He was granted the fief by Tancred of Lecce, then King of Sicily, for his service as admiral for the Kingdom, known at the time as ammiratus ammiratorum.
The title was granted in 1192, perhaps for his unexpected success in capturing Empress Constance the contender for Sicilian crown against Tancred.
In 1194, Margaritus then lost his fiefs, including Malta, when Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor, husband of Constance, took control of the Kingdom of Sicily by military invasion.
It is also attested that he was a conspirator along with Markward von Annweiler, in an attempt to remove the young Frederick II from the throne.
[3] Henry, Count of Malta inherited the fief from Guglielmo Grasso in 1203, apparently because he was his son-in-law and the latter had no sons.
During the period of Abbate's term in office, there was written one of the most well known and important documents from the time: the report of Giliberto Abbate.,[5][6] It seems that Niccolò lost the fief in 1266, when the Kingdom of Sicily was conquered by Charles I of Anjou.
[7] Apparently it was in this period that the local nobility started to form, which is attested by a number of petitions sent to the crown.
[8] In 1282, during the Sicilian Vespers uprising, it appears that the island was easily taken over by the Crown of Aragon, with local aid.
Aragonese control initially excluded the Castrum Maris, which did not fall until 1283, following after the naval Battle of Malta.
[9] In 1300, Roger of Lauria was given the title of Count of Malta by the Kingdom of Naples, after loss of support in the King of Sicily's fleet .
In 1350, Louis, King of Sicily incorporated the islands to the royal domain, apparently after petitioning from the local nobility.
Manfredi Chiaramonte served as Admiral for the King of Sicily, Captain of Djerba and the Kerkenna Islands, and Count of Modica.
He was finally removed from power following an invasion of Malta from an allied force of the Genoese and Sicilian navies.
Andrea Chiaramonte was executed in 1392, having been accused as a major conspirator in the anti-Aragonese unrest during the early reign of Maria, Queen of Sicily.
Guglielmo Raimond Moncada ceded the fiefdom back to the crown, so it could be used in negotiations with Artale II Alagona.
He controlled the fief until 1396, after which King Martin I once again gave the islands back to Guglielmo Riamondo Moncada.
[21] The tension remained until 1427 when Alfonso V decided that the Universita could buy the fief if they could pay the fee that Monroy paid in 1421.
The fee amounted to 30,000 Aragonese florins over 4 months, an effectively impossible task for both the poor population of the island and the relatively wealthy local nobility.
Viceroy Muntayans held onto the worth of 15,000 Aragonese florins in seized Maltese assets in Sicily.
The period of dominion status for Malta and Gozo than came to an end in 1530 when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor ceded the islands to the Knights Hospitaller.
The leaders of the Hospitallers agreed to pay tribute to the Viceroy of Sicily, but they were not given the title of Count or Marquise of Malta, ending the existence of the County.