レオフリックもゴダイヴァも共に信仰活動に熱心であった。ロジャー・オブ・ウェンドーヴァーによれば、レオフリック伯が1057年に死去したとき、みずから建立したコヴェントリーの修道院に埋葬されたが、この建立は妻であるゴダイヴァ伯爵夫人の助言によるものであったという[20]。このベネディクト会修道院、聖メアリーの小修道院(英語版)は、1043年に設立されたが[21][22]、修道院解散令に廃院となった 。下って1050年代には、ウスター市の聖メアリー修道院 (St Mary's Priory) への土地の寄進状において、またリンカンシャー州のストウ村の聖メアリー教会(Minster Church of St Mary, Stow in Lindsey)の建立勅令にも、ゴダイヴァ(Godgife)の名がレオフリックの名と連記されている[23][24] 。さらに夫妻の名前はレオミンスター、チェスター、マッチウェンロック、エヴェシャムの教会堂の後援者として記録されている[25]。
像の寄進者はコヴェントリーの企業家であった W H バセット=グリーン(W H Baddett-Green) (1870-1960)であり[32]、像の台座後面にそのことが明記されている。彼は当時の20,000ポンドをかけて像の制作を1937年にウィリアム卿に依頼し、像は1944年に完成していた[33]。
馬の進行方向左側の台座:GODIVA/SHE RODE FORTH CLOTHED ON WITH/CHASTITY THE DEEP AIR LISTEN D ROUND/HER AS SHE RODE AND ALL THE LOW WIND/HARDLY BREATHED FOR FEAR/Tennyson
馬の進行方向右側の台座:GODIVA/THEN SHE RODE BACK CLOTHED ON WITH/CHASTITY SHE TOOK THE TAX AWAY AND/BUILT HERSELF AN EVERLASTING NAME/Tennyson
Ingulph's (?) Historia Croylandensis (she was 'tunc fœminarum pulcherrima sic corde sanctissima"), Hales & Furnival 編 "Leoffricus"序、p.473 で引用; "a most beautiful and devout lady," (Gentleman's Mag. Lib. 4, p.110)
Hales & Furnivall 1868, 第3巻, p.473-, "wherefore to all the officers of all the towne she sent .. that on the day that shee shold ryde, all persons through the towne / shold keepe their houses, & shutt their dore, & clap their windowes downe," 53-60 行。
W.Reader 1826 vol.96, p.22 "yet no one, including the late Sir W. Dugdale, even hint at the circumstance in question. We may safely, therefore, appropriate it to the reign of Charles II."
Hartland, E. Sydney, Science of Fairy Tales, (1890), p.75 コヴェントリー市の年代記の写本より抜粋:"31 May 1678, being the great Fair at Coventry.. and Ja. Swinnertons Son represented Lady Godiva"
DNB 1890, "That one person disobeyed the order .. first stated by Rapin (1732)... Pennant (Journey from Chester to London)(1782) calls him 'a certain taylor.' The name 'peeping Tom' occurs in the city accounts on 11 June 1773 when a new wig and fresh paint were supplied for his effigy."
Paul M. Rapin de Thoyras 著, Thomas, N. Tindal 英訳 "The History of England" Vol. I, 2nd ed. 1732年版 p.135, "Notwithstanding, there was one, who could not forebear giving a look.."
Pennant, Thomas, "The Journey from Chester to London" 1811年版 p.190, "the curiousity of a certain taylor overcoming his fear, he took a single peep"(この版では、すでにこのころ絹ではなく綿衣がつかわれている、と脚注する)
DNB 1890, "Poole quotes from the 'Gentleman's Magazine' a letter from Canon Seward (ca. before 1700) which makes the peeper 'a groom of the countess,' named Action (?Actæon)"
Leman Rede, "Peeping Tom", The New Monthly Magazine and Humorist, (1838), Part the First, p. 115: "Tradition adds, that the people resolved to close up their houses,.. but.. that one, whose name has not survived, looked forth upon her, and was strcken blind, as some affirm, by the vengeance of Heaven; or, according to others, was deprived of sight by the inhabitants." (引用だが、典拠を"a modern writer" としか明かさない)
Roger of Wendover, 前述(西暦1057年の記述), Giles 1899 英訳, p.314 "Leofric earl of Chester.. was buried in the monastery he had founded at Coventy...by the advice of his wife the noble countess Godiva."
K.S.B.Keats-Rohan, Domesday People: A prosopography of persons occurring in English documents 1066-1166, vol.1: Domesday (Boydell Press: Woodbridge, Suffolk 1999), p.218
Coe, Charles. "Lady Godiva: The Naked Truth." Harvard Magazine. July-Aug. 2003 (July 28, 2008) 第2段落目 But as it happens, most medieval scholars agree the ride never took place.
Lady Godiva: The naked truth, BBC News, 24 August, 2001, 15:31 GMT 第13段落目 Regrettably, though, the story of Lady Godiva's ride is almost certainly a myth.
Why did Lady Godiva take a naked horse ride? 第2ページの最終段落 Too bad it's not true. On the next page, we'll take a closer look at the story and see why historians have discounted it. 第3ページの第5段落目 Therefore, Godiva's ride never happened because there simply was no need for her to prove anything.
Coxe, Henry O., 編 Rogeri de Wendover, Chronica, sive Flores Historiarum, Vol. 1, London, 1891 p.496-7 (A.D. 1057)
Thorpe, Benjamin (ベンジャミン・ソープ), Diplomatarium anglicum aevi saxonici: A collection of English charters, Vol. 1 (London, 1865) (古英語と現代英語対訳) (books.google)
Daniel Donoghue(2002-12).Lady Godiva: A Literary History of the Legend.Springer.ISBN978-1405100472
(anonymous), The history of lady Godiva and Peeping Tom of Coventry, with a description, Coventry, J. W. Mills, sixth ed., sans date. books.google(トム像は蝶ネクタイをしている)
Dugdale, William, Antiquities of Warwickshire (1656)、p.66 Internet Archive
Hartland, E. Sydney, "Peeping Tom and Lady Godiva," Folk-Lore, I, 2 (June, 1890) 217-226 (books.google)