Margarita from Brindisi

Margarit of Brindisi ( Italian: Margarito or Margaritone ; c. 1149 - 1197 ) - the last of the great admirals ( ammiratus ammiratorum ) of the Sicilian kingdom under William II , Tancred and William III , commander of the fleet during the war with Byzantium ( 1185 ), to the Third Crusade and in the war of the last Otvile with Henry VI .

Margarita from Brindisi
Margarito
Count of Kefalonia and Zakynthos 1185 - 1195
Successor	Matthew I Orsini
Birth
Death	1197 ( 1197 )
Spouse	Marina
Children	Guglielmo Tolstoy, daughter
Autograph
Rank

Margarita's career began with banal piracy. But already in 1185 Margarita became admiral and ruler of the islands of Kefalonia and Zakynthos , in 1192 - the first count of Malta and Gozo .

In 1185, Margaret was (together with Tancred di Lecce) the fleet commander, who participated in the capture of Thessaloniki , and entered the Sea of ​​Marmara . Unlike the land army, after a victorious attack on Constantinople destroyed by the Greeks, the Sicilian fleet escaped defeat and returned to Sicily. In the same year, Margaret was sent by William II to the shores of Cyprus , where he inflicted significant damage to the ruler of the island, Isaac Komnin .

In August 1187, Margarit, at the head of a fleet of 60 ships, arrived on the coast of Syria and patrolled the coast for two years, hindering Saladin in his attempts to conquer the important ports remaining in the hands of the crusaders - Tripoli , Latakia , Tyr , Markab . In July 1188, suddenly arriving in Tripoli, Margaret forced Saladin to lift the siege from Crac de Chevalier . For his exploits in the fight against the Saracens, Margaret was nicknamed the crusaders by the new Neptune.

After the death of William II ( November 11, 1189 ), Margaret was forced to return to Sicily, as the new king Tancred was forced to defend his kingdom against an external enemy - Henry VI. In 1191, Henry VI besieged Naples , and Margaret arrived to defend the city. Margarita scattered the allied emperor of the Pisa fleet and unblocked the Gulf of Naples. Soon Henry VI, whose army was exhausted by the epidemic, left southern Italy.

After the death of Tancred in 1194, Henry VI again invaded southern Italy, and from the sea he was supported by a more powerful Pisa-Genoese fleet, reinforced by 50 English galleys (the latter were part of the ransom paid by Richard the Lionheart for his release from captivity). This time, Henry VI, not meeting resistance, occupied the continental part of the Sicilian kingdom, and landed in Sicily. Margarita with his fleet was forced to defend the fortress of Palermo . Despite the fact that Margarit was determined to defend the city to the end, the inhabitants of Palermo surrendered to Henry VI on November 20, 1194.

The regent queen Sibyl Acherra , mother of the infant William III, was forced to renounce the crown and recognize Henry as king of Sicily. William III, Sibylla, Margarita and most of the Sicilian nobility attended the coronation of Henry VI in Palermo Cathedral on December 25, 1194. On December 29, 1194, Henry VI announced the discovery of a large-scale conspiracy against him, in which the entire top of the Sicilian nobility was involved. All participants in the alleged conspiracy, including Margarit, were arrested and deported to Germany. Margaret died in custody in 1197 .