material, were subsequently added. In addition the parentage and early exploits of Godfrey were made the subject of legend. His grandfather was said to be Helias, knight of the Swan, one of the brothers whose adventures are well known, though with some variation, in the familiar fairy tale of “The Seven Swans.” Helias, drawn by the swan, one day disembarked at Nijmwegen, and reconquered her territory for the duchess of Bouillon. Marrying her daughter he exacted a promise that his wife should not inquire into his origin. The tale, which is almost identical with the Lohengrin legend, belongs to the class of the Cupid and Psyche narratives. See Lohengrin.
See also C. Hippeau, Le Chevalier au cygne (Paris, 2 vols., 1874–1877); H. Pigeonneau, Le Cycle de la croisade et de la famille de Bouillon (1877); W. Golther, “Lohengrin,” in Roman. Forsch. (vol. v., 1889); Hist. litt. de la France, vol. xxii. pp. 350-402; the English romance of Helyas, Knyghte of the Swanne was printed by W. Copland about 1550.
GODFREY OF VITERBO (c. 1120–c. 1196), chronicler, was
probably an Italian by birth, although some authorities assert
that he was a Saxon. He evidently passed some of his early life
at Viterbo, where also he spent his concluding days, but he was
educated at Bamberg, gaining a good knowledge of Latin.
About 1140 he became chaplain to the German king, Conrad III.;
but the greater part of his life was spent as secretary (notarius)
in the service of the emperor Frederick I., who appears to have
thoroughly trusted him, and who employed him on many
diplomatic errands. Incessantly occupied, he visited Sicily,
France and Spain, in addition to many of the German cities, in
the emperor’s interests, and was by his side during several of
the Italian campaigns. Both before and after Frederick’s death
in 1190 he enjoyed the favour of his son, the emperor Henry VI.,
for whom he wrote his Speculum regum, a work of very little
value. Godfrey also wrote Memoria seculorum, or Liber memorialis,
a chronicle dedicated to Henry VI., which professes to
record the history of the world from the creation until 1185.
It is written partly in prose and partly in verse. A revision of
this work was drawn up by Godfrey himself as Pantheon, or
Universitatis libri qui chronici appellantur. The author borrowed
from Otto of Freising, but the earlier part of his chronicle is full
of imaginary occurrences. Pantheon was first printed in 1559,
and extracts from it are published by L. A. Muratori in the
Rerum Italicarum scriptores, tome vii. (Milan, 1725). The only
part of Godfrey’s work which is valuable is the Gesta Friderici I.,
verses relating events in the emperor’s career from 1155 to 1180.
Concerned mainly with affairs in Italy, the poem tells of the sieges
of Milan, of Frederick’s flight to Pavia in 1167, of the treaty with
Pope Alexander III. at Venice, and of other stirring episodes
with which the author was intimately acquainted, and many of
which he had witnessed. Attached to the Gesta Friderici is the
Gesta Heinrici VI., a shorter poem which is often attributed to
Godfrey, although W. Wattenbach and other authorities think
it was not written by him. The Memoria seculorum was very
popular during the middle ages, and has been continued by
several writers.
Godfrey’s works are found in the Monumenta Germaniae historica, Band xxii. (Hanover, 1872). The Gesta Friderici I. et Heinrici VI. is published separately with an introduction by G. Waitz (Hanover, 1872). See also H. Ulmann, Gotfried von Viterbo (Göttingen, 1863), and W. Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, Band ii. (Berlin, 1894). (A. W. H.*)
GODHRA, a town of British India, administrative headquarters
of the Panch Mahals district of Bombay, and also of
the Rewa Kantha political agency; situated 52 m. N.E. of
Baroda on the railway from Anand to Ratlam. Pop. (1901)
20,915. It has a trade in timber from the neighbouring forests.
GODIN, JEAN BAPTISTE ANDRÉ (1817–1888), French
socialist, was born on the 26th of January 1817 at Esquehéries
(Aisne). The son of an artisan, he entered an iron-works at an
early age, and at seventeen made a tour of France as journeyman.
