The Family of Lady Godiva

THE FAMILY OF LADY GODIVA

NOTE: While this paper contains various historical facts, these are interspersed with non-sourced opinions and beliefs. Where a specific source led us to posit data beyond that cited therein, that source is mentioned in the text.

Lady Godiva (actual name Godgifu) was born c. 997, probably in a family living in Lincolnshire within lands then called the Danelaw. Some believe she was recently widowed, but yet a teen, when Leofric III first met her. They married about 1016. English historians seldom speak of her ancestry, but usually relate the tale of her riding nude through the streets of Coventry to protest her husband's high taxes levied on the common people. Those who do suggest a name for her father call him Thorold, the English version of the Danish name Thorth and which appears in 10th century charters as Thored. Others say she had a brother named Thored, but her father's name was Aelfhelm.

The earliest man called Thored found in English history was in the 966 entry in the Saxon Chronicles. where we learn "in this year, Thored, Gunnar's son, harried Westmoringa land and in the same year Oslac succeeded to the office of ealderman" for Northumbria. In other sources, we learn that this Oslac had a son named Thorth so it is possible the two men had common ancestors. The militancy of Thored Gunnassson could have been designed to clear the way for Oslac's rise.

GENERATION 1:

Among the old Danish sagas, we find a story of a lad named Gunnar who was banned from his father's lands. In England, charters dated 963 and 965 were witnessed by an Earl Gunnar. We suggest the lad was born c. 920 as a son of Denmark king Gorm the Old. That when banned for unknown offenses in the 940's, he came to Britain and offered his fealty and military services to King Edmund, and continued in the service of kings Edred, Eadwig and Edgar (939-975). One of these kings elevated him to the rank of Earl. When Earl Oslac of Northumbria was banished in 975, Edward the Martyr elevated a man named Thored to that Earldom. Most historians believe this was Thored, son of Gunnar, and not the man of the same name who was a son of the banished Oslac.

GENERATION 2:

Earl Thored, son of Gunnar, was born c. 945, appointed Earl in 975 and died in 994. His wife is unnamed, but we think these were his children:

a. Aelfhelm , a son born c. 968 who succeeded to his father's Earldom in 994 and was killed in 1006.

b. Thored II, born c. 970. He had an unnamed daughter, born c. 1000, who married twice; first to Morcar son of Arngrim about 1014 and secondly to a man surnamed Malet in 1015.

c. Aelgifu, a daughter born c. 975 who was the first wife/consort of King Athelred the Unready. She was the mother of several sons, including Edmund Ironside about 995.

d. Unnamed daughter, born c. 976, who married Arngrim son of Thorth son of Earl Oslac.

GENERATION 3:

Earl Aelfhelm was killed in 1006, leaving the following children by an unknown wife:

a. Aelgifu, a daughter born c. 995. She was the first wife/consort of King Cnut and the mother of Svein and Harold Harefoot, both born before Cnut became king in 1916.

b. Godgifu, a daughter born c. 997. Better known as Lady Godiva, she married Earl Leofric III of Mercia.

c. Wulviva, a daughter born c. 1000. No sources mention a marriage for her.

d. Thored III, a son born c. 1005 who is said to have resided in Burkenhale or Bucknell.

GENERATION 4:

Thored III was named for his grandfather, and is mentioned in a charter as the brother of Lady Godiva. His wife is unknown, but he had at least two sons:

a. Thored IV, born c. 1040

b. Alan of Lincoln, born c. 1042.

GENERATION 5:

Thored IV occurs as Sheriff of Lincoln. He married Beatrice, daughter of William Malet c. 1067. Beatrice was born c. 1050; she and Thored IV had a daughter named Lucy about 1070.

GENERATION 6:

Lucy, daughter of Thored IV and Beatrice Malet, was married three times, her first two husbands being immaterial to our present paper. With her third marriage to Ranulf I, 3rd Earl of Chester, she became known as Lady Lucy of Chester.

Charters which mention Lady Lucy tell us two important facts concerning her ancestry. (1) She had two uncles, Robert, son of William Malet; and Alan of Lincoln. (2) She was related to the famous Lady Godiva. Our construction makes Robert Malet a brother of Lucy's mother, and Alan of Lincoln a brother of Lucy's father. Her paternal grandfather, Thored III, was a brother of Lady Godiva.

AFTER-THOUGHT: Should anyone have cogent reasons to believe the lady born c. 1000 (who married Morcar, son of Arngrim, and secondly married the man surnamed Malet ) was actually Wulviva the sister of Lady Godiva instead of a daughter of Thored III (thus a first-cousin of Lady Godiva as we suggest), we would not seriously object to such an identification.