In 917, the group of Danes who had previously been based in Huntingdon relocated to Tempsford, together with other Danes from East Anglia. They built and fortified a new burh there, to serve as a forward base for attacks on English territory. Later that year, after launching an unsuccessful attack on Bedford, they were attacked by an English army led by King Edward the Elder, as part of his widespread offensive which in that year overwhlemed the Danish territories in East Anglia and south-eastern Mercia.