The new tactics were too fine for the rough and ready Danish leaders.

Before Eadward reached York, the entire North submitted without a blow.

"The king of Scots, and all the Scottish kin, and Ragnald [Danish king of York], and the sons of Eadulf [English kings of Bamborough], and all who dwell in Northumbria, as well English as Danes and Northmen and others, and also the king of the Strathclyde Welsh and all the Strathclyde Welsh, sought him for father and for lord." This was in 924.

Next year, Eadward "rex invictus" died, over-lord of all Britain from sea to sea, while the whole country south of the Humber, save only Wales and Cornwall, was now practically united into a single kingdom of England.
But the seeming submission of the North was fallacious.

The Danes had reintroduced into Britain a fresh mass of incoherent barbarism, which could not thus readily coalesce.