Walter of the Mill
Encyclopedia
Walter of the Mill Italianised as Gualtiero Offamiglio or Offamilio and Latinised as Ophamilius (subsequently Anglicised as Ophamil or Offamil), was the archdeacon
of Cefalù
, dean
of Agrigento
, and archbishop of Palermo (1168–1191), called il primo ministro. He was long thought to be an Englishman who came to Sicily
with Peter of Blois
and Stephen du Perche
at the direction of Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen
, cousin of Queen Margaret of Navarre, originally as a tutor to the royal children of William I of Sicily
and Margaret. Today his sobriquet is thought to derive from the Latin protofamiliaris, meaning "first confidante [of the king]". His mother was Bona, a patron of the Abbey of Cluny and a devota et fidelis nostra of the king in 1172. His father is unknown.
Walter's first appearance in the historical record is at court as the Latin tutor of the children of William I in 1160. He rose through the ranks until he was a canon of the Cappella Palatina
and a candidate for the vacant archiepiscopal throne of 1168, after the deposition of Stephen du Perche
. According to Hugo Falcandus
, Walter succeeded "less by election than by violent intrusion." Nevertheless, without the support of the queen regent or of the influential Thomas Becket
, his faction bribed Pope Alexander III
into confirming his election and he was consecrated in the Cathedral of Palermo
on 28 September. He received distinctly double-edged congratulations from Peter of Blois, who refers in a letter to his "humble birth".
Walter was a constant companion of the court of William II
, whose tutor he had been. He accompanied William to Taranto
to await his Byzantine bride and, failing that, he crowned Joanna, daughter of Henry II of England
, as queen consort on 13 February 1177.
In 1174, the first fruits of a plan of the king and the vice-chancellor, Matthew of Ajello
, began to flower. The pope issued the first of a short series of bulls
favouring the cause of creating a new archdiocese in Sicily, centred on the Benedictine
Cluniac abbey of Monreale
, a recent foundation of William's. The abbot of said abbey would automatically be consecrated archbishop by any prelate of the realm approved of the king. The tradition of the Hagia Kyriaka, the chapel of the old Greek Orthodox metropolitans of Sicily, on the grounds of Monreale greatly strengthened the king's cause in an era when tradition was so valued. The archbishop of Palermo was greatly diminished in power by the consecration of the first archbishop of Monreale, in the spring of 1176. Walter began the construction of a new cathedral in Palermo at this time, to counter the effects of the beautiful Monreale, the new mausoleum of the Hauteville dynasty. On William's death in 1189, Walter fought vainly against the archbishop of Monreale over the body of the king.
In 1184, Walter gave his support to the marriage of Constance
, daughter of Roger II, with Henry
, son of Frederick Barbarossa. He was one of the only ones. At the request of Pope Clement III
, he had to crown Tancred of Lecce king in his cathedral in early January 1190. He died of natural causes early in 1191 and was buried in his rebuilt cathedral. Besides the cathedral, reworked so many times over the centuries, Walter left as architectural nods to his patronage of the arts the chapels of Santa Cristina and Santo Spirito. The latter is the "church of the Vespers," the church in front of which the first insult and the first murder of the Sicilian Vespers
took place in 1282.
Richard of S. Germano called him and Matthew "the two firmest columns of the Kingdom." Modern historiography has been less kind. John Julius Norwich
calls him "the most baleful influence on the kingdom," because "there is no evidence of his having taken a single constructive step to improve the Sicilian position or to advance Sicilian fortunes." He has been reckoned a leader of the feudatories against which all Sicilian kings fought for their royal prerogatives and, by Ferdinand Chalandon
, as an imperialist who supported Henry in order to stand opposed to the inevitable civil war.
In literature, Walter, on the basis of his supposed English birth, was credited as the author of a Latin rudiments by John Bale
in the 1550s. Léopold Hervieux identified Walter with the Anglo-Norman
author Gualterus Anglicus
. He went so far as to suggest that Gualterus' (Walter's) Latin versifications of Aesop's fables
were intended to instruct and entertain the young William II.
Archdeacon
An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in Anglicanism, Syrian Malabar Nasrani, Chaldean Catholic, and some other Christian denominations, above that of most clergy and below a bishop. In the High Middle Ages it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the Roman Catholic Church...
of Cefalù
Cefalù
Cefalù is a city and comune in the province of Palermo, located on the northern coast of Sicily, Italy on the Tyrrhenian Sea about 70 km east from the provincial capital and 185 km west of Messina...
