ABSTRACT
On Godwin's death the king appointed the earl's eldest surviving son, Harold, to succeed his father in the earldom of Wessex. In Scandinavia, where it was believed that Harold was junior to Tostig, it was thought that he had been brought up at Edward's court as his foster-son, as the king had no children of his own (King Harald's Saga, cap. 75). It was also thought that, whereas Tostig was made commander of the English army, Harold was put in charge of the royal exchequer (cap. 77). Vita, rather better informed in connection with Harold's succession to Wessex, calls him at pages 46–7 the wisest of the brothers and claims that at his promotion the whole country rejoiced. To East Anglia, which Harold relinquished, Edward appointed Ælfgar, Earl Leofric of Mercia's son. The effect was to strengthen the Mercian family at the expense of the Godwins. Each now had control over a latitudinal stretch of the kingdom, with the third, the northern tranche, still in the hands of Earl Siward the Dane. In the Welsh march Earl Ralf of Mantes had, it seems, been left undisturbed in 1052; and Earl Odda of Deerhurst appears to have remained in control of some other border shires. This was a compromise situation at the expense of Tostig, Godwin's second surviving son, now married to Judith of Flanders and waiting impatiently for an earldom. It was also a sign that all parties were, for the moment, prepared to tolerate the others. But Tostig may have acquired a grievance. It could be — it is even likely — that he and Harold were always rivals, the cadet resenting his senior's advantages. But the story of how, when boys, they had a fight at Edward's court and the king prophesied the events of 1065–6, does not appear before Ailred of Rievaulx's Vita Sancti Edwardi, written in 1163. 1
