Godiva, Countess of Mercia, in Old English Godgifu, was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman, well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is remembered for a legend dating back at least to the 13th century, in which she rode naked—covered only in her long hair—through the streets of Coventry to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation that her husband, imposed on his tenants; the name "Peeping Tom" for a voyeur originates from versions of this legend, in which a man named Thomas watched her ride and was struck blind or dead. Godiva was the wife of Earl of Mercia, they had nine children. Godiva's name occurs in the Domesday survey, though the spelling varies; the Old English name Godgifu or Godgyfu meant "gift of God". Since the name was a popular one, there are contemporaries of the same name. If she is the same Godiva who appears in the history of Ely Abbey, the Liber Eliensis, written at the end of the 12th century she was a widow when Leofric married her.

Both Leofric and Godiva were generous benefactors to religious houses. In 1043 Leofric founded and endowed a Benedictine monastery at Coventry on the site of a nunnery destroyed by the Danes in 1016. Writing in the 12th century, Roger of Wendover credits Godiva as the persuasive force behind this act. In the 1050s, her name is coupled with that of her husband on a grant of land to the monastery of St. Mary and the endowment of the minster at Stow St Mary, Lincolnshire, she and her husband are commemorated as benefactors of other monasteries at Leominster, Much Wenlock, Evesham. She gave Coventry a number of works in precious metal by the famous goldsmith Mannig and bequeathed a necklace valued at 100 marks of silver. Another necklace went to Evesham, to be hung around the figure of the Virgin accompanying the life-size gold and silver rood she and her husband gave, St Paul's Cathedral in the City of London received a gold-fringed chasuble, she and her husband were among the most munificent of the several large Anglo-Saxon donors of the last decades before the Norman Conquest.

The manor of Woolhope in Herefordshire, along with four others, was given to the cathedral at Hereford before the Norman Conquest by the benefactresses Wulviva and Godiva—usually held to be this Godiva and her sister. The church there has a 20th-century stained glass window representing them, her signature, Ego Godiva Comitissa diu istud desideravi, appears on a charter purportedly given by Thorold of Bucknall to the Benedictine monastery of Spalding. However, this charter is considered spurious by many historians. So, it is possible that Thorold, who appears in the Domesday Book as sheriff of Lincolnshire, was her brother. After Leofric's death in 1057, his widow lived on until sometime between the Norman Conquest of 1066 and 1086, she is mentioned in the Domesday survey as one of the few Anglo-Saxons and the only woman to remain a major landholder shortly after the conquest. By the time of this great survey in 1086, Godiva had died, but her former lands are listed, although now held by others.

Thus, Godiva died between 1066 and 1086. The place where Godiva was buried has been a matter of debate. According to the Chronicon Abbatiae de Evesham, or Evesham Chronicle, she was buried at the Church of the Blessed Trinity at Evesham, no longer standing. According to the account in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "There is no reason to doubt that she was buried with her husband at Coventry, despite the assertion of the Evesham chronicle that she lay in Holy Trinity, Evesham." Her husband was buried in St Mary's Priory and Cathedral in 1057. William Dugdale says that a window with representations of Leofric and Godiva was placed in Trinity Church, about the time of Richard II; the legend of the nude ride is first recorded in the 13th century, in the Flores Historiarum and the adaptation of it by Roger of Wendover. Despite its considerable age, it is not regarded as plausible by modern historians, nor is it mentioned in the two centuries intervening between Godiva's death and its first appearance, while her generous donations to the church receive various mentions.

According to the typical version of the story, Lady Godiva took pity on the people of Coventry, who were suffering grievously under her husband's oppressive taxation. Lady Godiva appealed 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 strip naked and ride on a horse through the streets of the town. Lady Godiva took him at his word, after issuing a proclamation that all persons should stay indoors and shut their windows, she rode through the town, clothed only in her long hair. Just one person in the town, a tailor afterwards known as Peeping Tom, disobeyed her proclamation in what is the most famous instance of voyeurism; some historians have discerned elements of pagan fertility rituals in the Godiva story, whereby a young "May Queen" was led to the sacred Cofa's tree to celebrate the renewal of spring. The oldest form of the legend has Godiva passing through Coventry market from one end to the other while the people were assembled, attended only by two knights.

This version is given in Flores Historiarum by Roger of Wendover, a somewhat gullible collector of anecdotes. In a chronicle written in the 1560s, Richard Grafton claimed the version given in Flores Historiarum or

