Jocelyn (Sicilian chancellor)
Encyclopedia
Jocelyn was an Italo-Norman
Italo-Norman
The Italo-Normans, or Siculo-Normans when referring to Sicily, were the Italian-born descendants of the first Norman conquerors to travel to the southern Italy in the first half of the eleventh century...

 officer serving Roger II of Sicily
Roger II of Sicily
Roger II was King of Sicily, son of Roger I of Sicily and successor to his brother Simon. He began his rule as Count of Sicily in 1105, later became Duke of Apulia and Calabria , then King of Sicily...

.

In 1134, he was appointed lieutenant to Guarin
Guarin
Guarin was the chaplain and chancellor of Roger II of Sicily from about 1130 to his death, during the first decade of the Norman kingdom of Sicily. According to Alexander of Telese, the contemporary chronicler, he was "erudite ... and most prudent in negotiations .....

 in the Terra di Lavoro
Terra di Lavoro
Terra di Lavoro is the name of a historical region of southern Italy. It corresponds roughy to the modern southern Lazio and northern Campania regions of Italy....

 with the title of Chamberlain
Chamberlain (office)
A chamberlain is an officer in charge of managing a household. In many countries there are ceremonial posts associated with the household of the sovereign....

 (camerarius). In 1135 he was made the procurator of the Principality of Capua
Principality of Capua
The Principality of Capua was a Lombard state in Southern Italy, usually de facto independent, but under the varying suzerainty of Western and Eastern Roman Empires. It was originally a gastaldate, then a county, within the principality of Salerno....

 for the young Prince Alfonso
Alfonso of Hauteville
Alfonso of Hauteville , third son of Roger II of Sicily and Elvira of Castile, was the prince of Capua from 1135 to his death.He was named after his maternal grandfather, Alfonso VI of Castile...

 while Guarin was made Alfonso's regent
Regent
A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

. He took part in the sieges of Montecassino and Salerno
Salerno
Salerno is a city and comune in Campania and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea....

 in January 1137. After Guarin's death on 21 January, Jocelyn succeeded him as interim chancellor
Chancellor
Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...

 (magister cancellarius) and took over the Italo-Norman forces trying to occupy Montecassino and defend Salerno from the army of the Emperor Lothair II. After securing the election of an Anacletan
Antipope Anacletus II
Anacletus II , born Pietro Pierleoni, was an Antipope who ruled from 1130 to his death, in a schism against the contested, hasty election of Pope Innocent II....

 abbot at Montecassino, Jocelyn was replaced by Robert of Selby
Robert of Selby
Robert of Selby was an Englishman, a courtier of Roger II and chancellor of the Kingdom of Sicily. His name possibly indicates that he hailed from Selby. He probably journeyed to Sicily about 1130...

as chancellor.

Sources

  • Curtis, Edmund. Roger of Sicily and the Normans in Lower Italy 1016–1154. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1912.
  • Matthew, Donald. The Norman Kingdom of Sicily. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
  • Houben, Hubert. Roger II of Sicily: A Ruler between East and West. Trans. G. A. Loud and Diane Milbourne. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
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