Eadward yearned after the splendour and the culture of the land in which he had been brought up, or even that, in defiance of English law, he now promised to Duke William the succession to the English crown. 17. =The Return and Death of Godwine. 1052--1053.=--After William had departed Englishmen became discontented at Eadward's increasing favour to the Norman strangers. In =1052= Godwine and his sons--Swegen only excepted--returned from exile. They sailed up the Thames and landed at Southwark. The foreigners hastily fled, and Eadward was unable to resist the popular feeling. Godwine was restored to his earldom, and an Englishman, Stigand, was made Archbishop of Canterbury in the place of Robert of Jumieges, who escaped to the Continent. As it was the law of the Church that a bishop once appointed could not be deposed except by the ecclesiastical authorities, offence was in this way given to the Pope. Godwine did not long outlive his restoration. He was struck down by apoplexy at the king's table in =1053=. Harold, who, after Swegen's death, was his eldest son, succeeded to his earldom of Wessex, and practically managed the affairs of the kingdom in Eadward's name.[8] [Footnote 8: Genealogy of the family of Godwine:-- Godwine | +------+-------+--------+---+----+-------+---------+ | | | | | | | Swegen HAROLD Tostig Leofwine Gyrth Wulfnoth Eadgyth = Eadward 1066 the Confessor] 18. =Harold's Greatness. 1053--1066.=--Harold was a brave and energetic man, but Eadward preferred his brother Tostig, and on the death of Siward appointed him Earl of North-humberland. A little later Gyrth, another brother of Harold, became Earl of East Anglia, together with Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire, and a fourth brother, Leofwine, Earl of a district formed of the eastern shires on either side of the Thames. All the richest and 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.