WHO WAS BORN
1361:King Wenceslas
Not to be confused with the "Good" King of the same name,
Wenceslas, son of
Holy Roman
Emperor Charles IV, was a peace-loving but incompetent ruler who
was unable to prevent the frequent conflicts in Germany. His power as
king of Bohemia and Germany fluctuated until he was little more than
a figurehead. He died, childless, in 1419, whereupon the crown passed
to his half-brother Sigismund.
WHO DIED
1266: Manfred of Sicily
Manfred, son of the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II, was vicar of
Italy and Sicily when his half-brother King Conrad IV of Sicily died.
The diet of San Germano elected Manfred the next king, but he had
been excommunicated twice and Pope
Alexander IV invested Edmund, son of Henry
III of England, instead. Manfred successfully resisted the
papal army that invaded and was crowned.
However, civil war did not let him enjoy his throne; negotiations with Alexander's successor, Urban IV, came to nothing, and the pope offered the Sicilian crown to Charles of Anjou. Manfred was defeated by Charles near Benevento and died in battle.
1561: Jorge de Montemayor
This Portuguese-born
musician and author wrote the first Spanish pastoral novel:
Los siete libros de la Diana (The Seven Books of the Diana).
The work was inspired in part by Jacopo Sannazzaro's pastoral romance
Arcadia, and, undergoing many editions, became widely
translated and started a literary fashion in the Renaissance. William
Shakespeare used Bartholomew Young's translation of Diana as a
source for his play The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Montemayor served Philip II's first wife and went with the Crown Prince to England when he married Mary Tudor. He was murdered in Italy, supposedly in a love feud.
