The new year saw him in Chester, Stafford, and many places in between. The Danes were soon persuaded to accept 'Dane Geld', and withdrew from the locality. The Danes then overran the Ilse of Ely and sacked Peterborough. Earl Morcar who had been lurking upon the fringes of matters and the mysterious Hereward the Wake threatened to jion forces with Swein, but William concluded a treaty with Swein allowing him to retire with his booty, which pulled the rug from under any other protagonists. All that was left was for William to finally secure his borders with Scotland and Wales.
Later writers speak of the good and bad being ruined, and there was a 'consuming famine'.
Other disturbing phrases such as 'wholesale massacre' crop up. This was then the period of the laying waste of the agricultural lands in the North. The affected districts were still ruined some seventeen years later. The famine that resulted has been estimated to have lasted for nine years. His actions definitely prevented anymore rebellious uprisings against him in that region, but at what price and what cost of the hearts of the English nation.