He was baptised at once, with thirty of his principal chiefs, after the rough-and-ready fashion of the fighting king, near Athelney.

The treaty entered into with Guthrum restored to AElfred all Wessex, with the south-western part of Mercia, from London to Bedford, and thence along the line of Watling Street to Chester.

Thus for a time the Saxons recovered their autonomy, and the great Scandinavian horde retired to East Anglia.

AEthelred, AElfred's son-in-law, was appointed under-king of recovered Mercia.
Henceforward, Teutonic Britain remains for awhile divided into Wessex and the Denalagu--that is to say, the district governed by Danish law.
Though peace was thus made with Guthrum, new bodies of wickings came pouring southward from Scandinavia.

One of these sailed up the Thames to Fulham, but after spending some time there, they went over to the Frankish coast, where their depredations were long and severe.
Throughout all AElfred's reign, with only two intervals of peace, the wickings kept up a constant series of attacks on the coast, and frequently penetrated inland.