Borenius, Tancred, 1885-1948, art historian and teacher, b. Finland. He became professor of the history of art at University College, London, in 1922. In 1933 he became director of the excavations of Clarendon Palace near Salisbury, England. Borenius was managing editor of the Burlington Magazine from 1940 to 1945. Among his many publications are The Painters of Vicenza (1909), The Iconography of St. Thomas of Canterbury (1929), and Rembrandt: Selected Paintings (1942).

Tancred (Tancred of Lecce), b. 1130 or 1134, d. 1194, king of Sicily (1190-94), illegitimate son of Roger of Apulia and grandson of Roger II of Sicily. On the death of his cousin, William II of Sicily, Tancred was crowned (1190) king. The Sicilian crown was, however, claimed by Constance, who was William's aunt. Her husband, Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI, made an unsuccessful expedition against Tancred in 1191 and, soon after Tancred's death, deposed (1194) Tancred's infant son, William III.

Tancred, 1076-1112, Crusader. He became a Crusader in 1096 with his uncle Bohemond I. After distinguishing himself at Nicaea, he struck out into Cilicia and besieged Tarsus, but was deprived of the city, after its fall, by Baldwin (Baldwin I of Jerusalem) and was forced to rejoin the main army. He took part in the captures of Antioch (1098), Jerusalem (1099), and Haifa (1100) and was for a short time prince of Galilee, with his capital at Tiberias. While acting (1100-1103) as regent of Antioch for Bohemond, he recaptured Laodicea and other towns and imprisoned Raymond IV of Toulouse. In 1104, after the capture of Baldwin II of Jerusalem by the Muslims, he took over the government of Edessa and, after the departure of Bohemond for the West, the government of Antioch. He subsequently made extensive conquests in Cilicia and N Syria. Although Bohemond submitted (1108) to Byzantine Emperor Alexius I, Tancred refused to surrender his conquests or to do the emperor homage.

(died Feb. 20, 1194, Palermo) King of Sicily (1190–94), the last of the Norman rulers. He rebelled twice (1155, 1161) against his uncle William I of Sicily, and he gained the Sicilian throne after the death of William II. He gave in to the demand of Richard I (the Lionheart) in 1191 for the legacy left him by William II and the return of the dowry of his sister Joan, William's widow, after Richard occupied Messina. Emperor Henry VI sought to wrest the Sicilian throne from Tancred, unsuccessfully besieging Naples in 1191 and marching on Sicily again in 1194. Tancred died before his arrival, and Henry was crowned king.

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Tancred or Tankred is a masculine given name of Germanic origin, coming from thank- (thought) and -rad (counsel), meaning "well-thought advice". It was used in the High Middle Ages mainly by the Normans and especially associated with the Hauteville family in Italy. It is rare today. Its Italian form is Tancredo and in Latin it is Tancredus. Its Italian patronymic is Tancredi. Famous historical persons with the name include:

• Tancred of Hauteville could refer to:
• Tancred of Hauteville, founder of the Hauteville family
• Tancred, son of the above, stayed in Normandy
• Tancred, Prince of Galilee, a leader of the First Crusade
• Tancred, Prince of Bari, son of Roger II of Sicily, and Prince of Taranto from 1132 to 1138
• Tancred, Count of Syracuse
• Tancred of Sicily, King of Sicily in the late 12th century
• Tancred of Conversano, count of Brindisi
• Tancred Tancredi, a Dominican friar
• Tancred of Bologna, a Dominican canonist

It is also carried by some fictional characters:

• Tancred of Salerno, character in Boccaccio's Decameron
• Tancred Torrson, a fictional character in Jenny Nimmo's "Children of the Red King" series

Some works of art:

• Tancred, a novel by published in 1847 by Benjamin Disraeli.
• Tancred (play), a 19th century play by John Augustus Stone

It was used as a surname in England:

• Lawson-Tancred Baronets, title held by ancient Yorkshire family

And as a placename in America:

• Tancred, California, in Yolo County