Godwine again appeared in arms, but Swein's outlawry was renewed, and the Earl of Wessex, declining with his usual prudence a useless struggle, withdrew over sea to Flanders.
[Sidenote: Harold] But the wrath of the nation was appeased by his fall.

Great as were Godwine's faults, he was the one man who now stood between England and the rule of the strangers who flocked to the Court; and a year had hardly passed when he was strong enough to return.

At the appearance of his fleet in the Thames in 1052 Eadward was once more forced to yield.

The foreign prelates and bishops fled over sea, outlawed by the same meeting of the Wise men which restored Godwine to his home.

But he returned only to die, and the direction of affairs passed quietly to his son Harold.
Harold came to power unfettered by the obstacles which beset his father, and for twelve years he was the actual governor of the realm.