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William the Conqueror
The Succession Issue
Back in England, Edward found that his own earls were every bit as dangerous as the Vikings, and he turned to his Norman friends for succor in his struggles them. He gave fiefs to Norman lords, trying to keep the Saxon barons from becoming too strong.
In 1051 Edward, who was childless, carried this plan to its ultimate conclusion when he designated William (now aged 23) as his heir. This was a move that surprised and dismayed a number of Saxon lords who felt that one of them was the more natural choice. But Edward felt that only the Normans, who had sheltered him in his exile, were his trusted friends.
Among the Saxon earls, Godwin was the most powerful in England in the 1040s. He and his fellows almost completely dominated politics and power in this decade, and these were the ones Edward feared. Godwin's son, Harold, succeeded his father in 1053 and carried on his father's ambitions. In fact, Harold Godwinson emerged as not only the most powerful lord in England but also as the leader of the anti-Norman party, and the logical Saxon candidate for the throne. But Edward did not like the man much. Harold had several quarrels with Edward, but they always made it up again.
The Danes, too, had a claim, and through them, the Norwegians.
The principal individual here was Harold 
Hardraada, a famous warrior related to the line of Canute. In the 1060s Hardraada gained control of both Norway and Denmark and began planning in earnest to take back England. There was much anti-Edward,
anti-Norman sentiment in the north of England, where Viking influence was strong anyway, and Harold had good reason to hope for success on the battlefield.
So, by the early 1060s, Edward the Confessor was faced with three powerful forces contending for the English throne: the Normans, who could claim the throne by right of bequest; the Saxons, who claimed it by right of tradition and nationality, and who had the advantage of being on the spot; and the Norwegians, who had a better legal claim than the Saxons, but who realistically could win it only by conquest--something Vikings were rather good at.
It was not a situation that lent itself to diplomacy, but Edward was determined to make one more attempt at a peaceful solution.