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Harold was not only pious, but a great warrior, and in 1063 he put a stop to the incursions of Griffith of Wales by completely conquering that country. Despite the lesson they had previously received from Harold, the Welsh continued the terror of the West of England, which they systematically plundered, retreating with their booty to their mountain strongholds. Harold found he could do nothing more acceptable to the public, and more honourable to himself, than the suppressing of so dangerous an enemy. He formed the plan of an expedition against Wales; and having prepared some light-armed foot to pursue the natives into their fastnesses, some cavalry to scour the open country, and a squadron of ships to attack the sea-coast, he employed at once all these forces against the Welsh, prosecuted his advantages with vigour, made no intermission in his assaults, and at last reduced the enemy to such distress that, in order to prevent their total destruction, they made a sacrifice of their prince, whose head they cut off and sent to Harold; and they were content to receive as their sovereigns two brothers of Griffith appointed by Edward to rule over them. The new princes swore oaths to Harold and Edward, and thus the monarchy over united Wales came to an end, although the country was not annexed to England until long years afterwards.

Another prominent feature in Harold's character besides his valour, was his sense of justice, of which he gave very favourable indication in the year 1065, when his brother Tostig, the Earl of Northumberland, being of a violent, tyrannical temper, acted with such cruelty and injustice that the inhabitants rose in rebellion, and chased him from his government. Morcar and Edwin, two brothers, who were the sons of Ælfgar, Edwin the elder of the two having succeeded him in the earldom of Mercia, concurred in the insurrection; and the former, being elected earl, advanced with an army to oppose Harold, who was commissioned by the king to reduce and chastise the Northumbrians. Before the armies came to action, Morcar, well acquainted with the generous disposition of the English commander, endeavoured to justify his own conduct. This was a bold step, but the event fully proved the wisdom of adopting it. He represented to Harold that Tostig had behaved in a manner unworthy of the station to which he was advanced; that no one, not even a brother, could support such tyranny without participating in some degree in the infamy attending it; that the Northumbrians, accustomed to a legal administration, and regarding it as their birthright, were willing to submit to the king, but required a governor who would pay regard to their rights and privileges; that they had been taught by their ancestors that death was preferable to servitude, and had taken the field, determined to perish rather than suffer a renewal of the indignities to which they had long been exposed; and they trusted that Harold, on reflection, would not defend in another the violence he had repressed in his own government. This remonstrance, sustained as it was by the arguments that have just been summarised, was accompanied by such proofs of the justice of the complaints that Harold felt himself compelled to abandon his brother's cause; and, returning to Edward, persuaded the king to pardon the Northumbrians, and to confirm Morcar in the government. He afterwards married the sister of that nobleman. Tostig, in a rage, quitted England, and took refuge at Bruges with his father-in-law, Baldwin of Flanders.

But meanwhile the question of the succession to the throne was becoming daily more pressing. Edward was evidently rapidly sinking into the grave. He had never loved his wife, Harold's sister, and had no children by her. The natural choice of the Witena-gemot would have been Edward, the son of Edward's elder brother, who had been sent to Hungary by the King of Sweden. Accordingly, an embassy was sent to Hungary, and in 1057 the Atheling, or member of the royal line, arrived with his children, Edgar, Margaret, and Christina. But the prospect of his one day becoming King of England, which would have solved a most difficult problem, was speedily cut short by his death within a few days. Of the royal family, Edgar, his son, was now the only direct male representative, and he, as being a mere boy, was hardly a candidate on whom the choice of the Witena-gemot would fall. It should be observed that Harold appears to have placed no obstacle in the way of the advent of the members of the house of Cerdic to England, and throughout he seems honestly to have acted for the best.

To look upon the election of Harold to the throne as in any sense a usurpation is to import purely modern ideas about royalty into days when hereditary descent was never for a moment recognised as giving an indefeasible right. To pass over the members of the royal line was no doubt an unusual measure, because there were as a rule some members of that line who were fully competent to succeed, but, failing such a candidate, the Witena-gemot were quite within their right in electing any one whom they believed to combine the necessary qualities of valour and statesmanship. And of all men in England, it could hardly be doubted that Harold was pre-eminently the possessor of the attributes that went in those days to make a good king. He was therefore tacitly designated as Edward's successor by universal consent; but in William of Normandy he had a dangerous and unscrupulous opponent who would hesitate to use no means that force or fraud might throw in his way. One effective instrument he had already acquired during his visit to England, and chance speedily placed a second in his path, of which he availed himself with equal dexterity.

CHAPTER X.

THE NORMAN INVASION.

The Normans—Their Settlement in France—Their gradual Civilization—Richard the Good—Robert the Devil—William's earlier years—His Consolidation of Power—Harold's Adventures in Normandy and the Story of his Oath to William—Death and Character of Edward—Election of Harold—William's Claims—He obtains the Sanction of the Church—His Preparations—Proceedings of Tostig—Harold's Forces dwindle—Invasion of Tostig and Harold Hardrada—Battle of Stamford Bridge—Landing of William—Harold in London—Desertion of Edwin and Morcar—Negotiations—Harold at Senlac—Account of the Battle—Death of Harold and Discomfiture of the English—His Burial—Legend of his Escape.