Harold

The early years of Harold's government, until he himself became the elected king of the English, were spent in an attempt to unite English, Normans, and Danes by a Policy of conciliation, and to strengthen the frontiers of the kingdom by a policy of war. He admitted many Normans into England and allowed them to reside there, even giving then, places about the person of the king, but refusing to grant them political power. Few of Norman blood became earls or bishops. To demonstrate his ability as a warrior and to guard the kingdom from invasion he undertook, and caused others to undertake, campaigns of considerable importance. In 1054 he encouraged Siward, the powerful earl of Northumbria, to attack Macbeth, who, claiming the throne of the Scots on a pretext of relationship, had slain King Duncan, grandson of Malcolm II, fourteen years before, and taken possession of the kingdom. Siward's attack was only partly successful, and it was left for Duncan's son, Malcolm, to avenge his father. Malcolm had lived for many years at the court of Eadward the Confessor and later married Margaret, granddaughter of Edmund Ironsides. In 1057 Malcolm attacked Macbeth and slew him, becoming king of the Scots as Malcolm III, while Siward became the guardian of the northern frontier.

Harold next carried on a war of eight years' duration with Gruffydd, ruler of the Britons of North Wales, who was aided by the traitorous lfgar, earl of East Anglia and son of Leofric, earl of Mercia. Not until 1063, when Gruffydd was treacherously slain, was the war brought to an end. By these means the frontiers on the north and west were rendered more secure.

In the meantime, within the kingdom important changes had taken place in the control of the great earldoms. God-wine had been earl of the West Saxons, Leofric of the Mercians, and Siward of the Northumbrians. On the death of Godwin, Harold had taken his earldom, and Ifgar, son of Leofric, had taken Harold's place as earl of the East Anglians. When Leofric died, lfgar became earl of the Mercians, and on Siward's death King Edward gave Northumbria to Harold's brother, Tostig. Twice lfgar rebelled and twice was he outlawed, and his son, Eadwine, was made earl in his place. In 1065, the Northumbrian Danes rose against Tostig, who had proved a brutal and tactless ruler, and expelled him from his earldom. His place was given to the second son of Ifgar, Morkere. Thus two of the largest portions of England, Mercia and Northumbria, were inhabited by rival peoples, under the rule of rival earls, jealous of the power of Harold; while his own brother was an outlaw, ready to take up arms against him should the opportunity offer. At this juncture, January, 1066, Eadward the Confessor died, and Harold, the strongest candidate, though not, according to Anglo-Saxon notions of heredity, the legitimate heir to the throne, was chosen by the witan as king.

England in 1066

In the year 1066 England seemed to be in a condition bordering on anarchy. There existed no strong central authority powerful enough to bind together the different parts of the country; and the earls, though not independent, were exercising independent powers. They had practically made their earldoms hereditary; and each within his territory controlled the army, undertook expeditions and made war on his own account, received the revenues, and to some extent managed the church. The Mercians, Northumbrians, and East Anglians were jealous of the West Saxons and resented their leadership, and there was no true national unity in the land.

In different parts of the country a new relationship, as yet social rather than political in character, called feudalism, was beginning to appear. Eadward the Confessor had weakened his royal authority by granting to great ecclesiastical lords the right to try offences committed within their territories, and had freed them from the control of the royal officers. Churches were loaning portions of land to lay lords to bold for a fixed time in return for personal service. Some of these great lords, both ecclesiastical and lay, were controlling the hundred courts and were themselves receiving all the fines from those courts. Meanwhile men of humbler station had continued to seek the protection of great lords and to take oaths of homage and fealty which bound each one to serve and defend his -lord. Sometimes these men, who generally possessed small portions of land in the vills, pledged only their personal service, and kept their lands free from the lord's control ; sometimes, when very evil days came upon them, they were compelled to place their lands as well as themselves in the hands of a lord, for the lord alone could furnish the food, seed, and cattle that they needed. In this case the freeman became a tenant of the lord, and owed not only personal service, but labor service and payments also. On the ecclesiastical estates this change in the condition of the old freemen had gone on more rapidly than elsewhere. Many villagers were already bound to work for their lord and to pay dues, and could not leave the land they cultivated. But a great variety of custom everywhere prevailed; many men were free to choose their lords as they pleased, and no central body exercised control over the local courts or looked after local government. These conditions, combined with the growing power of great families and local lords, made England liable to rebellion and anarchy. And they made desirable, even at great cost and misery, the coining of a stronger people, whose leaders were to exhibit a genius for organization that the Anglo-Saxons had never possessed.