She was a legend.  But was she a person?  Did she grow old?  Did she become a grandmother?  Was she happy?  I did some research, and the answers are yes, yes, yes, and yes!

Yes, she was a person.  Before she was a legend and long before she was an image on a box of chocolates, she was a woman.  She lived in Coventry, England, in the Eleventh Century.  Her name was Godgifu (gift from God).  She married Leofric, Earl of Mercia.  Widowed in 1057, she died in 1067. (Source: Lady Godiva: A Literary History by Daniel Donoghue)

Yes, she grew old and became a grandmother.  Her granddaughter Edith (Ealdgyth)  was, in fact, twice a queen, first as the wife of Gruffrydd, the king of North Wales, and, after his death, as the wife of Harold Godwinson, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England, who died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. (Source:  Kings & Queens of England & Scotland by Plantagenet Somerset Fry)

The legend of her naked ride through Coventry first appeared almost 200 years after her death,  and holds that the ride was on a dare from her husband.  Leofric had levied a new tax on their people, to which Godigfu objected.  He agreed to rescind the tax if she would ride naked through town.  So she was a social activist with a kind heart!

And, yes, she was happy.  She was so happy that she continued to ride her horse her whole life long, and when the weather was good, she rode naked. (Source: a little bird told me.)

I am fond of grandmothers (I am one), and I am fond of horses (I have one), so I made a doll of Grandma Godiva and her horse.  I took Grandma Godiva as my domain name and as the name of my Etsy shop.  Under that name I began to make many other kinds of folk art dolls.

Lady Godiva is the subject of novels, poems, paintings, and sculpture. She even captured the imagination of Dr. Seuss, who took part of her legend and made a book called The Seven Lady Godivas.

Lady Godiva belongs to the world.  But Grandma Godiva, I believe, belongs to me.