Strength and Honor - A Norway AAR

19th of February 1572

There you are Karl, come on and sit down on that chair over there. I will tell you the story about a conqueror, seen from his own eyes..."

~The rise of the lion!~




It was a great day for Norway one can say, when I was crowned in Akershus that christmas day. Yes, it was like the sun had start setting on the Northern Empire when I was crowned emperor. I was only fourteen years old, but I already had many plans for the future of the empire. I had plans for expansion, for glory and honor to our beloved Norway. But to realise those plans, I would first have to quell those rebellions and annex Sweden once and for all.

In the first of september most of the former Swedish provinces rose up in rebellion, probably due to the stability level in Norway, or should I say lack of it. To prove myself as a worthy king and emperor I rode with the Royal Guard into battle against these rebel scum myself with over ten thousand cavalery.


A day in Kola

It was very cold when we arrived in Kola after a short fight with the rebels in Karelia. Kola was a very cold place indeed, specially when it was nearing winter. But that could not matter, we had to take the rebels before they got hold of any cities, a few men would of course freeze to death, but is it not wonderfull to freeze to death for the glory of Norway?

This war was to become the first experience i had with war. I had heard much about wars, from my father's tales and from reading sagas of the old days. In Norway, it is expected that the king is in the very front of the line, that he actually fight with his own sword. So most of the battle preparations had to be done before any battle would actually take place. I was unexperienced then, but had two very good military advisors. One named Sigmund the Stout and another one named Thorstein the Wise. Sigmund was a rather fa... eh... big man, yes I can see you are looking at my belly Karl but I am an old man inprisoned in a fort with nothing to do but eat and drink. Well Sigmund was fat, but he was sure not a lazy man, nor a weakling. I can assure you that if Sigmund had wrestled with a bear, the bear would either be dead or running for his mother within one minute. Sigmund had red hair and a forkbeard, he had a big mouth and said whatever was on his mind. Pretty much in contradiction to my other advisor, Thorstein the Wise. Thorstein was a thin, almost hairless, silent man. Though he was not much for the eye, he was truly a genius, specially when it came to warfare. I do not think I have ever met someone that brilliant in tactics and strategy. He was much older than me though, fifty years old, he had served my father for many years. Unlike Sigmund who was only ten years older than me, and had just been recruited to the service, by Thorstein.

As we were drinking mead from our horns, now I am talking real mead, and real horns, not that so-called mead you serve me. Now where was I, yes, as we were drinking and having a good time with the wimen in there, a messenger stepped in the door with a haste and said "The rebel army...". Sigmund's first reaction was of course to step right up to him, punch him in the face with his giant fists and say "You filthy scum, who are you to not kneel before for your king? Do i sense rebellion?". One could see the veins in Sigmund's forehead as his whole face was red. It was quite amusing to see how the man got so angry for so simple things, and that was exactly what we needed him for, his anger and his hate for rebels. His father was actually killed by rebels in the defeat at Gotland in august 1514, he decided to revenge his father by accepting the offer he had gotten from Thorstein to serve in the council. I quickly interrupted Sigmund before he put another blow into the poor mans face, something that surely would have been fatal. "I am sure this man is no rebel, just a stupid farmer that has not learned how to adress his ruler", the man forced the words out "Hail King Yngvar! Son of Sjur, ruler of the Northern Empire! Hail!". Oh, it is always good to hear those words, though it is beginning to get very long since by now.

The messenger was finally allowed to say what he had really come to say, "My Lord, Lord Engelbriktsson has defeated the rebel scum in Tavastland. He do not request for any help to be sent, Finland is secured your majesty.". "Send my words to Engelbriktsson and ask him if he disregard Kexholm as a part of Finland. According to my knowledge it is currently being occupied by the uncivilized scum in Holmgard, whom we must free it from. Is that uncorrect? Thorstein?" I looked over at Thorstein the Wise, he paused for a few seconds before answering "Yes my lord, Kexholm should most certainly be a part of our Finnish lands. There are 15,000 Novgorians there, but if we join the eastern army it should not posess such a big threat."...
I emptied my horn of mead to the bottom, clinched it in the table and said "Then it is decided, to war!!", Sigmund, Thorstein (to some degree) and the other officers around the table yelled with me "To war!!!".

We had one last night in Kola before going south. I remember the woman that was sent to me, it was Sigmund's idea, he had handpicked the finest one he could find in the whole city. It was my very first time, she was probably in her mid twenties, a nice Ugric woman. I will never forget her, fine brown hair, perfect body and beautiful blue eyes, and I can't say she did a bad perform either. She led the way like my advisors would lead the way in the coming battle in order for me to learn how to do it properly...

