Book Spotlight: Beheld: Godiva's Story By Christopher M. Cevasco

 

A darkly twisted psychological thriller exploring the legend of Lady Godiva’s naked ride.

Having survived a grave illness to become one of 11th-century England’s wealthiest landowners, Godgyfu of Coventry (Lady Godiva) remains forever grateful to the town whose patron saint worked such miracles. She vows to rebuild Coventry’s abbey and better the lives of its townsfolk. But the wider kingdom is descending into political turmoil, and her husband, Earl Leofric, starts to break under the strain. Godgyfu finds her own plans unravelling the moment she meets Thomas, a Benedictine novice with perverse secret desires. Three lives become dangerously entangled in a shocking web of ambition, voyeuristic lust, and horrid obsession. Can Godgyfu escape the monk’s menacing wiles and Leofric’s betrayals to secure her future in a changing kingdom? Perhaps, but first, she faces a dark test of wills leading her perilously closer to a legendary ride...

Trigger Warnings:

Sexual situations, psychological abuse, violence, brief references to suicide.

 

Buy Links:

 Universal Link   Amazon Universal Link

 Christopher M. Cevasco

Christopher M. Cevasco was born in New Jersey and spent a memorable decade in Brooklyn, New York, but he feels most at home in medieval England, Normandy, Norway, and Greenland. A lifelong passion for history and fiction led him to earn degrees in Medieval Studies and English and later to embark upon a writing career that merges these two loves.

Chris was the founding editor of the award-winning Paradox: The Magazine of Historical and Speculative Fiction from 2003 to 2009. His own short stories appear in such venues as Black Static, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Distant Echoes (Corazon Books, UK), and the Prime Books anthologies Shades of Blue and Gray: Ghosts of the Civil War and Zombies: Shambling Through the Ages.

A long-time member of the Historical Novel Society, Chris currently serves on the society's North American conference board as registration chair for the upcoming 2023 conference in San Antonio, Texas.

Chris lives with his wife and their two children in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

Social Media Links:

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Did Lady Godiva ride naked in Coventry?

Lady Godiva sculpture by J Thomas, 1861. (Photo by Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images)

History Extra

In legend, Lady Godiva was willing to ride naked through the streets of Coventry to persuade her husband to lower taxes – but did it actually happen?
This article was first published in the May 2015 issue of History Revealed

The naked truth of the matter is that: no, she didn’t. Lady Godifu (or Godgyfu) was a real woman and she was married to one of the wealthiest men in Anglo-Saxon England, Earl Leofric of Mercia.
Less famously, the pair were generous patrons of monasteries, and Godifu (which should actually be pronounced Gud-geef-uh), in particular donated much gold and silver to make crucifixes.
Despite both dying roughly around the time of 1066, the story of her naked ride through Coventry was first recorded by the chronicler Roger of Wendover in the 1200s, so isn’t considered reliable by historians.
Indeed, Wendover only says Leofric offered to lower taxes on the poor if his wife mounted her horse in the nude, but he doesn’t make clear if she went through with it.
Nevertheless, the tale became well-known, and in the 1600s, the extra element of Peeping Tom – who leered at her body while the townspeople respectfully shut their eyes – was added for an extra bit of juicy drama.
Answered by one of our Q&A experts, Greg Jenner. For more fascinating questions by Greg, and the rest of our panel, pick up a copy of History Revealed! Available in print and for digital devices.

History Trivia - Lady Godiva rides naked on horseback through Coventry

July 10

 48 BC Battle of Dyrrhachium: Julius Caesar barely avoided a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia.

138 Emperor Hadrian died of heart failure at Baiae at age 62; he was buried in Rome in the Tomb of Hadrian beside his late wife, Vibia Sabina.

988 The city of Dublin was founded on the banks of the river Liffey.

1040 Lady Godiva rode naked on horseback to force her husband, the Earl of Mercia, to lower taxes.

1086 Knut IV, the Saint, King of Denmark was murdered.

1099 El Cid, of Castile died.

1212 The most severe of several early fires of London burned most of the city to the ground.

1452 King James III of Scotland was born. 1

460 - Wars of Roses: Richard of York defeated King Henry VI at Northampton.

1520 King Charles V & King Henry VIII signed treaty of Calais.