We, accordingly, find a long series of raids over the border,
of which only five possess any importance. In 1069-70, Malcolm (who had,
even in the Confessor's time, been in Northumberland with hostile
intent) conducted an invasion in the interests of his brother-in-law.
It is probable that this movement was intended to coincide with the
arrival of the Danish fleet a few months earlier. But Malcolm was too
late; the Danes had gone home, and, in the interval, William had himself
superintended the great harrying of the North which made Malcolm's
subsequent efforts somewhat unnecessary. The invasion is important only
as having provoked the counter-attack of the Conqueror, which led to the
renewal of the supremacy controversy. William marched into Scotland and
crossed the Forth (the first English king to do so since the unfortunate
Egfrith, who fell at Nectansmere in 685). At Abernethy, on the banks of
the Tay, Malcolm and William met, and the English Chronicle, as usual,
informs us that the King of Scots became the "man" of the English king.
But as Malcolm received from William twelve _villae_ in England, it is,
at least, doubtful whether Malcolm paid homage for these alone or also
for Lothian and Cumbria, or for either of them. There is, at all events,
no question about the _villae_. Scottish historians have not failed to
point out that the value of the homage, for whatever it was given, is
sufficiently indicated by Malcolm's dealings with Gospatric of
Northumberland, whom William dismissed as a traitor and rebel.
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