[*] [5] He was succeeded in the government of Wessex, Sussex,
Kent, and Essex, and in the office of steward of the household, a place
of great power, by his son Harold, who was actuated by an ambition
equal to that of his father, and was superior to him in address, in
insinuation, and in virtue. By a modest and gentle demeanor, he acquired
the good will of Edward; at least, softened that hatred which the prince
had so long borne his family;[**] and gaining every day new partisans by
his bounty and affability, he proceeded, in a more silent, and therefore
a more dangerous manner, to the increase of his authority. The king,
who had not sufficient vigor directly to oppose his progress, knew of
no other expedient than that hazardous one of raising him a rival in the
family of Leofric, duke of Mercia, whose son Algar was invested with the
government of East Anglia, which, before the banishment of Harold, had
belonged to the latter nobleman. But this policy, of balancing opposite
parties, required a more steady hand to manage it than that of Edward,
and naturally produced faction and even civil broils, among nobles of
such mighty and independent authority.
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