Lady Godiva: A Woman Who Dared to Be Bare - Page 2
© Debbie Legare
Meanwhile, Godiva gained in her proficiency as a horsewoman and started to love hunting and the social pleasantries given to her. She also began her love affair with the arts and society itself. It was in her excursions on the hunts that allowed her to meet the people she needed to prove her intellect and growth as a woman. Her aspirations began to grow and soon she was motivated to act on them. She began to think about what she could do for the town more than for herself. Her first thought was that she could aid in the field of artistic creation by commissioning a proper portrait of herself believing it would inspire the "simpler souls". She soon found that she wasn't affecting the masses as she had hoped for in her artistic endeavors even though beautiful pictures were being passed around of her constantly. It was her hope to help the townspeople to have an appreciation of art in their everyday life but realized that most of the people in town made it their priority to house, clothe and feed themselves. She also noticed they were having an extremely hard time doing so especially since Leofric had started to impose taxes on everything he could including manure. Her dream of art in Coventry took a backseat while the important considerations were municipal water and supplies. Godiva found the differences in men especially had simple visions and their priorities were of the mechanical and functional. This was very unappealing to the Lady and she began to put into motion her plan. She believed that taxes had to be lowered in order for the town to enter the 11th century with cultural interests not just agricultural concerns.
Soon after her decision, Godiva talked to Leofric about her desires. Her most famous conversation took place at the local bar and in a fit of laughter, Leofric fell of his chair and injured his wrist. He of course, sobered up when he realized she wasn't joking and told Godiva that no such tax revisions would be made just to appreciate pictures then instead added a tax on her pictures. This of course, had to be paid only by the Lady herself since she was the only one that had art in her ownership, except for the church and it was exempt. This infuriated her and it soon became the classic war of wills that had its fair share of nagging and stalling. However, Godiva did get through to Leofric and he agreed to the tax decrease with one interesting condition. Leofric was known as a sporting man and Godiva was up to whatever he suggested. He told Godiva that if her crusade was truly one she wanted to fight, she had to lead it herself and offer the villagers an example of artistic, glorious beauty.
