Allegedly, the Anglo-Saxon noblewoman rode naked—covered only by her long hair—through the streets of Coventry to protest and abolish an oppressive tax imposed on that town's residents by her husband, Leofric, Earl of Mercia.

The film, copies of which survive today, stars Julia Swayne Gordon in the title role with a supporting cast including Robert Maillard, Harold Wilson, and Kate Price.

Leofric, who quickly grows weary of her pleas, decides to test his wife's sincerity and her resolve by promising to rescind the tax if she will ride naked on horseback through the streets of the town.

[7] The rest of Vitagraph's intertitles are laced with additional wording from Tennyson, such as "She told him of their tears, And pray'd him", "from a heart as rough as Esau's hand", and "'Ride you naked thro' the town, And I repeal [the tax]'".

As early as mid-July 1911—three months before the film's actual release, the New York-based trade journal The Moving Picture World reported Vitagraph's plans to produce Lady Godiva and predicted it would be a success:The story of Lady Godiva will be depicted by the Vitagraph Company, who, with its usual good judgement and marvelous facilities, will produce a portrayal that will not only be valuable as a matter of general information and rare attractiveness, but the subject will be extremely picturesque and dazzlingly beautiful in its every detail, introducing to our notice quaint streets, manners, customs and costumes of the people of the eleventh century.

[11] That play, written and directed by British dramatist Louis N. Parker, starred the popular American stage actress Viola Allen and was scheduled to tour the United States for months after its New York premiere.

In its November 4 issue, the trade publication The Moving Picture World describes the production as artful in its interpretation of Tennyson's work and emotionally effective in its spiritual tone:The story of the noble Countess of Coventry, who by riding through the city unclothed saved the people from a grievous tax, is widely known.

Three weeks after the production's release, the motion-picture reviewer for The Moving Picture News reported that Lady Godiva "drew a packed house at the Lyceum [Theatre]" in Cleveland, Ohio.