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Thomas Brun
Thomas Brun, also le Brun or Brown, was son or nephew of William Brun (first to bear the name Le Brun), a clerk of Henry I of England. He travelled to Sicily as a child in the entourage of Robert of Selby about the year 1130. He first appears in a document in Sicily in 1137. Thomas was a ''kaid'', or ''magister'', of the royal Diwan (title), Diwan throughout the reign of Roger II, whose favour he certainly had. His name appears in many official documents and it was probably he who drafted the foundation charter of the Cappella Palatina. He is known to have had a secretary named Othman, named in an Arabic source. He appears in charters in Latin, Greek, and Arabic. The Greek transcription of his name and title was ''μαστρο Θωμα του Βρουνου''. Upon the succession of William I of Sicily, William I in 1154, Thomas was removed from office (possibly by the Emir Maio of Bari) and returned to England. There he became the almoner to Henry II of England, Henry II. Source ...
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Henry I Of England
Henry I (c. 1068 – 1 December 1135), also known as Henry Beauclerc, was King of England from 1100 to his death in 1135. He was the fourth son of William the Conqueror and was educated in Latin and the liberal arts. On William's death in 1087, Henry's elder brothers Robert Curthose and William Rufus inherited Normandy and England, respectively, but Henry was left landless. He purchased the County of Cotentin in western Normandy from Robert, but his brothers deposed him in 1091. He gradually rebuilt his power base in the Cotentin and allied himself with William Rufus against Robert. Present at the place where his brother William died in a hunting accident in 1100, Henry seized the English throne, promising at his coronation to correct many of William's less popular policies. He married Matilda of Scotland and they had two surviving children, Empress Matilda and William Adelin; he also had many illegitimate children by his many mistresses. Robert, who invaded from Normandy ...
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Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = Sicilian , demographics1_info1 = 98% , demographics1_title2 = , demographics1_info2 = , demographics1_title3 = , demographics1_info3 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = CEST , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal_code_type = , postal_code = , area_code_type = ISO 3166 code , area_code = IT-82 , blank_name_sec1 = GDP (nominal) , blank_info_sec1 = €89.2 billion (2018) , blank1_name_sec1 = GDP per capita , blank1_info_sec1 ...
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Robert Of Selby
Robert of Selby (or Salebia) (died 1152) was an Englishman, a courtier of Roger II and chancellor of the Kingdom of Sicily. It is likely that his name indicates that he was from Selby in Yorkshire. He probably journeyed to Sicily about 1130. In his train was Thomas Brun. In 1137, he was appointed governor of Campania shortly before Salerno, the capital of Campania, was besieged by Count Ranulf of Alife, Duke Henry the Proud, and Prince Robert II of Capua, with the troops of the Emperor Lothair II. Robert stayed in Salerno to defend the city while Roger was in the island capital Palermo. With the cause hopeless, Robert advised the city to surrender and beg imperial protection to prevent a sack by the eager Pisans. The citizens did so and Robert of Selby left to organise the defence of the rest of the province. In 1143, when Pope Innocent II refused to recognise the Treaty of Mignano, Robert of Selby marched on papal Benevento. The Beneventans argued that their royal charter was being ...
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Kaid
Qaid ( ar , قائد ', "commander"; pl. '), also spelled kaid or caïd, is a word meaning "commander" or "leader." It was a title in the Norman kingdom of Sicily, applied to palatine officials and members of the ''curia'', usually to those who were Muslims or converts to Islam. The word entered the Latin language as lat, gaitus or lat, gaytus. Later the word was used in North Africa for the governor of a fortress or the warden of a prison, also in Spain and Portugal in the form with the definite article "alcayde" (Spanish) "alcaide" (Portuguese). It is also used as a male Arabic given name. Notable qaids * Al Qaid Johar (active 950–992), A Slavic general who conquered Maghreb for the Fatimid Imam-Caliph, Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah; and later served as the Viceroy of the Fatimid State. *Thomas Brun (active 1137–1154), Englishman who served Roger II of Sicily *Ahmed es-Sikeli, known as Caid Peter (active 1160s), eunuch in the court of Sicily, confidant of Margaret of Navar ...
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Diwan (title)
''Dewan'' (also known as ''diwan'', sometimes spelled ''devan'' or ''divan'') designated a powerful government official, minister, or ruler. A ''dewan'' was the head of a state institution of the same name (see Divan). Diwans belonged to the elite families in the history of Mughal and post-Mughal India and held high posts within the government. Etymology The word is Persian in origin and was loaned into Arabic. The original meaning was "bundle (of written sheets)", hence "book", especially "book of accounts," and hence "office of accounts," "custom house," "council chamber". The meaning of the word, ''divan'' "long, cushioned seat" is due to such seats having been found along the walls in Middle Eastern council chambers. It is a common surname among Sikhs in Punjab. Council The word first appears under the Caliphate of Omar I (A.D. 634–644). As the Caliphate state became more complicated, the term was extended over all the government bureaus. The ''divan of the Sublime P ...
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Roger II
Roger II ( it, Ruggero II; 22 December 1095 – 26 February 1154) was King of Sicily and Africa, son of Roger I of Sicily and successor to his brother Simon. He began his rule as Count of Sicily in 1105, became Duke of Apulia and Calabria in 1127, then King of Sicily in 1130 and King of Africa in 1148. By the time of his death at the age of 58, Roger had succeeded in uniting all the Norman conquests in Italy into one kingdom with a strong centralized government. Background By 999, Norman adventurers had arrived in southern Italy. By 1016, they were involved in the complex local politics, where Lombards were fighting against the Byzantine Empire. As mercenaries they fought the enemies of the Italian city-states, sometimes fighting for the Byzantines and sometimes against them, but in the following century they gradually became the rulers of the major polities south of Rome. Roger I ruled the County of Sicily at the time of the birth of his youngest son, Roger, at Mileto ...
