In the summer of 1167, Henry returned to Palermo in order to obtain a part in the government of the whole kingdom. According to Falcandus, he went at the instigation of his friends, who thought that he, as a royal prince, deserved the highest secular office, the chancellorship, then occupied by Richard, Count of Molise. By the summer Stephen du Perche, his and Margaret's cousin, had replaced Richard. Stephen quickly befriended Henry, but some "Spanish knights" ("milites hispanos"), Henry's entourage who had travelled with him from Navarre, accused the chancellor of having an affair with the queen. Henry was not so easily persuaded, as Falcandus records: