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to intervene personally, when subsequent political events in Wales necessitated some positive reaffirmation of his status.4 In 1067, however, his priority was to retain, and secure domination over, his possessions in England and Normandy. To provoke conflict with the Welsh would have served only to exacerbate his immediate problems. The earliest Norman claims to Welsh territory were to be exercises in baronial opportunism, typifying Norman acquisitive greed, but unrelated to any coordinated royal strategy of conquest. The substantial military presence that was established in the southern Marches of Wales was intended initially to protect William's interests in England, rather than to discomfort the Welsh. The principal threat which FitzOsbern sought to counter was an English one. Harold Godwinson had acquired a considerable interest in Herefordshire on the death of Earl Ralph in 1057. He had extended his authority further after his defeat of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn in 1063, when, it has been suggested, several western manors won earlier by Gruffudd came into his possession.5 Many of Harold's followers, settled in the region during the period of his tenure, had retained their holdings despite Harold's fall. This Saxon element, distinct from the Mercians of the northern March whose loyalty William chose initially to accept, posed a potential threat to Norman authority, both within the region and beyond, and it could not be ignored. Disaffection here could endanger the security of the English midlands, and in conjunction with a northern revolt could de-stabilise the whole of William I's newly-won kingdom. This Marcher threat was soon to become reality, with the revolt of Edric the Wild. William's position in England was already precarious. The north remained unsubdued, while control of the key south-western cities of Bristol and Exeter had yet to be secured. The west country was threatened by Harold's sons, who had established a base in Ireland, while the east coast was constantly exposed to the threat of invasion from Scandinavia. In the south, a challenge by Eustace of Boulogne which engaged Dover's newly- established garrison served to emphasise how frail were contemporary concepts of loyalty. Edric's revolt could hardly have been less opportune for the new king of England. 4 For a review of English influence in Wales, see W. Davies, Patterns of Power in Early Wales (Oxford. 1990), pp. 73-76. For a Welsh interpretation of William I's visit to St David's, see Brut y Tywysogyon, Pen. MS. 20, s.a. 1081. For an English alternative, see The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. D. Whitelock, with D. C. Douglas, S. 1. Tucker (London, 1961), s.a. 1081. 5 C. Lewis, 'The Norman Settlement of Hereford under William 1', Anglo-Norman Studies VII, ed. R A. Brown (Woodbridge, 1985), pp. 199-200.