The Battle of Tempsford takes place in a fortified Danish burh where, following an unsuccessful attack on Bedford, the Danes are defeated in 917 by an English army led by King Edward the Elder, who kills their king and ends organized Danish resistance.

The Historia de Sancto Cuthberto states that Ealdred "was a friend of King Edward the Elder, as his father had been a favorite of King Alfred the Great".

Ealdred had been driven from his lands, whether all of Northumbria or merely the northern part which had once been Bernicia is debated, by Ragnall ua Ímair, either in or before 914, or alternatively as late as 918.

The Historia states that Ealdred sought refuge with Constantín mac Áeda, the king of Alba, and that the two fought Ragnall at the battle of Corbridge, dated to 918 by the Annals of Ulster and the Chronicle of the Kings of Alba.

The battle appears to have been indecisive and Ragnall remained the master of at least southern Northumbria, former Deira, or perhaps of all.

The Annals of Ulster informs us that the Norse army divided itself into four columns, in one of which may have been Ottir Iarla, a longtime ally of Ragnall.

The Scots destroy the first three but are ambushed by the last, commanded by Ragnall himself, which had remained hidden behind a hill.

The Scots manage to escape without disaster, however.

The Historia de Sancto Cuthberto adds that the English fought alongside the Norse, though it ignores the presence of the Scots.

All of the Danes south of the Humber by 918 have submitted to Edward.

The former Anglo-Saxon kingdom of East Anglia, since 886 a part of the Danelaw, now becomes an English earldom.

Edward, the brother of Æthelflæd, the Lady of the Mercians, incorporates English Mercia into Wessex following her death in 918.

Edward has by this time virtually extinguished Danish power in England.

Edward the Elder in 919 builds Bedford’s first known fortress, on the south side of the River Ouse, and here receives the area's submission.

Ragnall, descending on York in 919, takes the city and has himself proclaimed king.

The Bernicians remain under him, though Ealdred of Northumbria and Dyfnwal II, king of Strathclyde, do homage to the king of England.

Edward receives the formal submissions, all in the year 920, of Raegnald, the Irish-Norse king of York; Ealdred, ruler of English Northumbria; the Welsh king of Strathclyde; and (possibly) Constantine II of Scotland.

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.