Godwin returns and reclaims power

1052

Assembling a fleet in Flanders, Godwin and his sons Harold and Tostig sailed up the Thames and reentered London in triumph. Edward the Confessor restored their earldoms and dismissed his Norman advisers. The Godwin family were now the undisputed real rulers of England. Edward retreated into piety and building, and the stage was set for the succession crisis that would engulf the kingdom in 1066.