Anyone have a site I can put screenshots on?

So this woman... Is she a leader of the army or just a city-girl who eyes the soldier, then goes home for the next time those "hopelessly beautiful brave warriors return"...?

Click to expand...

Well, the Royal Army will return to Kola in november, but that is not until the episode after the next...

Thanks for the link

19th of February 1572, later that night

"The story is just getting more an more interresting sire, or should I say your imperial majesty."

"Ah, it is good to hear those words again Karl. Fill up my horn will you, and I will bring the story to the lands of Novgorod, Kexholm that is..."


~To war~

I woke up with Anna in my arms, she was sleeping. I got up and took the armor on, the helmet, and grabbed my sword on my way out. When I was about to walk out the door she woke up and spoke to me:

"Where are you going young regent? More freedom fighters to opress?".

I usually would not tolerate such respectless speak to me, but coming from her I let it pass.

"Not exactly, it is us who fight for freedom! It is time to liberate Kexholm...",

She looked at me with a teasing smile and said: "Well go on then, and fight your opressors, I will be waiting here for you when you return..."

I walked out the door and shut it, what did she she mean with "when you return"? Does not matter, I would go fight a glorious war against the Novgorians and return to Oslo after that.

I met Sigmund as I was walking out. He was in a surprisingly good mood, if the ears had not been in the way, his head would most certainly fall off thanks to the smile...

"Had a good night sleep my lord?"

"Indeed... You?"

"Yes yes, the girls was very good... Was not Anna good my lord?"

I said nothing, just smiled back at him as we were walking. We met up with Thorstein and the officers. The horses was mounted within minutes and the Royal Army was moving south.

********************************************************

When we came to Nyland I met Lord Engelbriktsson for the first time, he had been in Finland since the war with the Swedes started in 1505 and had lead the Norwegian army into glorious victories in every battle. He had around nine thousand cavalerymen under his command and his men was ready for new battles. But of course, someone had to fight the rebels in Finland, therefore five thousand cavalerists were recruited in Finnmark ready to "stabilize" the nation.

Lord Engelbriktsson (well his forename was Godirgjesthur so I sticked to his lastname, which was in fact possible to say), was a man deeply infected by war. His face was filled with scars, he even lacked a piece of his left ear. I met him there the 9th of september, he came over to me and kneeled, soon the whole regiment went down from their horses and kneeled.

"My emperor..."

I lift my hand up as a sign for them to arise, remembering an old Roman salute I had read about I said:

"Kneeling is for peasants, you are proud warriors, salute me the way a warrior do, for I am a warrior among you!"

Sigmund and Thorstein already knew how my salute was to be and they were the first to follow when I raised my hand like Cæsar and then one by one the men yelled.

"Hail Yngvar! Hail Yngvar!!" "Long live the emperor"

What an arousing feeling to see thousands of warriors screaming your name with pride down before you, what a great feeling of power it was.

I spoke briefly to the men, "We shall go to war, we will liberate Kexholm. Yes, liberate, for liberation it is to get the chance to be a part of our glorious realm. Should we just stop where we are now? Should our forefathers have bled for nothing? Novgorod has insulted the people of Norway, the brave warriors of Norway, it is time to show them what we are made of. Our lives would be meaningless without glory. So fight with all your hearts now, and glory you will gain! I will not stand in the back and watch you die bravely. I will be the first man to strike the sword, and I will not know fear. Now ride with me to battle, for strength and honor, and for the glory of Norway!"

********************************************************

The Novgorian were gathering their troops, there were sixteen thousand of them, it looked like it would be a hard and bloody fight. But my men was prepared to fight, and die if neccessary. It was time to teach the world that Norway was not in the second class among powers, but the very greatest of them all. The two armies were now getting closer and closer. The Novgorians stopped and send forth two men to negotiate. How cowardly, why not get on with the fighting at once! I ordered Thorstein and a few men to negotiate with those rotten heretics. One of the men came back to me while they were still negotiating "My lord, they want us to leave, they offer much gold.".

