[citation needed] The real power in the kingdom was at first exercised by Maio, a man of low birth, whose title ammiratus ammiratorum was the highest in the realm.

Maio continued Roger's policy of excluding the nobles from the administration and that was one of the most hated laws made by a ruler in The Middle Ages, and sought also to curtail the liberties of the towns.

These diplomatic successes were probably due to Maio; on the other hand, the African dominions were lost to the Almohads, and it is possible that he advised their abandonment in face of the dangers threatening the kingdom from the north.

Desiring a weak power on the throne, they had been eyeing the king's eldest son, Roger IV, Duke of Apulia, as a possible replacement for his father.

After the assassination of Maio, the royal palace was stormed by two of the king's own relatives: his illegitimate half-brother Simon, whom he had dispossessed of Taranto early in his reign and his bastard nephew Tancred, the count of Lecce.

His latter years were peaceful; he became the champion of the true pope against the Holy Roman Emperor, and Alexander III was installed in the Lateran Palace in November 1165 by a guard of Normans.

Giovanni Villani said William I sought to put her to death due to the prediction until Tancred, a bastard son of Count Roger I of Sicily, persuaded him to send her to a convent instead.