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Cappella Palatina
The Palatine Chapel ( it, Cappella Palatina) is the royal chapel of the Norman Palace in Palermo, Sicily. This building is a mixture of Byzantine, Norman and Fatimid architectural styles, showing the tricultural state of Sicily during the 12th century after Roger I and Robert Guiscard conquered the island. Also referred to as a ''Palace church'' or ''Palace chapel'', it was commissioned by Roger II of Sicily in 1132 to be built upon an older chapel (now the crypt) constructed around 1080. It took eight years to build, receiving a royal charter the same year, with the mosaics being only partially finished by 1143. The sanctuary, dedicated to Saint Peter, is reminiscent of a domed basilica. It has three apses, as is usual in Byzantine architecture, with six pointed arches (three on each side of the central nave) resting on recycled classical columns. The muqarnas ceiling of the nave and the chapel's rectilinear form show the Fatimid influence in the building's construction M ...
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William I Of Sicily
William I (1120 or 1121May 7, 1166), called the Bad or the Wicked ( scn, Gugghiermu lu Malu), was the second king of Sicily, ruling from his father's death in 1154 to his own in 1166. He was the fourth son of Roger II and Elvira of Castile. William's title "the Bad" seems little merited and expresses the bias of the historian Hugo Falcandus and the baronial class against the king and the official class by whom he was guided. Early life William was the son of King Roger II of Sicily, grandson of Count Roger I of Sicily, and great-grandson of Tancred of Hauteville. He grew up with little expectation of ruling. The deaths of his three older brothers Roger, Tancred, and Alfonso between 1138 and 1148 changed matters, though when his father died William was still not well-prepared to take his place. Kingship On assuming power, William kept the administration which had guided his father's rule for his final years. Only the Englishman Thomas Brun was removed, and the chancellor Ma ...
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Maio Of Bari
Maio of Bari ( it, Maione da Bari) (died 10 November 1160) was the third of the great admirals of Sicily and the most important man in the Norman kingdom of Sicily during the reign of William I (1154–66). Lord Norwich calls him "one of the most influential statesmen in Europe." Rise to the rank of admiral Maio was born in the first decades of the twelfth century to Leo of Rayza and Kuraza, members of the urban upper class in Bari. Leo is documented as a judge in Bari between 1119 and 1135, as a royal justice from 1141 and as a ''regalis supra iudex'' ("royal superior judge") or ''protoiudex'' ("first judge") from 1142 to 1147. He was dead by 1155. The death of Maio's mother, Kuraza, is recorded in the necrology of the cathedral of Salerno as falling on 26 July 1158. The contemporary '' Liber de regno sicilie'', a partisan source, falsely claims that Maio was the son of an oil merchant. In his ''Chronicle and Annals'', Romuald Guarna (died 1181/2), a partisan of the other side, ...
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Almoner
An almoner (} ' (alms), via the popular Latin '. History Christians have historically been encouraged to donate one-tenth of their income as a tithe to their church and additional offerings as needed for the poor. The first deacons, mentioned in Acts 6:1–4, dealt with the distribution of the charity of the early Christian churches to needy members. Popes, bishops and Christian monarchs and organizations have since employed their own officers to organize their donations to the poor and needy. Such donations were referred to as alms and the officers as almoners and the position was one of considerable status. Roman Catholic Church The papal almoner, formally titled the "Almoner of His Holiness", is responsible for performing works of mercy on behalf of the pope. He is one of a small number of Vatican officials who continue in office when a pope dies or resigns. Until June 2022, he was a member of the papal household; since then he heads the Dicastery for the Service of Chari ...
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Henry II Of England
Henry II (5 March 1133 – 6 July 1189), also known as Henry Curtmantle (french: link=no, Court-manteau), Henry FitzEmpress, or Henry Plantagenet, was King of England from 1154 until his death in 1189, and as such, was the first Angevin king of England. King Louis VII of France made him Duke of Normandy in 1150. Henry became Count of Anjou and Maine upon the death of his father, Count Geoffrey V, in 1151. His marriage in 1152 to Eleanor of Aquitaine, former spouse of Louis VII, made him Duke of Aquitaine. He became Count of Nantes by treaty in 1158. Before he was 40, he controlled England; large parts of Wales; the eastern half of Ireland; and the western half of France, an area that was later called the Angevin Empire. At various times, Henry also partially controlled Scotland and the Duchy of Brittany. Henry became politically involved by the age of 14 in the efforts of his mother Matilda, daughter of Henry I of England, to claim the English throne, then occupied b ...
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John Julius Norwich
John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich, (15 September 1929 – 1 June 2018), known as John Julius Norwich, was an English popular historian, travel writer, and television personality. Background Norwich was born at the Alfred House Nursing Home on Portland Place in Marylebone, London, on 15 September 1929. He was the son of Conservative politician and diplomat Duff Cooper, later Viscount Norwich, and of Lady Diana Manners, a celebrated beauty and society figure. He was given the name "Julius" in part because he was born by caesarean section. Such was his mother's fame as an actress and beauty that the birth attracted a crowd outside the nursing home and hundreds of letters of congratulations. Through his father, he was descended from King William IV and his mistress Dorothea Jordan. He was educated at Egerton House School in Dorset Square, London, later becoming a boarder at the school when it was evacuated to Northamptonshire before the outbreak of the Second World War. ...
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