For ten years after the wintering in Sheppey, England was left in a state of comparative peace. The change came in 866 when a large Danish force which had been bribed to leave the Seine by Charles the Bald sailed to England and took up its quarters in East Anglia. In 867 they crossed the Humber and captured York, their task being made easier by the quarrels of Aelle and Osberht as to the kingship of Northumbria. Next year the rivals patched up their differences, but failed to recapture York from the Danes under Ívarr and Ubbi. Setting up a puppet king Ecgberht in Northumbria north of the Tyne, the Danes next received the submission of Mercia and returned to York in 869. In 870 they marched through Mercia into East Anglia, as far as Thetford, engaged the forces of Edmund, king of East Anglia, defeated and slew him, whether in actual battle or in later martyrdom, as popular tradition would have it, is uncertain. The death of St Edmund, king and martyr, soon became an event of European fame and no Viking leader was more widely execrated than the cruel Ívarr, who was deemed responsible. The turn of Wessex came next. The fortunes of battle fluctuated but the accounts usually terminate with the ominous words 'the Danes held possession of the battle field.' In 871, Alfred commenced his heroic struggle with the Danes and in the first year of his reign some nine pitched battles were fought, beside numerous small engagements. So keen was the West Saxon resistance that a truce was made in 871 and the Danes turned their attention to Mercia once more. London was forced to ransom itself at a heavy price and a coin of Halfdanr, probably minted in London at the time, has been found. After a hurried visit to Northumbria the _here_ settled down for the winter of 872-3 at Torksey in the Lindsey district, whence they moved in 873 to Repton in Derbyshire. They overthrew Burhred of Mercia and set up a foolish thegn of his as puppet ruler of that realm. In the winter of 874-5 the _here_ divided forces: one part went under Halfdanr to the Tyne valley, the other under Guthrum (O.N. Guðormr) to Cambridge. In 876 Halfdanr divided up the lands of Northumbria among his followers who soon ploughed and cultivated them. At the same time they did not forget their old occupations. Raids were made against the Picts and the Strathclyde Welsh, while Halfdanr soon became involved in the great struggle going on in Ireland at that time between Norsemen and Danes. This ultimately led to his death in 877 (_v. infra_, p. 58).