On her husband's death in 1166, the queen dowager Margaret of Navarre assumed the regency for her young son William II. She trusted neither the nobility nor the church and so turned to the palatine officials and the triumvirs, of which she did not trust Matthew of Ajello. She promoted the chief eunuch, Peter, to the highest post in the kingdom, the one formerly held by Maio of Bari, but did not grant him the latter's title "emir of emirs" (ammiratus ammiratorum).