Godiva Procession

The Godiva Procession is an annual procession in the city of Coventry, England, which re-enacts the story of Lady Godiva. They 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.

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. 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.

The son of James Swinnerton took the part of Lady Godiva in this procession, and a medal was later struck to commemorate the event. By 19th century the Godiva procession was firmly attached to the eight-day-long Coventry Fair. The Coventry Mercury in June 1824 described the mayor, magistrates and Charter Officers, as well as numerous societies and children following Godiva in procession.

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.

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