Leofric, Earl of Mercia

Leofric (b. abt May 14, 968 - died August 31, 1057, or October 1057 at his villa at Bromleage (Bromley in Staffordshire), bur Coventry) was the Earl of Mercia, who, in 1043, founded monasteries at Coventry and Much Wenlock. He was elevated to Earl (a title and position new to the English, replacing and expanding the Anglo-Saxon ealdorman) in 1017 by King Canute, after his elder brother Northfast, ealdorman of Mercia had been murdered (as was earl Uchtred in Northumbria). Leofric's father Leofwine was also apparently ealdorman of Mercia, and thus Leofric came from a prominent Anglo-Saxon family, although not descended from royalty.

Leofric is best remembered as the husband of Godiva, who is said to have ridden through the streets of Coventry naked, in order to persuade her husband to reduce the burden of taxes placed on their subjects by order of King Harthacanute. He is also known for having harried and devastated Worcester (together with Earl Godwin) at the orders of the same king.

Leofric's son Alfgar, Earl Of Mercia, succeeded him, and died 1062 leaving issue, two sons - Edwin, Morcar, and Aldgyth, wife successively of a Welsh prince and the last recognized Anglo-Saxon English king Harold Godwinson. It is unclear whether Alfgar was by his wife Godiva, or by an earlier marriage.

Leofric appears to have married more than once. It appears, based on the ages of his son's children (who were in their twenties in 1066), that Alfgar was a son by a first or second marriage. His famous wife Godiva (Godgifu) appears to have been a later wife, a relatively young widow whom he married in 1040, and who was still alive in 1086. The names of Earl Leofric's other children are not known, but it appears that he was not the father of Hereward the Wake (whose father appears to have been a lesser thegn).

Unfortunately, although Earl Leofric's dates of birth and death have been well-attested, that of his wife and widow Godgifu (alias Godiva) have not. There is much debate as to whether she was his first and only wife, his wife of later age, whether she was the mother of his only known son and heir Earl Alfgar, whether she survived him by nearly ten years (dying in 1067) or by nearly three decades (dying in or after 1085).

Leofric's Godiva

Leofric is associated, thanks to Roger of Wendover and popular myth, with his wife's alleged ride through Coventry, naked on horseback. This section briefly discusses the historical Godiva.

Earl Leofric is said to have married a young widow Godgifu (alias Godiva) in 1040, or according to another version in 1016). The chronicles of Ely, Liber Eliensis (end of 12th century), that Godiva (alias Godgifu) was a widow when Leofric married her in 1040. In or about that year she aided in the founding of a monastery at Stow, Lincolnshire. In 1043 she persuaded her husband to build and endow a Benedictine monastery at Coventry. Her mark, "di Ego Godiva Comitissa diu istud desideravi", was found on the charter given by her brother, Thorold of Bucknall, sheriff of Lincolnshire, to the Benedictine monastery of Spalding. She is also commemorated as benefactress of other monasteries at Leominster, Chester, Wenlock, Worcester, and Evesham. Both Leofric and Godgifu/Godiva were generous benefactors to religious houses, and the lady was apparently known to her contemporaries as a beautiful and pious woman.

Godiva after 1066

At Leofric's death in 1057 (aged 89), his widow lived on for many years after the Conquest. However, other sources maintain that she died in 1067, which would make the Godgifu living on after the Conquest (see below) a different woman. One source maintains that Godiva died 1067 or on 10 Sep 1067, or before 1080 in Coventry or Evesham, Warwickshire, England.

The place where Godgifu/ Godiva was buried is also a matter of debate. According to one source, she was most likely buried at the Church of the Blessed Trinity at Evesham, which church is no longer standing. Other sources claim that she was buried in one of the porches of the abbey church. In any case, she was not buried beside her husband Earl Leofric, since her tomb does not exist. However, the novelist Randolph says that Godiva was buried next to her husband at the priory church in Coventry.

Following her death, her lands were apparently forfeit to the Norman King William, perhaps by a prior arrangement made in 1066 at the Conquest. If the Godgifu who was living upto 1085 was the same Godgifu who was wife and then widow of Earl Leofric, then she was one of the last major Anglo-Saxon landowners in England.

A Godgifu (presumed by scholars to be the widow of Earl Leofric) is listed as one of the few Anglo-Saxons to own land in 1066 and 1085 (Domesday Survey, published in the Domesday Book) along with Thorold, Sheriff of Lincoln. Some genealogists have argued that this Sheriff Thorold is most likely her brother, and that he is almost certainly the father of Lucy, Countess of Chester).

