Edwy's triumph was, however, exceedingly brief. In the year 957 all England north of the Thames rebelled against him, and chose Edgar, his brother, to be their king. Dunstan, who probably was by no means unacquainted with what was going on, was immediately recalled, and in a very short space of time made Bishop of Rochester and of London. In the following year the Archbishop of Canterbury compelled Edwy to put away his wife, and in 959 Edwy died. There is a story that the unhappy Ælfgifu was branded on the forehead, and banished to Ireland; from which place of exile when she ventured to return, she was seized by her priestly persecutor and hamstrung, of which outrage she died at Gloucester. This repellent tale, however, rests on indifferent authority, and can be at once rejected. Edwy dying without issue, his brother Edgar was elected as his successor, and thus united the two kingdoms once more. He was known as the "Peaceable," and the kingdom enjoyed under him a tranquillity to which it had long been unaccustomed. Acting with wise foresight he kept up a large fleet, so that the Danes were not able to land, and we read that he punished malefactors with great severity. His chief war was with the Welsh, who refused to pay tribute, and it was completely successful. William of Malmesbury tells us that Edgar, in order to free the country from the wolves which infested it, commuted the tribute of the Welsh into three hundred wolves' heads, and granted a pardon to criminals on condition that each one within a given time brought in a certain number. In three years, he continues, the tribute was remitted because no more wolves were to be found; a statement which it is impossible to believe, as wolves were plentiful in England and Wales for many a year afterwards. He also broke up Northumberland into the old divisions of Bernicia and Deira, and granted Lothian to Kenneth, King of the Scots, to be held by him in homage. It was after this that the Scottish kings came to live in the south of their kingdom, and made Edinburgh its capital. For some reason Edgar was not crowned until he had reigned thirteen years. Shortly after the ceremony he visited Chester, and it is said--though the incident is possibly of a legendary character--that he was rowed on the Dee from the city to the minster of St. John by his eight vassal kings, Kenneth of Scotland, Malcolm of Cumberland, Maccus of the Isles, and five Welsh princes.