I was outraged to even hear speak of such. I rode out to the negotiators in full speed and yelled "To glory!". The whole army followed, the Novgorian negotiators were shocked and just looked at us with fear in their eyes, but that was all they got time to before Thorstein and his men killed them with their swords. The Novgorians finally prepared themselves to fight. But when they were flanked from both sides by Engelbriktsson's army and the Royal Guard smashed into their front, it was not much to do for them but to flee. We just rode into their ranks, chopping them down one by one. How much glory did we not feel when the fight was over and the cowards were running. I met up with Sigmund as the Novgorians were running, once again it was only his ears that held back his big smile. "One hell of a day, I must say! Maybe it is time to take their city now, and get ourselves some Karelian wimen, I've heard they should be very nice...".

So the battle was won, the siege lasted for a while but the city was soon occupied. Another glorious moment in our history. I had the chance to try out some Karelian wimen as Sigmund had suggested. The Novgorians thoughcould not get to their senses and let us get Kexholm officially, however that was just a formality, Kexholm was now Norwegian...

~The end~

"Well it is getting late Karl, I think it is time for my old body to get some sleep. Come back tomorrow and I will tell you more."

Charles walked out of the room and out of the castle, on the walk home he could not think about anything else than the story of King Yngvar, wondering what would happen next, allthough knowing it had already happened...

jwolf, stnylan, nice to see someone reading this, thanks for all comments

VPeric, the photobucket site did not work with my sucky internet, I hope the site you showed will work (though we can only hope :wacko, thanks for the link anyway.

20th of February 1572

Charles had come back to the castle this morning, eager to hear more of what the old man had to say. He was so hocked up with the story that he had decided to write a book about the former king's life, a saga. As he came in the door in the tower room, Yngvar just started the tale at once, after getting his morning beer of course.


~Traitors~

I could not stand them! If we look away from the bloody Swedes, there was only one type of people I hated, rebels! They kept me back, they kept me back from expanding the land and glory of my empire. Even in Vinland! They were everywhere, from Bjarmaland (Karelia) to Vinland. Why could they not see that our nation had to stand united? That their foes were the English, the Germans and the Russians, not their own emperor? I could only wish the people could be qued, that they would understand their own best. For all we know, Europe could have been under our domination by now, if they only had listened to me...

It was night when we rode out from Kexholm, I had left Jarl Engelbriktsson in command of some seven thousand cavalry to control Finland. I had to keep the nation safe and que the rebel scum in Gästrikland. Bloody Swedes! Well at least they had not joined the banner of Gustav the Bastard, yet... It was a short lasting battle, the rebels surrendered once they saw our glorious army and within a few days I was on my way to Oslo. It would be good to see dear Akershus again. Though these last months had been an exiting new experience for me, the castle at Akershus was always in my heart.

Could it only have lasted longer... Not long after five thousand cavalerists were added to the Royal Guard came the news, rebellion in Kola. I wondered what that could be, we had just been in Kola. I was thinking about Anna when Thorstein mentioned the Kola rebellion. I wondered if she was still alive, or if she had been raped and murdered by those treacherous rebels. I swore to myself that if they had harmed her I would not only execute the rebels in the most sickened way, but I would kill their families, burn their houses and eat their dogs!

(Yellow colour is King Yngvar, Cyan is Thorstein and Orange is Sigmund)

"These f***ing rebels are a plague to the country Thorstein! I will never rest until everyone of them has their heads stuffed on poles!"

"Then I must say I am afraid my lord, that there will not be much rest for you... The rebels are gathering everywhere. Last week we had to ship ten thousand men to our Vinland colonies, men that cost us valuable resources, resources we could have used for science, technology and trade"

"I know dear Thorstein, we are heading towards bankrupcy. There are as you said ten thousand men on their way to Vinland, in adittion there are seven thousand men in Finland under Jarl Engelbriktsson's command, fifteen thousand in Småland and twelve thousand are in Jylland under Knut Alvsson's command, and last there are ten thousand men that just landed in South-Vinland (Florida), under the command of a certain conquistador I don't know the name of, the only conquistador I know is Leif Sigurdsson, and he just died!. And we must of course not forget the fleets. Six ships in the sea of Vinland, nine ships exploring the seas under that Icelander, what was his name again?"

"Hrafn av Borgr, my lord..."

"Yes... Hrafn av Borgr... Hope he find something valuable for our glorious disunited nation. Where was I at? Yes, I must not forget to mention our Baltic fleet of four ships and the North Sea fleet of twentysix ships. So all in all, including the troops under my own command, there are 69,000 armed forces and 55 ships of the line. God have mercy on our economy."

"As for the moment he have not, our treasury is empty I have just been informed. And currently we earn, well not earn, lose, thirty thousand kroner (30D) each month. May I humbly suggest my lord, that we take a loan?"

