[158] In the beginning of the century Uchtred, the son of Waltheof, seems to have married and put away his wives without the slightest scruple, nor could bishop Ealdun procure a permanent husband for his daughter Egfreda even by alienating the lands of his see in her favour. Twice was she divorced in spite of her dowry, and neither the bishop nor the chronicler who records these proceedings appear to have regarded them as extraordinary. _Sim. Dun. Twysden_, p. 79. [159] _Sim. Dun. de Gestis_ 1070. _Vit. St. Marg._ Edgar and his family appear to have left Scotland in 1069, and to have returned thither in the following year. [160] Such appears to be the meaning of the expression of the Chronicler, “he found nothing there for which he was the better,” _Chron. Sax._ 1072. Compare _Wendover ad. an._ 1072. [161] Edgar, according to the Chron. Sax., returned to Scotland from Flanders in 1074, and he probably sought refuge in the latter country at the approach of William. [162] Lord Hailes, vol. 1, p. 17, thinks it improbable that Abernethy on the Tay can be the place intended, from its lying out of William’s probable route. He appears, however, to have forgotten that all the early invaders of Scotland who combined a fleet with their land force--and none else were successful--must have held their course _along the coast_, or their fleet would have been useless. Abernethy, according to Ailred, was _in Scotia_ (_Twysden_, p. 340), or beyond the Forth, and it was exactly because William had succeeded in penetrating into the heart of the real kingdom of Scotland that Malcolm came to terms. [163] _Chron. Sax._ 1072. _Sim. Dun. de Gestis_ 1072–1087. _An. Ult._ 1072. It may be gathered from _Sim. Dun. de Gestis_ 1091, that Malcolm held twelve manors of William and received a yearly payment of twelve marks of gold, and as the kings only met once, these grants must have been made on this occasion. The homage of Malcolm would appear to have been _simple_ not _liege_, for he never seems to have been called upon to perform any feudal service; whilst his subsequent repudiation of the demands of Rufus shows that the homage was not rendered for the kingdom of Scotland, but was simply the feudal recognition of his subsidy. In short, the meeting appears to have resulted in a compromise, William endeavouring to secure the peace of his northern borders by what in the present age would take the form of a pension or subsidy, then conferred as a feudal grant, for which Malcolm performed homage, giving up his son as a hostage for his faithful observance of the treaty. _Vide Appendix L_, part 2. [164] _Sim. Dun. de Gestis_ 1072. _Malm. Gesta. Regum_, l. 3, sec. 253. [165] _Sim. Dun. de Gestis_ 1073. _Chron. Sax._ 1074. _Malm. Gest. Reg._, l. 3, sec. 251.