Although he was now released from the interdict, William found too much occupation, in attending to the internal dissensions of his own kingdom, to attempt any interference in the quarrels between Henry and his sons. Mac William in the north was still unsubdued, whilst Gilbert of Galloway openly invaded the Lothians, plundering the country, massacring the inhabitants, and refusing to listen to any terms of accommodation. [Sidenote: A. D. 1184.] Such was the state of disorder created by the Galwegians, that in the year 1184 William had assembled an army to repress the outrages of Gilbert, when the return of Henry from Normandy induced him to alter his intentions, and, dismissing his followers, he hastened southwards to meet the English king. Mingled motives may have dictated this change of purpose, though, as a vassal of the English crown, he was not strictly justified in avenging himself upon another vassal without the license of his superior; but at this time particularly, he was anxious to avoid every cause of quarrel with Henry, for the Duchess of Saxony had arrived in the train of her father from Normandy, and William was a suitor for the hand of her daughter Matilda. Simon de St. Liz also, upon whom the Honor of Huntingdon had been conferred, had lately died without an heir, and the Scottish king was equally on his guard lest any misunderstanding should interfere with his claims upon his former fief.[433] Henry readily promised his consent to the proposed union if a papal dispensation could be obtained, but though the relationship was somewhat distant--for Matilda was eight degrees removed from William according to the old computation of the civil law, though only four by the later canonical method of reckoning--the pope refused compliance, and from subsequent occurrences it is not improbable that Henry was secretly opposed to the marriage. As a set off to the failure of his suit with Matilda, the forfeiture of Huntingdon was reversed, and though several of the English barons put forward pretensions to the fief, [Sidenote: A. D. 1185.] offering large sums of money for its possession, it was restored by Henry to the Scottish king, who immediately sub-infeoffed it to his brother David.[434]