Stephen du Perche

Stephen du Perche (1137 or 1138 – 1169) was the chancellor of the Kingdom of Sicily from probably the summer of 1167 to 1168 and archbishop-elect of Palermo (1167–68) during the early regency of his cousin, the queen dowager Margaret of Navarre (1166–71). Recent scholarship has also placed his rise within a wider reconfiguration of power linking the Sicilian curia with mainland aristocratic offices and kin networks.

Stephen is described by the contemporary chronicler Hugo Falcandus as "a son of the count of Perche", Rotrou, count of Perche. He was a young man when he entered politics, born at the earliest in 1137 or 1138. He may have been named after King Stephen of England, at the time ruling the Duchy of Normandy. Through the family of Margaret of L'Aigle, Stephen was a cousin once removed of Queen Margaret and the paternal uncle of Gilbert, Count of Gravina, who would become one of his principal allies in Sicily. On his way to Sicily he stopped with Gilbert of Gravina, "his brother's son", who gave him gifts and briefed him on the state of affairs at court. According to Falcandus, Gilbert brought with him one hundred of the best-known knights of Apulia and the Terra di Lavoro. Modern scholarship has interpreted Stephen's fall not merely as a Palermo palace coup, but as the outcome of a broader aristocratic realignment in which newer counts such as Henry of Montescaglioso and Richard of Molise, together with established mainland nobles including Robert of Caserta and Roger of Avellino, combined to curb the concentration of power around Stephen and Gilbert of Gravina.

Stephen was finally forced to flee. The chancellor-archbishop took refuge in the campanile. There he held out until offered terms. In return for his safety, he agreed to embark at once for the Holy Land. He was deposed as archbishop and Walter of the Mill was elected to replace him. Gilbert of Gravina and his family were forced to do the same and they all left for the Kingdom of Jerusalem. Stephen's allies in Sicily had included not only transalpine followers but also local nobles such as Bohemund II of Tarsia, Carbonellus, and William of San Severino.

With Margaret's attempt to recall him in vain, he arrived in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and soon fell ill and died. According to William of Tyre, "he was buried with honour in Jerusalem in the chapter-house of the Temple of the Lord."