In 890AD Guthrum died. there was no obvious successor and Danskjold fractured into petty chiefdoms of which Lincoln ,Norwich and Cambridge were the most important. This power vacuum sucked in more Danes both from Denmark and back from Neustria. Elfred and to a much lesser extent Ceolwulf had to deal with minor raids into their territory but nothing serious.
The major problem was a large army that landed in Kent and settled. Lundin was separate to Wessex and refused to let Elfred lead an army into its territory to clear the Danes out. Elfred sorted this out by blockading these Danes (and incidentally Lundin) with his new fleet. The Danes gave up in 895AD and sailed back to Neustria. Lundin although it nominally remained independent henceforth recognised the King of Wessex as its overlord.
In 896AD Constantine the Wise of Rheged died (so called because he stabilised the realm and because of his lawmaking and just rule) and was succeeded by his son Owain.
Finally in October 899AD Elfred died. He remains the only King of Wessex called the Great. Unfortunately his death precipitated a civil war in Wessex.
When Alfred died, Edward's cousin Ethelwold, the son of King Ethelred (Elfred’s brother and predecessor as King of Wessex), rose up to claim the throne and began a bid for the throne. (Until the mid-890s he would probably have become King instead of Edward) .He seized Wimborne, in Dorset, where his father was buried, and Christchurch (then in Hampshire, now in Dorset). Edward marched to Badbury and offered battle, but Ethelwold refused to leave Wimborne. Just when it looked as if Edward was going to attack Wimborne, Ethelwold left in the night, and joined the Danes in Norwich, where he was announced as King. In the meantime, Edward was crowned on 8 June 900, possibly at Kingston upon Thames.
In 901, Ethelwold came with a fleet to Essex, and encouraged the Danes in Danskjold to rise up. In the following year he attacked northern Wessex. Edward retaliated by ravaging East Anglia, but when he retreated south the men of Lundin disobeyed the order to retire, and were intercepted by the Danish army. The two sides met at the Battle of the Holme on 13 December 902. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Danes "kept the place of slaughter", but they suffered heavy losses, including Ethelwold and a King Eohric, possibly of Norwich.
Relations with Danskjold proved problematic for Edward for several more years. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions that he made peace with the East Anglian Danes "of necessity". There is also a mention of the regaining of Cambridge in 907, which may be an indication that the city was taken in battle.
In 909, Edward sent an army to harass Deira. In the following year, the Deirans retaliated by attacking Wessex, but they were met by the Wessex army at the Battle of Tettenhall, where they were defeated. From that point, the Deirans never again crossed the Trent.
Edward then began the construction of a number of fortresses, at Hertford, Maeldun and Bridgnorth. He is also said to have built a fortress at Scergeat, but that location has not been identified. This series of fortresses kept the Danes at bay. Other forts were also built. These were built to the same specifications (within centimetres) as those within the territory that his father had controlled; it has been suggested on this basis that Edward actually built them all.
Edward consolidated the realm and left it on a much sounder footing both defensively and economically than it had become during Ethelwold’s bid for the throne. He died in 924AD having been acknowledged as overlord of the Welsh and most of Danskjord and was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Ethelstan.
