August 15th, another busy day in history

An eclectic mix of historical events on August 15th, so much so that I strayed out of the MA for a few. On this date in 778 AD, Roland was slain at the battle of Roncevaux Pass in the Pyrenees. Very little is known about him; one legend has it that he was Charlemagne’s nephew. But he became a medieval rock star, the hero of the Chanson de Roland, which was immensely popular in the MA. Coincidentally, Joanna and Berengaria stopped in Blaye after they left Bordeaux in my last chapter. Blaye is reputed to be where Roland was buried, but they were more interested in the romantic legend of the troubadour Jaufre Rudel, the Lord of Blaye, who was said to have fallen in love with the Countess of Tripoli, a woman he’d never met. He took the cross and accompanied Eleanor and Louis on their ill-fated Second Crusade, where he became gravely ill and was brought ashore at Tripoli. The countess was told of his devotion and visited him in time for him to die in her arms. Or so the story goes.
I just mentioned MacBeth yesterday, as he’d become King of Scotland on that date in 1040; well, he died on August 15, 1057, in battle, of course; not too many early kings got to die peacefully in bed.
The one historical event connected to my books occurred on August 15, 1196, when Conrad, the Duke of Swabia, was murdered. Conrad was the younger brother of the Lionheart’s nemesis, the Holy Roman Emperor, Heinrich von Hohenstaufen, and he sounds like a real piece of work. None of the contemporary chroniclers had anything good to say about Conrad, and he was killed by the husband of a woman he’d raped. At least that is one account; another says he was bitten by a virgin he was raping and the wound became infected. This paragon was only twenty-three at the time of his death, and his brother Otto would be murdered a few years later after engaging in more feuds than the Hatfields and McCoys. Heinrich would show a sadistic streak himself once he assumed power in Sicily. Yet the youngest brother Philip, who would rule after Heinrich’s untimely death, seems to have been a genuine nice guy; maybe he was a foundling?
On August 15, 1483, Pope Sixtius IV consecrated the magnificent Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo’s masterpiece, though Botticelli and a few other Renaissance artists had a hand in it, too.
On to the non-medieval. On August 15, 1769, Napoleon Bonaparte was born on Corsica, which I mention because of the huge impact this man had on European history. And on August 15, 1771, Sir Walter Scott was born; of course he wasn’t a “sir” yet. I mention Sir Walter because his Ivanhoe did a lot to popularize the legend of Robin Hood, Richard the Lionheart, and evil Prince John. I also did an introduction for an edition of Ivanhoe some years ago which is not a fond memory, for I came back from a writer’s conference in Anchorage, Alaska very sick with the flu and still had to write that introduction despite feeling as if I ought to be writing my last will and testament.