, dean
Dean (religion)
A dean, in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.-Anglican Communion:...
of Agrigento
Agrigento
Agrigento , is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy, and capital of the province of Agrigento. It is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city of Akragas , one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the golden...
, and archbishop of Palermo (1168–1191), called il primo ministro. He was long thought to be an Englishman who came to Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
with Peter of Blois
Peter of Blois
Peter of Blois or Petrus Blesensis was a French poet and diplomat who wrote in Latin. Peter studied law in Bologna and theology in Paris...
and Stephen du Perche
Stephen du Perche
Stephen du Perche was the chancellor of the Kingdom of Sicily and Archbishop of Palermo during the early regency of his cousin, Queen Margaret of Navarre ....
at the direction of Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen
Rotrou, Archbishop of Rouen
Rotrou or Rothrud was the bishop of Évreux and twenty-fifth archbishop of Rouen, France, from 1165, a year after the death of Archbishop Hugh IV, until his own death. He was the fourth son of Henry de Beaumont, 1st Earl of Warwick, and Margaret, daughter of Geoffrey II of Perche...
, cousin of Queen Margaret of Navarre, originally as a tutor to the royal children of William I of Sicily
William I of Sicily
William I , called the Bad or the Wicked, was the second king of Sicily, ruling from his father's death in 1154 to his own...
and Margaret. Today his sobriquet is thought to derive from the Latin protofamiliaris, meaning "first confidante [of the king]". His mother was Bona, a patron of the Abbey of Cluny and a devota et fidelis nostra of the king in 1172. His father is unknown.
Walter's first appearance in the historical record is at court as the Latin tutor of the children of William I in 1160. He rose through the ranks until he was a canon of the Cappella Palatina
Cappella Palatina
The Palatine Chapel is the royal chapel of the Norman kings of Sicily situated on the ground floor at the center of the Palazzo Reale in Palermo, southern Italy....
and a candidate for the vacant archiepiscopal throne of 1168, after the deposition of Stephen du Perche
Stephen du Perche
Stephen du Perche was the chancellor of the Kingdom of Sicily and Archbishop of Palermo during the early regency of his cousin, Queen Margaret of Navarre ....
. According to Hugo Falcandus
Hugo Falcandus
Hugo Falcandus was an Italian historian who chronicled the reign of William I of Sicily and the minority of his son William II in a highly critical work entitled The History of the Tyrants of Sicily . There is some doubt as to whether "Hugo Falcandus" is a real name or a pseudonym. Evelyn Jamison...
, Walter succeeded "less by election than by violent intrusion." Nevertheless, without the support of the queen regent or of the influential Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr by both the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion...
, his faction bribed Pope Alexander III
Pope Alexander III
Pope Alexander III , born Rolando of Siena, was Pope from 1159 to 1181. He is noted in history for laying the foundation stone for the Notre Dame de Paris.-Church career:...
into confirming his election and he was consecrated in the Cathedral of Palermo
Cathedral of Palermo
The Cathedral of Palermo is an architectural complex in Palermo, Sicily, southern Italy. It is characterized by the presence of different styles, due to a long history of additions, alterations and restorations, the last of which occurred in the 18th century....
on 28 September. He received distinctly double-edged congratulations from Peter of Blois, who refers in a letter to his "humble birth".
Walter was a constant companion of the court of William II
William II of Sicily
William II , called the Good, was king of Sicily from 1166 to 1189. William's character is very indistinct. Lacking in military enterprise, secluded and pleasure-loving, he seldom emerged from his palace life at Palermo. Yet his reign is marked by an ambitious foreign policy and a vigorous diplomacy...
, whose tutor he had been. He accompanied William to Taranto
Taranto
Taranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
to await his Byzantine bride and, failing that, he crowned Joanna, daughter of Henry II of England
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
, as queen consort on 13 February 1177.
In 1174, the first fruits of a plan of the king and the vice-chancellor, Matthew of Ajello
Matthew of Ajello
Matthew of Ajello was a high-ranking member of the Norman court of the Kingdom of Sicily in the 12th century.He first appears as the notary of the Admiral Maio of Bari who drew up the Treaty of Benevento of 1156...
, began to flower. The pope issued the first of a short series of bulls
Papal bull
A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it....
favouring the cause of creating a new archdiocese in Sicily, centred on the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
Cluniac abbey of Monreale
Monreale
Monreale is a town and comune in the province of Palermo, in Sicily, Italy, on the slope of Monte Caputo, overlooking the very fertile valley called "La Conca d'oro" , famed for its orange, olive and almond trees, the produce of which is exported in large quantities...
