g taken him by fraud and secretly
into Suabia, few knowing thereof, he sent him into banishment with his
sister, and having caused his eyes to be put out, he there kept him
under ward till his death. With this William son of Tancred were taken
his three sisters, to wit, Alberia, Constance, and Ernadama. When the
Emperor Henry was dead, and the young William who had been castrated
and whose eyes had been put out was dead also, Philip, duke of Suabia,
through the prayers of his wife, which was daughter of the Emperor
Manuel of Constantinople, delivered these three daughters of King
Tancred from exile and from prison, and let them go free. And Alberia
or Aceria had three husbands: the first was Count Walter of Brienne,
brother of King John, from whom was born Walteran, count of Joppa, to
whom the king of Cyprus gave his daughter in marriage. After Count
Walter had been slain by Count Trebaldo [Diephold], the German,
Alberia was wedded to Count James of Tricarico, by whom she had Count
Simon and the Lady Adalitta; and he being dead, Pope Honorius gave
Alberia to wife to Count Tigrimo, count palatine in Tuscany; and for
dowry he gave her the region of Lizia and of Mount Scaglioso in the
kingdom of Apulia. Constance was the wife of Marchesono [Ziani], doge
of Venice. The third sister, who was named Ernadama, had no husband.
These were the fortunes of the successors of Robert Guiscard in the
kingdom of Sicily and of Apulia, down to Constance, mother of the
Emperor Frederick the son of King Henry; and thus it may be seen that
Robert Guiscard and his successors ruled over the kingdom of Sicily
and of Apulia 120 years. We will now leave the kings of Sicily and of
Apulia; and we will relate concerning the wise Countess Matilda.

Sec. 21.--_Of the Countess Matilda._

[Sidenote: 1115 A.D.]

The mother of Countess Matilda is said to have been the daughter of
one who reigned as emperor in Constantinople, in whose court was an
Italian of distinguished manners and of great race and well nurtured,
skilled in arms, expert and endowed with every gift, such as they are
in whom noble blood is wont to declare itself illustriously. Now all
these things made him to be loved of all men and gave grace to his
ways. And he began to turn his eyes upon the emperor's daughter, and
was secretly united to her in marriage, and they took such jewels and
moneys as they might, and she fled with him into Italy. And they came
first to the bishopric of Re