> From the King that brought you the Harrying of the North comes a contract to treat London nice…

Your own link points out that he tried paying the northerners off first.

Portreeve:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portreeve

Not the last time we were sold out by London.

I wonder how much of a concept or identity England/English was to any given local compared to their local loyalties, regional lords and etc.

land, language, culture -- bonds that apply from local to city-state .. once it scales up then law, economic roles .. offhand