, a recent foundation of William's. The abbot of said abbey would automatically be consecrated archbishop by any prelate of the realm approved of the king. The tradition of the Hagia Kyriaka, the chapel of the old Greek Orthodox metropolitans of Sicily, on the grounds of Monreale greatly strengthened the king's cause in an era when tradition was so valued. The archbishop of Palermo was greatly diminished in power by the consecration of the first archbishop of Monreale, in the spring of 1176. Walter began the construction of a new cathedral in Palermo at this time, to counter the effects of the beautiful Monreale, the new mausoleum of the Hauteville dynasty. On William's death in 1189, Walter fought vainly against the archbishop of Monreale over the body of the king.
In 1184, Walter gave his support to the marriage of Constance
Constance of Sicily
Constance of Hauteville was the heiress of the Norman kings of Sicily and the wife of Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor...
, daughter of Roger II, with Henry
Henry VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Henry VI was King of Germany from 1190 to 1197, Holy Roman Emperor from 1191 to 1197 and King of Sicily from 1194 to 1197.-Early years:Born in Nijmegen,...
, son of Frederick Barbarossa. He was one of the only ones. At the request of Pope Clement III
Pope Clement III
Pope Clement III , born Paulino Scolari, was elected Pope on December 19, 1187 and reigned until his death.-Cardinal:...
, he had to crown Tancred of Lecce king in his cathedral in early January 1190. He died of natural causes early in 1191 and was buried in his rebuilt cathedral. Besides the cathedral, reworked so many times over the centuries, Walter left as architectural nods to his patronage of the arts the chapels of Santa Cristina and Santo Spirito. The latter is the "church of the Vespers," the church in front of which the first insult and the first murder of the Sicilian Vespers
Sicilian Vespers
The Sicilian Vespers is the name given to the successful rebellion on the island of Sicily that broke out on the Easter of 1282 against the rule of the French/Angevin king Charles I, who had ruled the Kingdom of Sicily since 1266. Within six weeks three thousand French men and women were slain by...
took place in 1282.
Richard of S. Germano called him and Matthew "the two firmest columns of the Kingdom." Modern historiography has been less kind. John Julius Norwich
John Julius Norwich
John Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich CVO — known as John Julius Norwich — is an English historian, travel writer and television personality.-Early life:...
calls him "the most baleful influence on the kingdom," because "there is no evidence of his having taken a single constructive step to improve the Sicilian position or to advance Sicilian fortunes." He has been reckoned a leader of the feudatories against which all Sicilian kings fought for their royal prerogatives and, by Ferdinand Chalandon
Ferdinand Chalandon
Ferdinand Chalandon was a French medievalist and Byzantinist.Chalandon’s work remains the most substantial study of the Normans in Italy and though the details of what he wrote a hundred years ago have in places been modified, it remains the single most important work available to historians.Being...
, as an imperialist who supported Henry in order to stand opposed to the inevitable civil war.
In literature, Walter, on the basis of his supposed English birth, was credited as the author of a Latin rudiments by John Bale
John Bale
John Bale was an English churchman, historian and controversialist, and Bishop of Ossory. He wrote the oldest known historical verse drama in English , and developed and published a very extensive list of the works of British authors down to his own time, just as the monastic libraries were being...
in the 1550s. Léopold Hervieux identified Walter with the Anglo-Norman
Anglo-Norman
The Anglo-Normans were mainly the descendants of the Normans who ruled England following the Norman conquest by William the Conqueror in 1066. A small number of Normans were already settled in England prior to the conquest...
author Gualterus Anglicus
Gualterus Anglicus
Gualterus Anglicus was an Anglo-Norman poet writing in Latin, who produced a seminal version of Aesop's Fables, in distichs, around the year 1175.-Identification of the author:...
. He went so far as to suggest that Gualterus' (Walter's) Latin versifications of Aesop's fables
Aesop's Fables
Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today...
were intended to instruct and entertain the young William II.
Sources
- Matthew, Donald J. A. (2004). "Walter (d. 1190)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Accessed 8 July 2008.
- Norwich, John JuliusJohn Julius NorwichJohn Julius Cooper, 2nd Viscount Norwich CVO — known as John Julius Norwich — is an English historian, travel writer and television personality.-Early life:...
(1970). The Kingdom in the Sun 1130–1194. London: Longmans.
External links
- Ryccardi di Sancto Germano Notarii Chronicon. trans. G. A. Loud.