Welcome to the British History Podcast. My name is Jamie and this is Episode 373, the

first king. This show is ad-free due to member support and is way of thanking members for

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Earl Elfgar was having a rough time. The clergy and local lords of East Anglia had never

really warmed up to him since his appointment to the post in 1053. Their loyalty to Harold

and the House of Godwin went so deep that we can still see evidence of it in surviving records.

So Elfgar's governance over East Anglia was likely difficult. Every move he made was

likely being hampered by an intransigent local aristocracy who saw him as nothing more than a

carpet bagger. But I suppose that is the price you sometimes have to pay for a large territory and

an important title that was just handed to you because you know you're from the right family.

But that title and territory wasn't without its own problems because soon thereafter the king,

pushed by the House of Godwin, took Norfolk away from Elfgar, which was fully one half of

his Euraldum and then he gave it to girth godwincent. And I'm sure that they made excuses when this

happened and claimed that it would make governing easier since it would be throwing a bone to the

locals who wanted to serve under a godwincent. But as far as Elfgar was concerned he was still sitting

there with now half of the Euraldum that he had before. And then suddenly Earl's seaword of

Northumbria died and that Euraldum became available which probably seemed like a really good solution

to this problem. Elfgar could just move up to Northumbria and get away from these grumpy East

Anglians. He could have a fresh start and a full Euraldum. And then the East Anglians could finally

...