Michał Koterski known as Misiek Koterski is a Polish actor, TV presenter and stand-up comedian. Son of director Marek Koterski and Iwona Ciesielska, he is known for the roles in the films of his father, in which he played Sylwuś, son of Adam Miauczyński Dzień świra. The hallmark of the actor is his style of playing – artist calls it "being himself on a daily basis", he participated in the production of the morning radio show Antyradio, where he was reading blogs of prominent politicians inter alia Renata Beger and Wojciech Wierzejski. He is a cousin with Maciej Koterski, playing character of Piotruś Wolański in the films Kogel-mogel and Galimatias, czyli kogel-mogel II, he appeared in 3rd season of the show Jak oni śpiewają. On April 12, 2008 he has been eliminated from the show in favour of Aneta Zając and Grażyna Szapołowska, he finished with the 9th place. 1999: Ajlawju as Sylwuś Miauczyński 2002: Superprodukcja as a gas station worker 2002: Dzień świra as Sylwuś Miauczyński 2006: Królowie śródmieścia as Słoniu 2006: Wszyscy jesteśmy Chrystusami as Sylwuś Miauczyński 2007: 7 Dwarves: The Forest Is Not Enough as Pinocchio 2009–present: Pierwsza miłość as Henryk "Kaśka" Saniewski 2010: Jeż Jerzy as Zenek 2011: Kac Wawa as customer of the brothel Michał Koterski at IMDb

Nicola Rachel-Beth Grahame is an English television personality and author. She rose to prominence after appearing on the seventh series of Big Brother and went on to star in her own reality series, Princess Nikki. In 2006, Grahame won a National Television Award for Most Popular TV Contender. In 2010, she finished as the runner-up in Ultimate Big Brother. Grahame appeared in the sixteenth series of Big Brother in 2016 as a time warp housemate, the following year she appeared in the fourth season of Big Brother Canada in which she finished in sixth place. Grahame has released two books, Dying To Be Thin, Fragile; the autobiographical books are based on her experiences with anorexia nervosa throughout her life. Grahame has described her early childhood as the "happiest ever", however a series of upsets followed, when at the age of eight, her parents divorced and her grandfather, to whom she was close, died from cancer. Grahame was raised by her mother, after her parents' separation. Grahame—who has been described as a "daddy's girl"—was hurt by the split.

Grahame attended London. Grahame developed an eating disorder that resulted in her parents having her admitted to the children's eating disorders unit at the Maudsley psychiatric hospital in London, she was kept in for six weeks and released. However, she resumed undereating, several months was rushed to an emergency unit at Hillingdon Hospital, where she was force-fed through a nasal tube, she was transferred to Collingham Gardens child and family psychiatric unit in west London, where her weight was increased and after eight months she was allowed home. For 18 months, Grahame remained at home and attended Northwood secondary school in Hillingdon, west London, before her weight started dropping once again, she was readmitted to Collingham Gardens for six months and to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London where she was placed on a psychiatric and eating disorders ward. Grahame refused to accept treatment willingly and has commented: "I was on a mission to starve myself to death... I was obsessed."

This culminated in several suicide bids. At the age of 12 she stole a packet of paracetamol from the hospital's supplies and swallowed 22 pills. Shortly after, her weight dropped so low that she fell into a coma and at one stage doctors predicted that she was minutes from death. Grahame was force-fed via a tube, stitched inside her stomach, but when she regained consciousness she continuously tried to remove the feeding apparatus, she claims. Grahame was admitted to Rhodes Farm, an eating disorders clinic in Mill Hill, North London, after six months she began showing signs of improvement, she commented: "I woke up one morning and thought,'What are you doing to yourself?'" At the age of 16 she was released from the clinic. She relapsed again, this time aged 18, spent time in an adult eating disorder ward. In the process of overcoming her eating disorder, she developed obsessive-compulsive disorder. Before Grahame rose to fame on Big Brother, she had appeared as an extra in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played a footballer's wife in Sky One's Dream Team.

In 2003, she was a contestant on the ITV dating show Blind Date. In addition, who has an NVQ in beauty therapy took part in the 2004 Miss Hertfordshire pageant, where she came fourth. In May 2006, Grahame registered as one of the contestants on the seventh series of the Channel 4 reality television series Big Brother. While participating in the series, she became known for her histrionics and becoming romantically linked to the eventual winner of the series, Pete Bennett. During her Big Brother tenure, tabloid newspapers reported that Grahame had battled with the eating disorder anorexia for the majority of her adolescence, had attempted suicide by taking an overdose of paracetamol several times; the programme's decision to include a contestant with prior mental health issues was criticised in the media, with experts suggesting that she should not have been allowed to take part. Grahame was nominated for eviction four times during her initial stay in the Big Brother house and was evicted on Day 58, with 37.2% of the public vote.

Less than four weeks after her exit, she was voted back into the'House Next Door' by 63% of the voting public, along with three other ex-housemates. She was chosen to return to the main house by the surviving contestants and despite the fact that she had been evicted, she was reinstated as an eligible housemate and was once again given the opportunity to receive the £100,000 prize handed out to the winner. An ICSTIS regulator commented that the majority of complaining viewers believed that they were misled by the makers of Big Brother, as they were under the impression that they had voted to evict the ex-housemate permanently. In the wake of this, ICSTIS launched an inquiry which could have resulted in Channel 4 refunding an estimated £3 million to people who took part with phone or text votes. Despite ICSTIS ruling that Big Brother breached its guidelines and misled phone voters, Channel 4 was not made to refund viewers and was instead fined and forced to pay £50,000 in administrative costs.

Grahame subsequently finished with 6.5 % of the final vote. The crowd response was less positive than it had been at her prior eviction, where she left to unanimous chanting and cheers. Host Davina McCall attempted to interview her but Grahame was reluctant to speak, claiming tha