoo Lane and Holy Trinity Church and in the alley known as Trinity Churchyard, it was a modern version of the historic market cross, such as was common in many medieval market towns.
John Norman was a 15th-century draper, sheriff, alderman and for a term the Lord Mayor of London. He is known as being the first lord mayor to take a boat to Westminster to pledge his allegiance. Up until that point lord mayors of London had ridden or walked to Westminster in the yearly pageant on Lord Mayor's Day. Such river pageants existed until 1856, and today the lord mayor rides within a state coach during the pageant which is known today as Lord Mayor's Show. John Norman left his name to a song, supposedly created by the watermen who rowed him to Westminster, titled "Row the Boat, Norman".
Lady Godiva: Back in the Saddle is a 2007 British comedy film directed by Baz Taylor and starring James Fleet, Caroline Harker and Phil Cornwell. It follows a teacher who attempts to stop an American gangster and a corrupt mayor building a casino on the site where Lady Godiva once rode in Coventry.
St Mary's Hall is a municipal building in Bayley Lane in Coventry, West Midlands, England. It is a Grade I listed building.
The coronation of Victoria as Queen of the United Kingdom took place on Thursday, 28 June 1838, just over a year after she succeeded to the throne of the United Kingdom at the age of 18. The ceremony was held in Westminster Abbey after a public procession through the streets from Buckingham Palace, to which the Queen returned later as part of a second procession.
Alfred Robert Grindlay CBE, JP was an English inventor, industrialist and official during the 19th and 20th centuries. He co-founded Grindlay Peerless, the motorcycle engineering company and was Mayor of Coventry during WWII and the Coventry Blitz.
The coronation of Elizabeth I as Queen of England and Ireland took place at Westminster Abbey, London, on 15 January 1559. Elizabeth I had ascended the throne at the age of 25 upon the death of her half-sister, Mary I, on 17 November 1558. Mary had reversed the Protestant Reformation which had been started by her two predecessors, so this was the last coronation in Great Britain to be conducted under the authority of the Catholic Church. Historians view Elizabeth's coronation as a statement of her intention to restore England to Protestantism, but to allow the continuation of some Catholic customs, a compromise known as the Elizabethan Settlement.
Lady Godiva is a 1911 American silent historical drama film directed by J. Stuart Blackton and produced by Vitagraph Studios in Brooklyn, New York. Its scenario is based on a legendary incident in the life of Godiva, Countess of Mercia, who lived in England during the mid-11th century. Allegedly, the Anglo-Saxon noblewoman rode naked—covered only by her long hair—through the streets of Coventry to protest and abolish an oppressive tax imposed on that town's residents by her husband, Leofric, Earl of Mercia. The film, copies of which survive today, stars Julia Swayne Gordon in the title role with a supporting cast including Robert Maillard, Harold Wilson, and Kate Price.
Self Sacrifice, better known as the Lady Godiva statue is an equestrian statue of Lady Godiva in Broadgate, Coventry. The statue is bronze, on a plinth of Portland stone.
The Platinum Jubilee Pageant was held on Sunday, 5 June 2022 near Buckingham Palace, as part of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Conceived and directed by David Zolkwer with Pageant Master, Adrian Evans, it featured over 10,000 people from across the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth and combined street arts, music, puppets, carnival and costume to celebrate the Queen's reign, as well as honouring the collective service of people and communities across the United Kingdom.
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