Matthew Orsini
Matthew Orsini (; died after January 1238) or Maio Orsini was a Count palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos. Life Matthew's origin is obscure. He is generally considered the scion of the noble Roman Orsini family, and according to the—mostly conjectured—genealogy presented by the 19th-century scholar Karl Hopf, was the son of a certain Richard Orsini and a daughter of admiral Margaritus of Brindisi, who had conquered the Byzantine islands of Cephalonia, Zakynthos, and Ithaca during the Third Norman invasion of the Balkans in 1185. Other scholars on the other hand have considered him Margaritus' son-in-law. In both cases, it is considered that he succeeded Margaritus in his rule over Cephalonia, Zakynthos, and Ithaca, following the latter's disgrace in 1194. Like Margaritus, Matthew acknowledged the suzerainty of the Norman Kings of Sicily. More recent research has cast doubt on this traditional account: Matthew was most likely from Monopoli in Apulia, and appears to have been unrelated to Margaritus. Even his surname, Orsini, is only attested for his descendants and not himself, and it remains unclear how it became associated with his family. The Aragonese version of the Chronicle of the Morea offers an alternative background, reporting that Maio had been expelled