Ælfgar, Leofric's only known child. If Godiva was married to Earl Leofric later than about 1010, she could not have been the mother. Historicity Leofric used a double-headed eagle as his personal emblem, and this has been adopted by various units of the British Army as a symbol for Mercia. Historians disagree extensively on the character of Leofric. Folklore tends to depict him as an unfeeling overlord who imposed over-taxation, whereas many historians object to this, and consider it as part of the Lady Godiva myth; they suggest that he was a strong and respected leader. There is also great disagreement over his reputation as a military leader: some historians believe Leofric to have been weak in this respect, but others go as far as to give him the title 'Hammer of the Welsh'. Visio Leofrici A prose account of Leofric's life, entitled Visio Leofrici or the Vision of Leofric, was written in Old English, surviving in MS Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (CCCC) 367. It is split into four episodes, each of which depicts one of Leofric's miraculous visions. The last of these four has been noted for its similarities to the account of Leofric's vision in Osbert's later account of the life of Edward the Confessor. In popular culture On screen, Leofric was portrayed by Roy Travers in the British silent short Lady Godiva (1928), George Nader in the film Lady Godiva of Coventry (1955), and Tony Steedman in the BBC TV series Hereward the Wake (1965). He also may have inspired the character "Leofric", played by Adrian Bower in the BBC series The Last Kingdom. Citations Sources External links |- 1057 deaths Year of birth unknown Earls of Mercia 11th-century English nobility Lady Godiva