Leofric's religiosity compared with his reputation in myth

Near the end of his life, Earl Leofric experienced four religious visions which were carefully recorded by the monks at Worcester and published after his death in 1057. He is known for having alternated rapacity (in the harrying of Worcester 1041) with great generosity to religious houses. Leofric and his wife Godgifu founded, endowed, restored and otherwise enriched many priories, monasteries, churches, and other religious foundations. Yet, Leofric's name is forever connected with his wife's alleged ride, and his reputation that of a ruthless magnate who forced his wife to undergo a public humiliation to win some desired changes. This section questions whether that reputation was indeed deserved.

The earliest written recording of the ride (circa 1045 by popular myth) comes over a hundred years after Godiva’s death. It dates from c1188 – 1237 in ‘Flowers of History’ by Roger of Wendover who is not noted for his accuracy. Wendover records the death of Leofric Earl of Chester “a man of praise-worthy life: he was buried in the monastery which he has founded at Coventry.” He adds that this foundation was by the advice of his wife Countess Godiva; and that they also endowed and enriched other churches Worcester, St. Mary of Stone and St. Wereburg, and the monasteries of Evesham, Wenloc (Wenlock) and Lenton. (These endowments were made between 1053 and 1055 per other sources).

Another site states that Leofric and Godiva were both very religious, as were most Anglo Saxons by this time period. The earl and his lady founded a number of religious houses, and restored and enriched many others. In 1043, Leofric and Godiva founded the Benedictine priory of Ste.Eunice of Saxmundham, a saint who had been flayed and murdered by the Romans. The new abbey was built upon the site of a prior nunnery in the Forest of Arden, which had been destroyed by the Danes in 1016.

They also endowed, restored, enriched or founded the houses in Much Wenlock, Worcester, Evesham, Chester, Leominster and Stow in Lincolnshire, the last named house founded in 955 and greatly endowed by Leofric and Godiva between 1053 and 1055.

In Coventry itself, the Archbishop of Canterbury Eadsige dedicated the Benedictine Priory of St.Mary, St.Osburgh and All Saints on property owned by Godiva in 1043. The holy relic of the head of St.Osburgh, encased in copper and gold was held by this priory. Leofric and Godiva gave many ornaments of gold, silver and jewels to the priory. Leofric enriched the priory with estates in Warwickshire, Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Worcestershire. The priory functioned as both a center of education and quarters for the training of clerics and also as a center for public gatherings and festivities. The town of Coventry began to grow around the abbey; at this time, it was still probably a village if not a hamlet. There is no evidence that Leofric and Godiva spent any time in Coventry, though they probably did visit the abbey they had funded. Eventually, the priory became a huge important building, which held many relics and attracted many pilgrims. One of these relics was said to be the arm of St.Augustine of Hippo, which had been purchased by Bishop Aethelnoth ang was given as a gift to Leofric in 1024 to be placed at Coventry. (Unfortunately, the priory was destroyed in the reign of Henry VIII).

These endowments and other activities contrast with Leofric's reputation in myth. Godiva apparently had had no difficulties persuading Leofric to part with money to endow these religious houses, and the Earl himself appears to have been a religious man. However, Roger of Wendover then goes on to record a story which shows them both in a contradictory light, the Earl mean and despotic and Godiva having to resort to desperate measures to extract money from her husband.

Given this past history of amicable relations, and harmony between husband and wife, the myth makes no sense. Furthermore, even monastic chronicles (of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles) would not ignore such a scandalous event as the wife of the second or third greatest magnate in the land riding naked through a large or small town. Finally, as historical novelist Octavia Randolph points out, Anglo-Saxon noblewomen had considerable property rights and Godiva owned Coventry itself. The only tax payable was one she could not remit (being due to the king) but payable out of her own purse. Thus, there is no rationale for the ride. If Godiva rode at all, she did so for another reason. Randolph argues in her novel Ride that she did so to atone in part for her husband's destruction of Worcester in 1041 at the command of King Harthacanute. If she rode, it is more probable that she did not ride naked (in our sense of the term) at all. She have have worn a shift alone, or worn no jewellery and adornment (not even on the horse). In upper class terms, this would have been seen as "going naked." Both kinds of "going naked" were common attire for penitents going on a pilgrimage. (Some pilgrims did go naked, but rarely so; Randolph uses this in her novel). It is of course possible that the historical Godgifu never rode at all, and that the ride was by some one else.

The ride through Coventry was most likely a myth, created by the people of Coventry to drum up interest in their growing town as a place of pilgrimage. The timing of the myth (circa 1200) is interesting, in an era which also saw a real-life Robin Hood in the outlawed marcher baron Fulk Fitzwarine and in other myths growing up around Richard the Lion-Heart and his youngest brother King John.

