tened that hatred which the prince
had so long borne his family;[**] and gaining every day new partisans by
his bounty and affability, he proceeded, in a more silent, and therefore
a more dangerous manner, to the increase of his authority. The king,
who had not sufficient vigor directly to oppose his progress, knew of
no other expedient than that hazardous one of raising him a rival in the
family of Leofric, duke of Mercia, whose son Algar was invested with the
government of East Anglia, which, before the banishment of Harold, had
belonged to the latter nobleman. But this policy, of balancing opposite
parties, required a more steady hand to manage it than that of Edward,
and naturally produced faction and even civil broils, among nobles of
such mighty and independent authority.

[* See note E, at the end of the volume.]

[** Brompton, p. 918]

Algar was soon after expelled his government by the intrigues and power
of Harold; but being protected by Griffith, prince of Wales, who had
married his daughter, as well as by the power of his father Leofric, he
obliged Harold to submit to an accommodation, and was reinstated in the
government of East Anglia. This peace was not of long duration: Harold,
taking advantage of Leofric's death, which happened soon after, expelled
Algar anew, and banished him the kingdom: and though that nobleman
made a fresh irruption into East Anglia with an army of Norwegians, and
overran the country, his death soon freed Harold from the pretensions
of so dangerous a rival. Edward, the eldest son of Algar, was indeed
advanced to the government of Mercia; but the balance which the king
desired to establish between those potent families, was wholly lost, and
the influence of Harold greatly preponderated.

{1055.} The death of Siward, duke of Northumberland, made the way still
more open to the ambition of that nobleman. Siward, besides his other
merits, had acquired honor to England by his successful conduct in the
only foreign enterprise undertaken during the reign of Edward. Duncan,
king of Scotland, was a prince of a gentle disposition, but possessed
not the genius requisite for governing a country so turbulent, and so
much infested by the intrigues and animosities of the great. Macbeth,
a powerful nobleman, and nearly allied to the crown, not content with
curbing the king's authority, carried still farther his pestilent
ambition: he put his sovereign to death; chased Malcolm Kenmore, h