Harold now found his path to the throne obstructed only by the family of Leofric. In 1057, however, death removed Leofric, that great earl of whom we would fain know more; for, from the meagre information we are able to gather concerning him, he would appear to have been anxious to bring to a close the quarrels that distracted and weakened the nation. He and his wife, the Lady Godiva of legend, founded many churches and monasteries, of which the most important was the church at Coventry.
[Illustration: THE DEATH OF SIWARD. (_See p._ 71.)]
Ælfgar was still a source of uneasiness to Harold. On being outlawed, he made a compact with Griffith, the king of the Welsh, and the two agreed to invade England. Ralph the Norman, Edward's nephew, was disgracefully defeated by the enemy, who took possession of Hereford, but on the arrival of Harold at the head of the English they retired into Wales and made peace, Ælfgar being restored to his earldom for a few months, probably through the influence of his father, who was still alive at the time. Soon after the death of Leofric, Ælfgar was outlawed again, but, pursuing his former tactics, was made Earl of Mercia, succeeding his father, through the armed intervention of Griffith, whose daughter he married. During the brief remainder of his life he plays no prominent part in events, having probably discovered by painful experience that Harold was an antagonist whom it was dangerous to provoke. The power of the house of Godwin was completed by the formation of Essex and Kent into an earldom for Leofwine, Harold's remaining brother.
The influence obtained by Harold's strength of character over the amiable but feeble king was increased by their common sympathies. Both were of considerably higher culture than the average Englishman, and they both had leanings towards the superior civilisation of France, a country to which Harold had paid a visit. Moreover, both of them were genuinely pious men, and their piety took the outward form of the building and endowment of churches. The Confessor's chief edifice was the Abbey of Westminster, and parts of the building which still stands there are his work. Harold, in a kindred spirit, founded an abbey at Waltham in 1060, and established a college there, inviting learned men from the Continent to teach the scholars. Unlike Dunstan, he befriended the secular priests, but he was in every respect rigidly orthodox, and refusing to acknowledge Stigand, because he had been consecrated by the anti-Pope Benedict, caused the abbey at Waltham to be hallowed by the Archbishop of York.