Henry, Count of Montescaglioso
Encyclopedia
Marguerite de l'Aigle
Marguerite de l'Aigle was a daughter of Gilbert de l'Aigle, Seigneur de l'Aigle and his wife Juliana du Perche. She was Queen consort of Navarre, by her marriage to García Ramírez of Navarre.- Family :...
, and brother of Queen Margaret of Sicily, who made him Count of Montescaglioso (1166) and then Count of the Principate (1168).
Arrival in Sicily (1166)
The chief primary source for Henry's life is the Sicilian court chronicler known as “Hugo FalcandusHugo Falcandus
Hugo Falcandus was an Italian historian who chronicled the reign of William I of Sicily and the minority of his son William II in a highly critical work entitled The History of the Tyrants of Sicily . There is some doubt as to whether "Hugo Falcandus" is a real name or a pseudonym. Evelyn Jamison...
”. He is an extremely unfriendly source to Henry. He reports the rumour that Henry was never acknowledged as a son by the Navarrese king and was considered a bastard, the product of one the queen's affairs. This is contradicted by the actions of his sister, who always treated him as a full brother of royal blood. Falcandus sums up Henry's appearance (short and swarthy) and character thus:
This Henry was low in stature, had a thin beard and a disagreeably dark complexion. He was rash and maladroit in conversation, a man interested only by dice and gambling, and he had no other desire than to have a playmate and money to lose.
Upon his arrival in Sicily Margaret made him change his name from Rodrigo (Latin Rodericus), which sounded strange to the local nobility, to the more palatable Henry (Latin Henricus).
Henry arrived in the kingdom of Sicily between May and September 1166. His sister had been, since the death of her husband, William I of Sicily
William I of Sicily
William I , called the Bad or the Wicked, was the second king of Sicily, ruling from his father's death in 1154 to his own...
, regent in the name of her young son, William II
William II of Sicily
William II , called the Good, was king of Sicily from 1166 to 1189. William's character is very indistinct. Lacking in military enterprise, secluded and pleasure-loving, he seldom emerged from his palace life at Palermo. Yet his reign is marked by an ambitious foreign policy and a vigorous diplomacy...
. In May or a short time after, perhaps before his arrival, he was married to Adelasia, an illegitimate daughter of Roger II
Roger II of Sicily
Roger II was King of Sicily, son of Roger I of Sicily and successor to his brother Simon. He began his rule as Count of Sicily in 1105, later became Duke of Apulia and Calabria , then King of Sicily...
and thus his sister's sister-in-law. On this occasion he was invested with Montescaglioso
Montescaglioso
Montescaglioso is a town and comune in the Province of Matera, Basilicata, southern Italy.The economy is mostly based on agriculture, including production of renowned oil and wine, as well as traditional food....
on the mainland, probably to keep him out of court politics. He was also given the fiefs of Noto
Noto
Noto is a city and comune in the Province of Syracuse, Sicily . Its located 32 km southwest of the city of Syracuse at the foot of the Iblean Mountains and gives its name to the surrounding valley, Val di Noto...
, Sclafani
Sclafani
Sclafani is an Italian surname originary of Sicily.- Coat of arms :The Sclafani coat of arms is divided in half and bears two cranes facing one another, inversely colored in argent to signify peace, and sable to signify jewels, specifically the diamond...
and Caltanissetta
Caltanissetta
Caltanissetta is a city and comune located on the western interior of Sicily, capital of the province of Caltanissetta...
on the island, territories which had been governed by Geoffrey, the previous Count of Montescaglioso, before his imprisonment for taking part in the rebellion of 1155–56.
Henry first paid a visit to Palermo
Palermo
Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...
, the capital and the location of his nephew's court. There "he would spend wildly, with neither forethought nor consideration" and squander his money, creating such a poor reputation that he was forced to leave for Messina on the opposite end of the island. There too he gambled and fell in with criminals, so that the queen was forced to order him to leave the island and go to Montescaglioso.
First revolt and imprisonment (1167–68)
In the summer of 1167, Henry returned to Palermo in order to obtain a part in the government of the whole kingdom. According to Falcandus, he went at the instigation of his friends, who thought that he, as a royal prince, deserved the highest secular office, the chancellorship, then occupied by Richard, Count of MoliseRichard, Count of Molise
Richard of Mandra was a Norman nobleman in the Kingdom of Sicily appointed count of Molise and chancellor by the queen regent Margaret of Navarre.In 1157, as the constable of Robert II of Bassunvilla, he was captured by King William I...
. By the summer Stephen du Perche
Stephen du Perche
Stephen du Perche was the chancellor of the Kingdom of Sicily and Archbishop of Palermo during the early regency of his cousin, Queen Margaret of Navarre ....
