Aethelwald succeeded in establishing himself as King of York, and invaded Mercia with a Danish army. Eadward promptly retaliated by invading East Anglia; this was precisely the plan laid down by ‘Byzantine’ tacticians for checking Saracen raids from Syria. It succeeded admirably--the Danes hurried back from Mercia to save their homes. By accident they came upon the Kentish troops isolated, and after a furious engagement gained a Pyrrhic success. Nearly every man of note on both sides fell, including, on the Danish side, both the English claimant and Eric, King of East Anglia. There was, perhaps, more indecisive fighting, but in 903 a treaty was made with Guthrum II. of East Anglia on the basis of the _status quo ante_. For six years thereafter there was peace throughout England, except in anarchic Northumbria, which appears to have been a sort of dumping-ground for everything that was restless and unsettled in north-western Europe. In 910 the Danes, perhaps goaded into action by restless spirits from the Continent, again raided Mercia. Eadward apparently decided to repeat his strategy of 902, and collected a large army and a fleet of 100 ships in Kent, but the distress of the Mercians forced him to hasten to their aid. Having effected a junction with the Mercian forces, he intercepted the Danes as they returned from the Severn Valley, into which they had penetrated, and near Totanhael (Tottenhall), in Staffordshire, inflicted on them a heavy defeat. Three ‘kings,’ two jarls, and seven höldrs, or great landowners, fell, and the pillaging propensities of the settlers of the Danelaw received a rude check. Aethelred, the ‘Lord’ of Mercia, died in the same year; but his widow, Aethelflæd, the sister of Eadward, took up his task with energy. Aethelflæd is one of the most remarkable figures in English history. She was not only an administrator, but a strategist and military organizer--a combination almost without parallel in a woman. How deeply her extraordinary qualities had impressed her contemporaries is shown by the fact that upon her husband’s death she succeeded quietly to the exercise of his power. It is tantalizing that more is not told of Aethelflæd, but even in the dry and scanty notices of the ‘Anglo-Saxon Chronicle’ she stands out as a great ruler, the worthy daughter of her heroic father.