Returning to Esquehéries in 1837, he started a small factory for
the manufacture of castings for heating-stoves. The business
increased rapidly, and for the purpose of railway facilities was
transferred to Guise in 1846. At the time of Godin’s death in
1888 the annual output was over four millions of francs (£160,000),
and in 1908 the employees numbered over 2000 and the output
was over £280,000. An ardent disciple of Fourier, he advanced
a considerable sum of money towards the disastrous Fourierist
experiment of V. P. Considérant (q.v.) in Texas. He profited,
however, by its failure, and in 1859 started the familistère or
community settlement of Guise on more carefully laid plans.
It comprises, in addition to the workshops, three large buildings,
four storeys high, capable of housing all the work-people, each
family having two or three rooms. Attached to each building
is a vast central court, covered with a glass roof, under which the
children can play in all weathers. There are also crèches,
nurseries, hospital, refreshment rooms and recreation rooms of
various kinds, stores for the purchase of groceries, drapery and
every necessity, and a large theatre for concerts and dramatic
entertainments. In 1880 the whole was turned into a co-operative
society, with provision by which it eventually became the
property of the workers. In 1871 Godin was elected deputy for
Aisne, but retired in 1876 to devote himself to the management
of the familistère. In 1882 he was created a knight of the legion of honour.
Godin was the author of Solutions sociales (1871); Les Socialistes et les droits du travail (1874); Mutualité sociale (1880); La République du travail et la réforme parlementaire (1889). See Bernardot, Le Familistère de Guise et son fondateur (Paris, 1887); Fischer, Die Familistère Godin’s (Berlin, 1890); Lestelle, Étude sur le familistère de Guise (Paris, 1904); D. F. P., Le Familistère illustré, résultats de vingt ans d’association, 1880–1900 (Eng. trans., Twenty-eight years of co-partnership at Guise, by A. Williams, 1908).
GODIVA, a Saxon lady, who, according to the legend, rode
naked through the streets of Coventry to gain from her husband
a remission of the oppressive toll imposed on his tenants. The
story is that she was the beautiful wife of Leofric, earl of Mercia
and lord of Coventry. The people of that city suffering grievously
under the earl’s oppressive taxation, Lady Godiva appealed
again and again to her husband, who obstinately refused to remit
the tolls. At last, weary of her entreaties, he said he would grant
her request if she would ride naked through the streets of the
town. Lady Godiva took him at his word, and after issuing a
proclamation that all persons should keep within doors or shut
their windows, she rode through, clothed only in her long hair.
One person disobeyed her proclamation, a tailor, ever afterwards
known as Peeping Tom. He bored a hole in his shutters that he
might see Godiva pass, and is said to have been struck blind.
Her husband kept his word and abolished the obnoxious taxes.
The oldest form of the legend makes Godiva pass through Coventry market from one end to the other when the people were assembled, attended only by two soldiers, her long hair down so that none saw her, “apparentibus cruribus tamen candidissimis.” This version is given in Flores historiarum by Roger of Wendover, who quoted from an earlier writer. The later story, with its episode of Peeping Tom, has been evolved by later chroniclers. Whether the lady Godiva of this story is the Godiva or Godgifu of history is undecided. That a lady of this name existed in the early part of the 11th century is certain, as evidenced by several ancient documents, such as the Stow charter, the Spalding charter and the Domesday survey, though the spelling of the name varies considerably. It would appear from Liber Eliensis (end of 12th century) that she 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, “✠ 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 in 1051; and she is commemorated as benefactress of other monasteries at Leominster, Chester, Wenlock, Worcester and Evesham. She probably died a few years before the Domesday survey (1085–1086), and was buried in one of the porches of the abbey church. Dugdale (1656) says that a window, with representations of Leofric and Godiva, was placed in Trinity Church, Coventry, about the time of Richard II. The Godiva procession, a commemoration of the legendary ride instituted on the 31st of May
