The city's history goes back to the 11th century, to the founding of a Benedictine abbey. A market then emerged at the abbey gates, and the settlement gradually expanded. The famous Lady Godiva legend also dates back to the 11th century. The beautiful and pious wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, made a bargain with her husband: she would ride naked through the streets of Coventry if he would relieve the townspeople of the backbreaking taxes. She kept her word: she issued a proclamation that all people of Coventry should stay at home and shut their windows, and rode through the streets clad only in her long hair.

By the 14th century, the city was a center of cloth trade. In 1345 it was granted city status. During the Civil War, it was held by the parliamentary forces. The king attempted to take it in 1642 but was repulsed. In the late 19th Century, Rover produced its first tricycles in Coventry. In the early 20th century, the production evolved into motor manufacture, and before long Coventry was a leading center of the British motor industry. Due to its high concentration of engines, munitions and armament plants, the city was heavily bombed by the Germans in World War II.  A massive raid on the 14th of November 1940, known as the Coventry Blitz, left most of the historical center and the Cathedral in ruins.  The post-war years were a period of prosperity thanks to the concentration of automobile production plants: Jaguar, Chrysler, Alvis, etc. The city was hit hard by the decline of the British motor industry in the 1980s and suffered heavy unemployment. Only recently did it recover from the crisis.

Coventry has gained a reputation as a city of peace and reconciliation. Its religious International Centre for Reconciliation with the Cathedral has been functioning since 1940 when the Cathedral and much of the city had been leveled by German bombings, and continues to act in some of the world's worst areas of conflict. In 1968, John Lennon and Yoko Ono planted two acorns in the lawn of Coventry Cathedral as a contribution to an exhibition at the Cathedral. It was one of the early events that later developed into an annual Peace Month.