"Well it is pherhaps the most reasonable thing to do Thorstein, you take care of the economy while I am gone. We need to get it back in order, but we can't disband a single soldier from his post."

"As you wish my lord, I will do my best."

As we were speaking Sigmund entered the room, already dressed for war. He seemed almost eager to get on with it.

"Hail!"

Then he paused for a minute, and spoke.

"The army is ready my lord, the men are prepared for war."

"Very well, I will leave now Thorstein. But remember to take care of the economy while I am gone..."

Sigmund and I walked out of the room and to the stables, I jumped on my horse and we rode out the gate. As the gate opened, there were mounted warriors as far as the eye could reach. I rode slowly out of the gate, the men raised their hands and they all loudly said "Hail Yngvar! Hail the emperor!", I raised my hand and said "Hail! Hail you brave warriors and God bless our soules. For we will ride into battle now. The rebels are many now, and it might be a hard fight. But we shall stand together against our treacherous foe and we shall defeat them with our bravery! We are brothers in arms! No fallen warrior shall be forgotten. We will leave no corpses, any man who dies while fighting for the glory of Norway shall be buried in the holy soil of Norway. But do not worry, this time it is they who shall die! And they will all be sent to hell! Ride with me now and you will gain honor! For the glory of Norway!". The crowd shouted back "For the glory of Norway!".

It seemed the stay in Oslo had not last very long, the Norwegian wimen would have to wait. Our army rode with haste towards the cold north, it was late october now. The snow had started to cower the land soon we reached Namdalen, we did not stop before we came to Vardø. The stay there was short, we had to move on before the rebels took the Kola into their control. Once the Pasvik river was crossed, we was nearing the rebel army. It was eleven thousand of them trying to breach the walls of the city. There we met them, on the white fields outside the town, white fields who would soon be painted red.

The armies were moving towards eachother. The rebels would not give up until last man was bading in his own blood. It was a massacre, our cavalry just rode in to their ranks of infantry screaming "Glory!" as we cut them down one by one. They had some cavalry, and there laid the only challenge, the duel with their cavalry was not such a hard mach either however. But what makes this battle worth recording is the aftermath. When we rode into their cavalry, the lances clashed, I fell off my horse. And as the fight continiued many more fell off their horses or were killed. I spotted their leader, there were few of them left as I run towards their leader. The rebel leader hit me with the sword in my left arm, I fell on the ground and was bleeding. As this happened the battle was being won, the rebels were killed one by one. The leader came over to me and took off the helmet, I could suddenly see who it was, it was Anna. She placed the sword on my troath. I could do nothing but asking why.

"Your father killed mine."

She got me up on my feets and held a knife on my troath from behind. I spoke.

"Well, I am sure you have a reason to kill me, but you are surrounded, if anything happens with me you are dead in a second."

She looked around, only five or six rebels were left, standing with her. Around them over fifty of my men was ready to kill them on my command. What held me back was mostly the wish to keep my head intact.

"What will you? Speak now, and your word shall be honored."

"Free the people of Kola!"

"You know that cannot happen, you are incapable of governing a nation in these times. I can give you a position within the empire however, local government in Kola?"

I felt the knife was pressing harder on my troath and feel the adrenaline rush through my body. I looked at my soldiers and saw that they were ready, but something held me back, something more than the knife on my troath.

"No, you shall make me your queen. We will get married in Nidaros, before this month is over."

"You may lower your knife. As I said, the word will be honored."

"Turn around" she said and kissed me. In the middle of a battlefield, with corpses laying everywhere it was a wierd feeling. I raised my hand as a sign that my soldiers should not attack. The other remaining rebels were arrested but pardoned. The first, and pherhaps the last, time I showed mercy...

~The End (for this time)~

"She must have been very beautifull since you let her go away with that..." said Charles.

"Yes indeed, if she had not, she would lose her head. But then again, so would I..."

No they did not work (I was not surprised), pherhaps I'll try making a new geocities site.

Pherhaps he has... But a man like him can't be settled with one woman. Nor can she be settled with one man... Intrigues at Akershus may follow, but first we will see the final war with Sweden (now only holding Svealand).

The unstabile years 1515 - 1522

The story continiues...

~The years of rebellions~

To short things down and to get to the next interresting chapter in my history as the emperor of the north, I will summon up the next seven years, from the end of 1515 till may 1522.

