September 29th, an interesting day in history

A mixed bag for September 29th in history. In 1227, the pope excommunicated the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, son of Constance de Hauteville and the unloved and unlovable Heinrich von Hohenstaufen. It was a bit embarrassing since he was on crusade at the time, but Frederick liked nothing better than embarrassing the Church; he was excommunicated at least four times if my memory serves and one pope even called him “the Anti-Christ,” which probably amused him greatly.
And in 1328, Joan, Countess of Kent and future Princess of Wales was born. She would marry Edward, the Prince of Wales, and was the mother of a king, Richard II. She and her husband also have two of the coolest medieval nicknames: the Fair Maid of Kent and the Black Prince, although neither one was contemporary.
In 1547, the brilliant Spanish author of Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes was born. Did anyone see the film with Peter O’Toole and Sophia Loren, The Man of La Mancha? It did not get good reviews at the time, but I really liked it. And in 1564, the love of Elizabeth Tudor’s life, Robert Dudley, became Earl of Leicester. I think another Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort, had a far more forceful personality than Elizabeth’s Robin, but Dudley did manage to banish Simon’s shadow from Kenilworth Castle, which now seems very much a part of the Tudor past.