Henry, Count of Montescaglioso

He was also given the fiefs of Noto, Sclafani and 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.

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.

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 Molise.

[4] 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.

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, the gaito or judge Richard and Bishop Gentile of Agrigento.

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.

[3] 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.

In a document dated 8 December he is titled "by the grace of God and the king Count of the Principate and brother of the Lady Queen Margaret".

He was dead by September 1177, when his widow is cited in a dating clause as regent in the Principate for her son, Henry's heir, William IV.

Era avventato e maldestro nella conversazione, uomo cui interessava solo il giuoco dei dadi e d'azzardo, e che non aveva altro desiderio se non di avere un compagno di giuoco e molto denaro da perdere.Quibus ille Francorum se linguam ignorare, que maxime necessaria esset in curia, nec eius esse, respondebat, industrie ut oneri tanto sufficeret; cancellario curam hanc rectissime debere committi, qui discretus esset et prudens summeque nobilis, regi quoque nichilominus ac regine non dubia propinquitate coniunctus.