'''Леофрик''' (; ум. Мерсии в 1020-х—англосаксонской Британии середины леди Годивы.

Леофрик был сыном Этельреда II. По сообщениям Англосаксонской хроники, старший брат Леофрика был убит в датских Кнуда Великого, что не помешало Леофрику перейти на службу последнему, когда тот стал королём Англии. Кнуд разделил страну на несколько крупных провинций, во главе каждой из которых был поставлен датский или англосаксонский Мерсии, обширной территории, занимающей бо́льшую часть Средней Англии. Дата назначения Леофрика эрлом точно не известна, по всей видимости это произошло между 1017 и 1030 гг.

Леофрик был одним из наиболее влиятельных соратников Кнуда Великого и вместе с нормандской угрозы. В отличие от Годвина, Леофрик был выходцем из родовой английской аристократии, хотя его возвышение и было следствием службы у короля Кнуда. До своей смерти Леофрик и другие выходцы из англосаксонской знати поддерживали традиции англосаксонской монархии и обеспечивали преемственность государственных институтов.

После смерти Кнуда Великого в тэнов Мерсии добился избрания регентом (а потом и королём) Гарольда I, незаконного сына Кнуда и Эльфгифу Нортгемптонской. После смерти Гарольда в 1040 г. английским королём стал Хардекнуд, однако Леофрик сохранил свои позиции в качестве одного из крупнейших магнатов страны. Его лояльность королю была подтверждена в 1041 г., когда по приказу Хардекнуда Леофрик разорил Вустер, один из важнейших городов Мерсии, чьи жители убили хускерлов короля.

После восшествия на английский престол Эдуарда Исповедника в нормандских рыцарей, что вызвало недовольство англосаксов. В скандинавской угрозы, во многом предопределило поражение Эдуарда и его подчинение эрлу Годвину.

'''Leofric''' (born 968, died 31 August or 30 September 1057) was the Earl of Mercia and founded monasteries at Coventry and Much Wenlock. Leofric is  remembered as the husband of Lady Godiva.

==Life and political influence==
Leofric was the son of Ealdorman Leofwine of the Cnut.<ref>Ann Williams, ‘Leofric, earl of Mercia (d. 1057)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2005 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16470, accessed 18 April 2008]</ref><ref name="ASC">''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''</ref> 

The victorious Cnut divided England into four great provinces: Wessex, East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria each of which he eventually placed under the control of an earl (a title new to the English, replacing the Anglo-Saxon "ealdorman"). Mercia he initially left in the hands of Eadric Streona, who had been Ealdorman of Mercia since 1007, but Eadric was killed later in the same year of 1017.<ref name="ASC" /> 

Mercia may have been given to Leofric immediately after that.<ref>http://fmg.ac/Projects/MedLands/ENGLAND,%20AngloSaxon%20nobility.htm</ref> He had certainly become Earl of Mercia by the 1030s. This made him one of the most powerful men in the land, second only to Earl Godwin of Wessex among the mighty earls. He may have had some connection by marriage with Ælfgifu of Northampton, the first wife of Cnut. That might help to explain why he supported her son Harold Harefoot against Harthacanute, Cnut's son by Emma, when Cnut died in 1035.<ref>M. Lapidge, ''The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England'' (1999), p.282; ''The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' 1036 E.</ref>  

However Harold died in 1040 and was succeeded by Harthacanute, who made himself unpopular with heavy taxation in his short reign. Two of his tax-collectors were killed at Worcester by angry locals. The king was so enraged by this that in 1041 he ordered Leofric and his other earls to plunder and burn the city, and lay waste the whole area.<ref>''The Chronicle of John of Worcester'' ed. and trans. R.R. Darlington, P. McGurk and J. Bray (Clarendon Press: Oxford 1995), pp.533.</ref> This command must have sorely tested Leofric. Worcester was the cathedral city of the Hwicce, his people.  

When Harthacanute died suddenly in 1042, he was succeeded by his half-brother Earl Siward of Northumbria gathered a great army to meet that of Godwin. Wise heads counselled that battle would be folly, with the flower of England on both sides. Their loss would leave England open to its enemies. So the issue was resolved by less bloody means. Earl Godwin and his family were outlawed for a time.<ref name="ASC" /> 

Earl Leofric's power was then at its height. But in 1055 his son Ælfgar was outlawed, "without any fault", says the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle''. He raised an army in Ireland and Wales and brought it to Earl Ralph of Herefordshire and severely damaged the town. The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' wryly comments "And then when they had done most harm, it was decided to reinstate Earl Ælfgar". 

Leofric died "at a good old age" in 1057 at his estate at Kings Bromley in Staffordshire. According to the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'', he died on 30 September, but the chronicler of Worcester gives the date as 31 August. Both agree that he was buried at Coventry.<ref name="Worchester1">''The Chronicle of John of Worcester'' ed. and trans. R.R. Darlington, P. McGurk and J. Bray (Clarendon Press: Oxford 1995), pp.582-3.</ref>