Godwin, Earl of Wessex, had supported the…

Godwin, Earl of Wessex, had supported the accession of Harthacnut to the throne of England.

When Harthacnut himself dies in 1042, Godwin supports the claim of Æthelred's last surviving son Edward the Confessor to the throne.

Edward has spent most of the previous thirty years in Normandy.

Proclaimed king after Harthacnut's death in June 1042, Edward’s reign restores the native royal house of Wessex to the throne of England.

Edward apparently prefers Norman life and people as a more attractive and natural alternative than the folk and ways of England.

Under his weak rule, regal power passes, with his blessing, to his relatives, the house of Godwin.