Emperor Alexius II Comnenus, grandson of Alexius I Comnenus, issued an imperial order that divided the island into twelve provinces and appointed twelve princes from the Byzantine Empire to govern them. Each prince was known as an "archondopoulon" ("petty lord"; cp. English baron) and he would arrive with his extended family to settle in the area allocated to him. From this event, a number of great aristocratic families of Crete emerged, some of them still in existence today. The "archondopoula" of Crete entailed the families of Kallergis, Skordilis, Melisseni, Varouchi, Mousouri, Vlasti, Hortatzi, and others.