The ride of Godiva (Godgifu) is retold in Octavia Randolph's [Ride] which suggests an alternate explanation based on Anglo-Saxon and pagan rituals, the known characters of Earl Leofric and his wife, and the socio-historical context of Anglo-Saxon England circa 1043-1045.

Leofric's descendants?

Since there is some question about the date of marriage for Leofric and Godgifu, it is not clear that she was Earl Alfgar's mother. If Godgifu was married to Earl Leofric only in 1040, she could not have been the mother of Leofric's son and heir (whose own children were born in that decade or earlier). If she was married earlier (as early as 1017, as some sources claim), she could have been Alfgar's mother.

Leofric's only known (as in well-recorded) child Earl Alfgar had at least two sons Edwin and Morcar (both earls playing a prominent role in English history 1065-1071) and one daughter Aldith (or Aldgyth) who was Harold's queen. Aldyth's alleged daughter by her first husband the Welsh prince Gruffyd was one Nest who married an Anglo-Norman marcher baron Osbern fitzRichard fitzScrob (or Osbern of Richard's Castle. This Nest left many descendants, but unfortunately, it is not certain that she is a descendant of either Gruffyd (the connection is reported by a contemporary Florence of Worcester) or of Earl Leofric. Her son Hugh of Richard's Castle mentions his mother by name, but not her parentage nor her ancestry, in charters. [soc.genealogy.medieval]. If Nest was indeed Gruffyd's child, she might have been his child by his wife Aldgyth, or by an earlier wife, or indeed, a concubine.

Aldgyth also had one or two surviving sons by her second husband King Harold II, but their descendants, if any, are unknown. Her brother Morcar appears to have had a young family, but again, descendants are unknown.

Godiva's other relatives

Godiva's relatives through her alleged brother are even harder to locate. Godiva's own heir may have been her brother Thorold's daughter Lucy, who made three brilliant marriages, lastly to Ranulph, Earl of Chester. (However, the parentage of the Countess Lucy, and her connection both to William Malet and to Sheriff Thorold have been much debated. She appears to have been related to both men, but the exact relationships can only be surmised through wills).

There may be another Countess Godiva, with whom Godiva, wife of Earl Leofric of Mercia may be confused in searching for name matches in old documents. This Godiva or Godgifu is alleged to be third wife of Earl Siward, of Macbeth fame. This wife apparently predeceased him, or otherwise lost control of her lands which had passed to Judith, widow of her stepson [Waltheof] by 1086. However, this Northumbrian Godiva is not mentioned elsewhere.

A Partial Genealogy

Leofric Earl of Mercia (968 - 1057) md 1stly NN; md 2ndly (or 3rdly?) 1016/1040 Godgifu (d after 1085); by one wife, he had:

1. Aelfgar, Earl of Mercia (d. 1062) md circa 1040 Aelfgifu, by whom two sons and a daughter:

1.3. Aldgyth (Aldith) of Mercia md 1stly (circa 1055-1057) Gruffyd ap Llywelyn, Prince or King of Wales (kd 1063), issue? = 2ndly 1066 Harold Godwinson by whom one son (or twin sons)

1.3.1. [conjectured] Nest (b ca 1059-1063) md Osbern fitzRichard, of Richard's Castle; by whom issue

1.3.1.1. Hugh, of Richard's Castle; left issue

1.3.1.2. Agnes (or Nest) (b ca 1079) md circa 1087-1090 Bernard de Neufmarche, Lord of Brecknock (ca 1050- aft 1093, but by 1125), by whom issue 1 surviving dau

1.3.1.2.1. Sybil de Neufmarche md 1121 Miles de Pitres, alias Miles of Gloucester, cr Earl of Hereford, by whom several children. Their sons all died unmarried or without legitimate issue, and the estates were split among their daughters, notably two who married into the de Braose and de Bohun families. The latter family was eventually granted the earldom of Hereford, and died out with two daughters, the younger being Mary de Bohun, mother of Henry V of England.

References

Bernard de Neufmarche (death date unknown)

  *Profile, no sources provided for infomation claims that Bernard and Agnes had a son Mahel, dispossessed by his mother's malice. 
  *This scholarly book gives an alternate death of date circa 1125 According to this, Bernard was the last of the original marcher barons to die, circa 1125, and his daughter Sybil married Miles in spring 1121.
  *Mentions Bernard living circa 1100 and information on his descendants
  *Information on Bernard

Stirnet genealogical database, notably Gruffyd's line and Newmarch line and finally Miles of Gloucester

Godgifu

  *says that Godiva was already married to Earl Leofric in 1035
  *says that Godiva died in 1067
  *says that she and Leofric had three children

Leofric and Godiva in Fiction

Octavia Randolph. Ride. Historical novel.