Story of Coventry

In the 11th century, an earl and his wife founded a monastery that would become one of England's most sacred cities. Lady Godiva's legendary ride through Coventry's streets, the clang of guild craftsmen's tools, the prayers of pilgrims journeying to holy shrines all lived within these walls. Mary Dormer Harris resurrects the medieval city where royal courts gathered during the Wars of the Roses, where parliament debated, and where ordinary townsfolk built thriving enterprises through their guilds. This is social history at its finest: not just dates and battles, but the daily rhythms of medieval life, the architecture that shaped a city, the economics that made it powerful. Harris writes with scholarly rigor but human warmth, making the medieval townspeople feel rather than merely exist. For anyone who wants to understand how a city became sacred, powerful, and unforgettable.