e policy of William the Good, were
court-conspiracies of a kind common enough at Constantinople. In
this court life men of letters and erudition played a first part
three centuries before Petrarch taught the princes of Italy to
respect the pen of a poet.

[1] The English Gualterio Offamilio, or Walter of the
Mill, Archbishop of Palermo during the reign of William
the Good, by his intrigues brought about the match between
Constance and Henry VI. Richard Palmer at the same time
was Bishop of Syracuse. Stephen des Rotrous, a Frenchman
of the Counts of Perche, preceded Walter of the Mill in
the Arch See of Palermo.

[2] Frederick Barbarossa's soldiers are said to have
bidden the Romans: 'Take this German iron in change for
Arab gold. This pay your master gives you, and this is how
Franks win empire.'--_Amari_, vol. iii. p. 468.

[3] The embroidered skullcap of Constance of Aragon, wife
of Frederick II., in the sacristy of the cathedral at
Palermo, is made of gold thread thickly studded with
pearls and jewels--rough sapphires and carbuncles, among
which may be noticed a red cornelian engraved in Arabic
with this sentence, 'In Christ, God, I put my hope.'

[4] The Arabic title of _Kaid_, which originally was given
to a subordinate captain of the guard, took a wide
significance at the Norman Court. Latinised to _gaytus_,
and Grecised under the form of [Greek: kaitos], it
frequently occurs in chronicles and diplomas to denote a
high minister of state. Matteo of Ajello, who exercised so
powerful an influence over the policy of William the Good,
heading the Mussulman and national party against the great
ecclesiastics who were intriguing to draw Sicily into the
entanglements of European diplomacy, was a Kaid. Matteo
favoured the cause of Tancred, Walter of the Mill espoused
that of the Germans, during the war of succession which
followed upon William's death. The barons of the realm had
to range themselves under these two leaders--to such an
extent were the affairs of state in Sicily within the
grasp of courtiers and churchmen.

King Roger, of whom the court geographer Edrisi writes that 'he did
more sleeping than any other man waking,' was surrounded during his
leisure moments, beneath the palm-groves of Favara, with musicians,
historians, travellers, mathematicians, poets, and astrologers o