nd most thickly populated part of England was
governed by Harold and his brothers. Mercia was the only large earldom
not under their rule. It was now under AElfgar, the son of Leofric, who
had lately died.

19. =Harold and Eadward. 1057--1065.=--It became necessary to arrange
for the succession to the throne, as Eadward was childless, and as
Englishmen were not likely to acquiesce in his bequest to William. In
=1057= the AEtheling Eadward, a son of Eadmund Ironside, was fetched
back from Hungary, where he had long lived in exile, and was accepted
as the heir. Eadward, however, died almost immediately after his
arrival. He left but one son, Eadgar the AEtheling (see genealogy at p.
78), who was far too young to be accepted as a king for many years to
come. Naturally the thought arose of looking on Harold as Eadward's
successor. It was contrary to all custom to give the throne to any one
not of the royal line, but the custom had been necessarily broken in
favour of Cnut, the Danish conqueror, and it might be better to break
it in favour of an English earl rather than to place a child on the
throne, when danger threatened from Normandy. During the remainder of
Eadward's reign Harold showed himself a warrior worthy of the crown.
In =1063= he invaded Wales and reduced it to submission. About the
same time AElfgar died, and was succeeded by his son, Eadwine, in the
earldom of the Mercians. In =1065= the men of North-humberland
revolted against Tostig, who had governed them harshly, and who was
probably unpopular as a West Saxon amongst a population of Danes and
Angles. The North-humbrians chose Eadwine's brother, Morkere, as his
successor, and Harold advised Eadward to acquiesce in what they had
done. Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire were committed to Waltheof,
a son of Siward (see p. 84), and the modern Northumberland was
committed to a native ruler, Oswulf.

20. =Death of Eadward. 1066.=--England was therefore ruled by two
great families. Eadwine and Morkere, the grandsons of Leofric,
governed the Midlands and almost the whole of North-humberland. Harold
and his brothers, the sons of Godwine, governed the south and the
east. The two houses had long been rivals, and after Eadward's death
there would be no one in the country to whom they could even nominally
submit. Eadward, whose life was almost at an end, was filled with
gloomy forebodings. His thoughts, however, turned aside from the
contemplation of earthly things,