The succeeding years are marked by the gradual increase of the power of Harold and his family. In 1055 Earl Ælfgar was outlawed, and his earldom given to Gurth, Harold’s brother. The exiled Earl, making common cause with Griffith [Gryffydd] of Wales, defeated Ralph, the French Earl of Herefordshire. To repair this disaster the war was intrusted to Harold; he prosecuted it with success, and Herefordshire, which he had thus rescued, was added to his earldom. The death of Leofric still further increased the power of the House of Godwine, although Ælfgar, the late Earl, was allowed to succeed him; and finally, Essex and Kent were formed into an earldom for Leofwine, the remaining brother of Harold. Godwine’s sons now possessed all England, with the exception of Mercia. The last probable heir to the throne--the Ætheling Edward, the son of Edmund Ironside--had been brought over from Hungary, but had died almost immediately after reaching England. And when, in 1063, Harold, by employing his men as light troops, succeeded in the final subjugation of Wales, his greatness was such that he must almost certainly have been regarded as the next king. Three years afterwards, in January 1066, King Edward, the last male descendant of Cerdic who reigned in England, died. His last year had been troubled by a great insurrection of the Northern counties against the rule of Tostig. The house of Leofric had had a stronghold in the North, and Tostig’s injudicious vigour in attempting to reduce the barbarous population to order had excited great discontent. His energy seems more than once to have led him into murder. The Northumbrian therefore deposed him, and elected Morcar [Morkere], the grandson of Leofric, in his place. His brother, Edwin of Mercia, who had succeeded his father Ælfgar, made common cause with him; and Harold, whose policy was always conciliatory, found it necessary to persuade the King to confirm Edwin and Morkere in their possessions. Tostig retired as an exile to Bruges. While England was thus troubled, the King died--a good man, devoted to the Church and the monks, and therefore afterwards canonized, but as a king unfitted by his pliant character, and more especially by his love of foreign favourites, to rule over England at such a difficult crisis. [Sidenote: Harold elected king. 1066.] [Sidenote: Claims of William of Normandy.]