Two years later, in 1057, Leofric, the old Earl of Mercia, died, and also Earl Ralf. Aelfgar thereupon succeeded to Mercia, but only on the understanding that East Anglia should pass to Harold's brother Gyrth, that sundry Mercian districts near London, such as Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, should be formed into a new earldom for Leofwine, another of his brothers, and that Herefordshire should fall to Harold himself. As Somerset and Dorset had been reunited to Wessex upon Odda's death in 1056, these territorial rearrangements meant that the sons of Godwin held the earldoms throughout England with the exception of the curtailed earldom of Mercia, and men began to speculate whether even this exception would be long maintained. The central earldom still formed a good-sized jurisdiction, stretching across the northern Midlands from the Welsh borders to the North Sea, but few could doubt that Harold was aiming at its dismemberment, so that whenever Edward should die there might be no power left in England sufficiently strong to compete with him, if he decided to be a candidate for the throne. This ultimate object, it is true, was not yet avowed; but the thorny question of the succession was beginning to be discussed, as Edward was well over fifty and his only near kinsman was the baby grandson of Edmund Ironside, known to history as Edgar the Aetheling. According to the accepted traditions of the English this child would for many years be far too young to be elected king, and, further, he had no support in the country; for his father had been exiled by Knut in infancy, and having spent almost his whole life in Hungary, had never acquired any territorial position in England. As events turned out, no convenient opportunity for dismembering Mercia occurred; for Aelfgar, to protect his family's interests, gave his daughter Ealdgyth to Gruffydd in marriage, and so could count on the support of sturdy Welsh allies. Harold, therefore, left him unmolested till his death in 1062, when the Mercian earldom passed to his son Edwin.
Meanwhile King Gruffydd, presuming on his Mercian connexion, kept on harassing Harold's Herefordshire lands. As a counter-blow, early in 1063 Harold made a raid into North Wales and attacked Rhuddlan, hoping to find Gruffydd unprepared. The Welsh king got away by sea, but was not fated to enjoy his good fortune much longer; for Harold was determined to crush him, and so deprive the young Edwin of the outside support that his father had relied on. To this end Harold summoned Tostig to join him with a Northumbrian levy, and then both brothers pushed into Wales beyond Rhuddlan and chased the Welsh prince from one hill fortress to another. In this extremity Gruffydd was deserted not only by the Mercians but also by his own men, and was shortly afterwards assassinated. His fall, accompanied as it was by the restoration of considerable tracts along the marches to English rule, brought Harold undoubted prestige; but it must not be supposed that the Welsh were in any sense conquered. Their unity was once more
