Sent to Coventry
With this chapter I found myself quite proud to be from Coventry especially the part that read we are more ancient than our surrounding Cities and one of the most important.
By the 14th century, Coventry had become the centre of the cloth trade, and throughout the Middle Ages was the amongst the largest and most important cities in England. The bishops of Lichfield were often referred to as bishops of Coventry (from 1102 to 1541).
Coventry claimed the status of a city by ancient prescriptive usage, this was granted as a charter of incorporation in 1345, and in 1451 became a county in its own right. Coventry is an ancient city, which predates many of the large cities around it including Birmingham and Leicester.
Hostile attitudes of the city folk towards Royalist prisoners held in Coventry during the English Civil War are believed to have been the origin of the phrase "sent to Coventry", which in Britain means "to be ostracised"; although their physical needs were catered for, the Royalist prisoners were literally never spoken to by anybody. I have heard a few different stories but this seemed to be the most believable.