, his and Margaret's cousin, had replaced Richard. Stephen quickly befriended Henry, but some "Spanish knights" (milites hispanos), Henry's entourage who had travelled with him from Navarre, accused the chancellor of having an affair with the queen. Henry was not so easily persuaded, as Falcandus records:
He responded that he was ignorant of French, which was most necessary at court, and that his experience was not sufficient; that he should commit to the government of the chancellor, who was wise and prudent, as well as noble, despite his affair with the queen.
Stephen and Henry appear to have been the leaders, willingly or unwillingly, of two opposed court factions seeking to dominate the regency. Eventually the rumours of incest convinced the count of Montescaglioso to act. He initially accused the chancellor before the king, his nephew, but to no effect. Soon a conspiracy against the detested Stephen had drawn him in.
On 15 December 1167, when Stephen had the court moved temporarily to Messina, Henry remained at Palermo to lead the conspirators, whose ranks included Matthew of Ajello
Matthew of Ajello
Matthew of Ajello was a high-ranking member of the Norman court of the Kingdom of Sicily in the 12th century.He first appears as the notary of the Admiral Maio of Bari who drew up the Treaty of Benevento of 1156...
, the gaito or judge Richard and Bishop Gentile of Agrigento. When the court returned to Palermo shortly after 12 March 1168, its last session in Messina, Henry demanded, in council, the Principality of Taranto
Principality of Taranto
The Principality of Taranto was a state in southern Italy created in 1088 for Bohemond I, eldest son of Robert Guiscard, as part of the peace between him and his younger brother Roger Borsa after a dispute over the succession to the Duchy of Apulia....
, which had been confiscated from Simon
Simon, Prince of Taranto
Simon, bastard son of Roger II of Sicily, was created by his father Prince of Taranto in 1144, on the death of Roger III, Duke of Apulia, the eldest legitimate son of Roger II....
, an illegitimate son of Roger II, and all of Simon's other lands. Then, Gilbert, Count of Gravina
Gilbert, Count of Gravina
Gilbert was a Norman Count of Gravina from 1159.He was a cousin of Margaret of Navarre, the queen of Sicily. He arrived in Sicily sometime around 1159 and, through Margaret's influence, was created Count of Gravina in Apulia immediately....
, another cousin of Henry and Margaret, rose in council, denounced the count and accused him of treason. The charge was easily established, as Henry had admitted the conspiracy to a judge of Messina a short time before. He was promptly arrested and interned in Reggio di Calabria, while the "Spanish knights" who had accompanied him were given a day to leave Sicily, which they did.
Second revolt (1168)
After Henry's imprisonment, Margaret offered him 1,000 gold ducatDucat
The ducat is a gold coin that was used as a trade coin throughout Europe before World War I. Its weight is 3.4909 grams of .986 gold, which is 0.1107 troy ounce, actual gold weight...
s if he would return to Navarre and promise never to set foot in Sicily again. She assigned a certain French priest, Odo Quarrel, a canon of Chartres Cathedral who had come to Sicily in the following of Stephen du Perche, to escort Henry back to Navarre. He was in Messina, preparing seven galleys for the departure when, on 31 March, Easter Sunday, the Messinans, who despised the chancellor, revolted. Odo was captured and the galleys were commandeered across the strait to Reggio, where Henry was released upon their demand. The citizens rowed him back to Messina as the leader of a second insurrection against his cousin.
Henry's brief rule of Messina was marked by bloodshed. He unjailed Odo and handed him over to the people, who executed him. He also failed to prevent a massacre of all the French in the city. He successfully worked to spread the rebellion, which was openly directed against the regime of the chancellor, throughout the island. By the summer Stephen was forced to go into exile. Henry returned triumphant to Palermo with twenty or twenty-four galleys. Richard, the count of Molise, disembarked with him. Historian John Norwich
John Julius Norwich
John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich CVO — known as John Julius Norwich — is an English historian, travel writer and television personality.-Early life:...
believed that Henry was offered a second sum of money by the queen to return to Navarre, which this time he accepted, but Norwich's assertion that he appears no more in Italian history is false.
Rule of the Principate
In July 1168 Henry was invested with the Principate and formally made submission in order to obtain it. In a document dated 8 December he is titled "by the grace of GodBy the Grace of God
By the Grace of God is an introductory part of the full styles of a monarch taken to be ruling by divine right, not a title in its own right....
and the king Count of the Principate and brother of the Lady Queen Margaret". Henry only appears in two more document, one of 1170, the other, his last appearance, of July 1173. He was dead by September 1177, when his widow, Adelasia, is cited in a dating clause as regent in the Principate for her son, Henry's heir, William IV. Adelasia continued in the regency for almost two decades. Another charter of 1179 also mentions her husband. The first recorded instance of William ruling in his own right dates to April 1195.
Further reading
- E. Cuozzo. "Milites e testes nella contea normanna di Principato". Bullettino dell'Istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo, LXXXVIII (1979), 161ff.