Margaret of Navarre

According to the Palermitan archivist Isidoro La Lumia, she was, in her later years, bella ancora, superba, leggiera ("still beautiful, proud, light").

This was done and, on the day of William II's coronation, Margaret declared a general amnesty throughout the realm, which covered rebellious barons such as Tancred nephew of her husband.

With this, Margaret was forced to declare her traitorous cousin Gilbert catapan of Apulia and Campania and send him to the peninsula to prepare for the coming invasion of Frederick Barbarossa.

At this juncture, the queen mother's popularity, secured by such populist early acts as mentioned above, had abated considerably and she was known in the street as "the Spanish woman."

Rodrigo, whom bade change his name to Henry, was commonly thought to be a bastard son of Margaret de l'Aigle and King García never recognised him.

In 1167, Margaret did her best to send aid (in the form of money) to the besieged Pope Alexander III in Rome, then opposing their common enemy, the Emperor Barbarossa.

Her brother Henry arrived in Sicily at the same time and bred new trouble by accusing the queen mother of being under the spell of her lover Richard, Count of Molise.

His friends soon convinced him to point the finger at the incestuous Stephen du Perche, equally innocent as Richard of Molise.

Thomas also wrote to Richard Palmer, bishop of Syracuse, petitioning him, an opponent of any other candidate for the Palermitan see besides himself, to work for the cause of the queen mother and Stephen.

In a perception based on earlier historiography, John Julius Norwich spoke of her "total unfitness to govern," but the success of Stephen during his short tenure is undeniable and she is primarily blamed for her refusal to see the disaffection her relatives caused the local nobility.

Jacqueline Alio, her biographer, gives Margaret credit for competent rule in trying circumstances, identifying her as the greatest Sicilian queen of the Norman-Swabian era.