The Norse, the Scots and the Welsh by the end of Edward's reign have acknowledged him as "father and lord".

This recognition of Edward's overlordship in Scotland will lead to his successors' claims of suzerainty over that Kingdom.

The Viking king Sihtric rules the Kingdom of York in southern Northumbria, but Ealdred maintains Anglo-Saxon rule in at least part of the former kingdom of Bernicia from his base in Bamburgh in northern Northumbria.

King Constantine rules Scotland, apart from the southwest, which is the British Kingdom of Strathclyde.

Wales is divided into a number of small kingdoms, including Deheubarth in the southwest, Gwent in the southeast, Brycheiniog immediately north of Gwent, and Gwynedd in the north.

Edward has reorganized the Church in Wessex, creating new bishoprics at Ramsbury and Sonning, Wells and Crediton.

Despite this, there is little indication that Edward was particularly religious.

In fact, the Pope had delivered a reprimand to him to pay more attention to his religious responsibilities.

Having unified most of England south of the Humber River and largely restored the Danelaw to English rule (although Danish laws and customs persist there), Edward dies on July 17, 924, at Farndon-Upon-Dee leading an army against a Welsh-Mercian rebellion.

Edward is buried in the New Minster in Winchester, Hampshire, which he himself had established in 901.

The ensuing events are unclear.

Ælfweard, Edward's eldest son by his second wife Ælfflæd, had ranked above Æthelstan, his son by his first wife Ecgwynn, in attesting a charter in 901, and Edward may have intended Ælfweard to be his successor as king, either of Wessex only or of the whole kingdom.

If Edward had intended his realms to be divided after his death, his deposition of Ælfwynn in Mercia in 918 may have been intended to prepare the way for Æthelstan's succession as king of Mercia.

When Edward died, Æthelstan was apparently with him in Mercia, while Ælfweard was in Wessex.

Mercia acknowledges Æthelstan as king, and Wessex may have chosen Ælfweard.

However, Ælfweard outlives his father by only sixteen days, disrupting any succession plan.

Even after Ælfweard's death there seems to have been opposition to Æthelstan in Wessex, particularly in Winchester, where Ælfweard is buried.

Æthelstan behaves as a Mercian king in early 925, describing himself as Rex Anglorum in a charter relating to land in Derbyshire, witnessed only by Mercian bishops.

He does not appear to have established his authority in Wessex until the middle of the year.

In the view of David Dumville and Janet Nelson he may have agreed not marry or have heirs in order to gain acceptance.

However, Sarah Foot suggested that he probably had a religious devotion to chastity as a way of life.

The coronation of Æthelstan takes place on September 4, 925 at Kingston upon Thames, perhaps due to its symbolic location on the border between Wessex and Mercia.

He is crowned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Athelm, who probably designed or organized a new ordo (religious order of service) in which the king wore a crown for the first time instead of a helmet.

The new ordo is influenced by West Frankish liturgy and in turn will become one of the sources of the medieval French ordo.

Opposition seems to have continued even after the coronation.

According to William of Malmesbury, an otherwise unknown nobleman called Alfred plotted to blind Æthelstan on account of his supposed illegitimacy, although it is unknown whether he aimed to make himself king or was acting on behalf of Edwin, Ælfweard's younger brother.

Blinding would have been a disability that made Æthelstan ineligible for kingship without incurring the odium attached to murder.

Edward the Elder had conquered the Danish territories in Mercia and East Anglia with the assistance of Æthelflæd and her husband, but when Edward died the Danish king Sihtric still ruled the Viking Kingdom of York (formerly the southern Northumbrian kingdom of Deira).

Æthelstan in January 926 had arranged for one of his sisters to marry Sihtric.

The two kings had agreed not to invade each other's territories or to support each other's enemies.

Sihtric dies the following year and Æthelstan seizes the chance to invade.

Guthfrith, a cousin of Sihtric, leads a fleet from Dublin to try to take the throne, but Æthelstan easily prevails.

He captures York and receives the submission of the Danish people.

According to a southern chronicler, he "succeeded to the kingdom of the Northumbrians", and it is uncertain whether he had to fight Guthfrith.

Southern kings had never ruled the north, and his usurpation is met with outrage by the Northumbrians, who have always resisted southern control.

However, at Eamont, near Penrith, on July 12, 927, King Constantine of Scotland, King Hywel Dda of Deheubarth, Ealdred of Bamburgh, and King Owain of Strathclyde (or Morgan ap Owain of Gwent) accepts Æthelstan's overlordship.

His triumph leads to seven years of peace in the north.