Stephen du Perche was the chancellor of Sicily (1166–1168) and archbishop of Palermo (1167–1168) during the early regency of his cousin, Queen Margaret of Navarre (1166–1171). His relation to her is unknown, as is his parentage. He may be a son of Robert I of Dreux, the brother of Louis VII of France. Various governments have a Chancellor who serves as some form of junior or senior minister. ... Sicily (Sicilia in Italian and Sicilian, Σικελία in Greek) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,700 sq. ... // Events Marko III succeeds Yoannis V as patriarch of Alexandria. ... // Events December 22 - Afraid that Old Cairo would be captured by the Crusaders, its Caliph orders the city set afire. ... In Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated bishop. ... Nickname: Palermu Motto: Official website: http://www. ... Events Taira no Kiyomori becomes the first samurai to be appointed Daijo Daijin, chief minister of the government of Japan Peter of Blois becomes the tutor of William II of Sicily Absalon, archbishop of Denmark, leads the first Danish synod at Lund Absalon fortifies Copenhagen William Marshal, the greatest knight... // Events December 22 - Afraid that Old Cairo would be captured by the Crusaders, its Caliph orders the city set afire. ... Marguerite of Navarre (April 11, 1492 - December 21, 1549), also known as Marguerite of Angouleme and Margaret of Navarre, was the queen consort of King Henry II of Navarre. ... // Events Marko III succeeds Yoannis V as patriarch of Alexandria. ... Events Saladin abolishes the Fatimid caliphate, restoring Sunni rule in Egypt. ... Robert I of Dreux, nicknamed the Great (c. ... Louis VII the Younger (French: Louis VII le Jeune) (1120 – September 18, 1180) was King of France from 1137 to 1180. ...

In 1166, Margaret appealed to her other cousin, Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen, to send her a family member to aid and support her in government. Coincidentally, Stephen was at that moment preparing to go on crusade to the Holy Land and so decided to visit Palermo, the capital of Sicily, for a few months. There he ended up staying for two years. He was very young at the time, described as puer and adolescens by William of Tyre, and may have still been in his teens. Nevertheless, in November, Margaret appointed him chancellor. His appointment was resented by the local nobility. His chancellorship was noted, according to Hugo Falcandus, in that he never allowed powerful men to oppress their subjects, nor ever feigned to overlook any injury done to the poor. In such a way his fame quickly spread throughout the Kingdom . . . so that men looked on him as a heaven-sent angel of consolation who had brought back the Golden Age. The opinion of Falcandus probably coincides better with that of the lower classes than Stephen's fellow aristocrats. This article is about the medieval crusades. ... The phrase The Holy Land (Arabic الأرض المقدسة, al-Arḍ ul-Muqaddasah; Hebrew ארץ הקודש: Standard Hebrew Éreẓ haQodeš, Tiberian Hebrew ʾÉreṣ haqQāḏēš; Latin Terra Sancta) generally refers to Israel, otherwise known as Palestine (sometimes including Jordan, Syria and parts of Egypt). ... Nickname: Palermu Motto: Official website: http://www. ... William of Tyre (c. ... Hugo Falcandus chronicled the reign of William I of Sicily and the minority of his son William II of Sicily, in a highly critical work entitled The History of the Tyrants of Sicily. ...

In 1167, Margaret had Stephen elected as archbishop of Palermo, the highest ecclesiastic office in the land. He was ordained by Romuald, Archbishop of Salerno, only days before his elevation and it deeply rankled the old nobless. Romulad and Richard Palmer, bishop of Syracuse, both candidates for the vacant see of Palermo themselves, were strongly opposed. But Stephen's greatest opponents was Matthew of Ajello, a notary whom he had offended the year previous. Stephen went so far as to try and seize Matthew's mail, but nothing indicating conspiracy was ever proven against the notary. Events Taira no Kiyomori becomes the first samurai to be appointed Daijo Daijin, chief minister of the government of Japan Peter of Blois becomes the tutor of William II of Sicily Absalon, archbishop of Denmark, leads the first Danish synod at Lund Absalon fortifies Copenhagen William Marshal, the greatest knight... Syracuse (Italian, Siracusa, ancient Syracusa - see also List of traditional Greek place names) is a city on the eastern coast of Sicily and the capital of the province of Syracuse, Italy. ...

