Edward, it is said, desired to fight, but could find no one to support him, so hated were his Norman favourites, and the national party was accordingly completely triumphant. Godwin and his sons were recalled and restored to their former positions, and the Normans, with a few exceptions, were driven from the land, although a few of the better ones were afterwards allowed to come back. Among the outlaws was Robert of Jumièges, and the vacant archbishopric of Canterbury was given to Stigand, the Bishop of Winchester, who had effected the reconciliation between the king and Earl Godwin. So the family of Godwin was once more established in England, with the exception of Sweyn, who, smitten with remorse for his sins, went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and died abroad.
Godwin's new tenure of power did not last long, for in 1053 he died. At Easter he was dining with the king, at Winchester, and fell down in a fit. The superstition of the times did not fail to discover in this sudden death the direct intervention of God, and stories were told how the Earl, on being accused by the king of the murder of Alfred, had impiously taken a morsel of bread from the table, and had desired that it might choke him if he had had a hand in that crime. No sooner had he swallowed it, ran the legend, than he fell backwards and died. The tale is obviously one that was published by Godwin's Norman opponents to blacken his memory; but, apart from its inherent improbabilities, it is one that might easily be circulated concerning anyone that had suddenly died at table. Godwin was sincerely lamented by the English, and with justice, for though he may have been ambitious, and have made the aggrandisement of his family the first object of his concerns, he was none the less a true patriot, and strove, at considerable personal sacrifice, for the welfare of his country. His influence, and that of his son Harold after him, for the time beat back the Norman influx and secured for the English a further brief span of independence from Norman aggression.
Godwin's place was taken by his son Harold, who succeeded him as Earl of Wessex. Being of a more courtly disposition than his father, Harold managed to keep on excellent terms with the king. At the same time, the earldom of East Anglia was not at once given to a member of the Godwin family, but to Ælfgar, the son of Leofric of Mercia, who seems to have been put forward by the weak king as in some sort a rival to Harold. In 1055, however, Ælfgar was outlawed, whether with or without justice it is impossible to say, and Harold was thus freed for the time being of a dangerous opponent. The earldom, moreover, was given to his brother Gurth.