In that year as well, Henry, Count of Montescaglioso, the queen's brother, returned from the peninsula on the counsel of his friends, who had goaded him into making a complaint to his sister about the rank of Stephen. Stephen won Henry over, for a while, but rumours of an affair between Stephen and Margaret was enough to push him into a conspiracy. Most of the Moslem staff of the palace and the eunuchs were involved in the plots and, on 15 December, Stephen promptly moved the court to Messina, to where he had implored his cousin Gilbert, Count of Gravina, to go with an army. The plotters, led by Matthew of Ajello and Gentile, Bishop of Agrigento, went to Messina, but Henry, for reasons unknown, gave them up to a local judge. At a meeting of the entire court, Gilbert accused Henry of treason and the latter was imprisoned in Reggio. By allowing Matthew to go free, however, Stephen prepared the way for future plots against his life. December 15 is the 349th day of the year (350th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Messina, Italy Strait of Messina, Italy. ... Reggio is the name of two Italian towns: Reggio Emilia, in the North, sometimes called Reggio nell Emilia or, in ancient times, Reggio di Lombardia or Reggio di Modena Reggio Calabria, in the South (also called Reggio di Calabria) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other...

In March 1168, Stephen and his entourage, including the king, William II, and queen regent, arrived in Palermo, where the conspirators had already arrived. This time, Matthew was imprisoned and Gentile fled. He was arrested in Agrigento. But, though the Arabs of Palermo had been soothed, the Messinan Greeks had been riled by the past months and a rebellion consequently broke out in that city (on account of the criminal practices of one of Stephen's friends, Odo Quarrel). There, a mob commandeered some ships and sailed to Reggio, there to force the release of Henry of Montescaglioso. After Henry's arrival in Messina, Odo was arrested and brutally executed and all the Frenchman of the city massacred: an inglorious prélude to the more widespread Sicilian Vespers of 1282. Stephen prepared an army (largely of Lombards from the region of Etna) and was ready to march on Messina when the young king postponed the campaign on astrological grounds. // Events December 22 - Afraid that Old Cairo would be captured by the Crusaders, its Caliph orders the city set afire. ... William II (1153 - 1189), king of Sicily, was only thirteen years old at the death of his father William I when he was placed under the regency of his mother, Marguerite of Navarre. ... Agrigento (formerly Girgenti) is the name of a town on the southern coast of Italy, capital of the province of Agrigento. ... Sicilian Vespers (1846), by Francesco Hayez The Sicilian Vespers is the name given to a rebellion in Sicily in 1282 against the rule of the Angevin king Charles I, who had taken control of the island with Papal support in 1266. ... For broader historical context, see 1280s and 13th century. ... The Lombards (Latin Langobardi, from which the alternative name Longobards found in older English texts), were a Germanic people originally from Northern Europe that entered the late Roman Empire. ... For other meanings of Etna, see Etna (disambiguation). ...

Matthew of Ajello, from prison, had organised the rebellion in Palermo and, seeing his opportunity, struck. The chancellor-archbishop was forced to take refuge in the campanile, there he held out until offered terms. In return for his safety, he agreed to embark at once for the Holy Land. He was deposed as archbishop and Walter of the Mill was elected to replace him. Gilbert of Gravina and his family were forced to do the same and they all left for the Kingdom of Jerusalem. St. ... Official language Latin, French, Italian, and other western languages; Greek and Arabic also widely spoken Capital Jerusalem, later Acre Constitution Various laws, so-called Assizes of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Christian kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 by the First Crusade. ...

He arrived in Jerusalem the summer of 1169 and soon fell ill and died. According to William of Tyre, "he was buried with honour in Jerusalem in the chapter-house of the Temple of the Lord." Events Nur ad-Din invades Egypt, and his nephew Saladin becomes the sultan over the territory conquered by Nur ad-Din. ... William of Tyre (c. ...

Sources

• William of Tyre. Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum. [1] at Patrologia Latina.
• Norwich, John Julius. The Kingdom in the Sun 1130-1194. Longman: London, 1970.