In november 1515, I was married to Anna, daughter of Ante. She was born in Kola, 1489. One year later her father had died in a fight, revolting against our just rule. That was around the time when most of Scandinavia rose up in the first wave of rebellion. But my father did well quelling the rebels and holding the kingdom together, and by 1495 he had managed to defeat every single one of the traitors, after five years of uprising. At that time, the fatherland began its destiny towards becoming a world power as colonies were established in the west. Also, the three colonies of Bergslagen, Vestgötaland and Skåne was taken from the Swedes in the First Swedish War (april 1495 to august 1497). I was not born yet when these things happened, but as I said to you earlier, my father had told me many of the things that happened during his reign.
1508 was the year when the rebels started to mass around both in the homeland and in Vinland, the war with Sweden had to be cancelled after a few years then because the armies had to be dedicated to quell revolts. That is why the progress of conquering Sweden took so long time.

My marriage with Anna worked fine the first years. She gave birth to a daughter, whom I named after my grandmother Gunnhild. However we had no sons. I could not bare the tought anymore that when she came to me at night, she had been with many others earlier the same day. But this, I only re-paid by sleeping with other wimen. Surely, such could not matter in the days before syfillis was infested upon us by the Skrælings. That was not the reason she had to go... She tried to plot against my rule. In the winter of 1518 she was rallying some of the many nobles she had "contact" with. Twenty men stormed the royal room in Akershus with swords in their hands. Luckily Sigmund was in the room with me and we killed them all, well, he killed sixteen of them and I killed four. There were of course some of them who actually survived the real fighting, but we killed them after they told us who was behind the plot.

The nobles were then killed and Anna was inprisoned. There she could rotten for all I cared. The executing of the nobles started a new wave of revolts, this time in Norway and led by nobles. 22,000 rebels gathered in Bergenshus, only to be taken down one week later by the Royal Guard. I had heard the news that re-inforcements were needed in Vinland so ten thousand more troops were shipped. This time to finish off the new world rebellions for good, or at least for a while. Engelbriktsson died while fighting bravely against some rebel scum in Finland in the summer of 1518. It was a tragic loss, but he won the battle where he died, and the rebels had been crushed everywhere. We were still at war with Novgorod technically, and they had sent a few raids into Kexholm, only to be defeated by Engelbriktsson. But it was not them I worried about now.

The Swedes had conscripted 20,000 men during the peacetime. They were many but stood no chance against the grand army of the empire. The Royal Army marched in from Bergslagen with 20,000 brave cavalerists as the old man Knut Alvsson did his last service for the army before retireing. He invaded from Småland, with the army of Saint Olav consisting of 15,000 men, mainly infantery. It was a hard battle, and Knut retired in the spirit of a true Norwegian commander, he died on the field. But so did the Swedish commander, and he truly deserved it for his treason. The Swedes were killed one by one. After the walls of Stockholm had been assaulted, the entire male population was either killed or made slaves and the female population was shipped to entertain Norwegian nobles. And my self of course...

The two countries that had supported Sweden, Hessen and Kleves, unable to get their tiny wimp armies into Norway soon wanted white peace. I declined and demanded a sympolic sum of fifty thousand kroner (50D) out of each. Trembling in fear they both accepted. Thorstein had been appointed to take care of the economy, all I can say is, he did his best. It had gone down from -20,000 to -10,000 a month. He took a few loans and manage hired many merchants to compete with the other nation's merchants. He said to me "If we only held a few trade centers...", I answered "We will, we will most certainly...".

Erlend of Losna, a distant relative of me had taken the role of the national conquistador as Leif Sigurdsson died in the heart of Vinland. He had started a conquest of the Bahamas and Florida. And would soon move from Lousiana to the upper north of Vinland. Killing every godforsaken Skræling he came over.

The mighty power of Hungary was falling. It had seen its hayday during the period Norway was governed by my grandfather and my father. Bavaria rebelled shortly after the devils in Austria had made a gap between Bavaria and Hungary. King Lajos had to concentrate his forces to repell the Venetian attacks, but the Venetians would soon ravage through Hungary. And right after, the Bohemians rebelled too and the Serbians invaded Banat. And soon the Hungarian kingdom would belong to history as the two provinces left were inherited by the Austrian duke. I do not think of the Austrian emperors as Holy Roman Emperors, for that name do only belong to the one who unifies all of Germany by force.

Short after the conquest of Sweden, a new wave of revolts started in Finland. I lacked any good commanders, seemed like I was the only one left until men like Olav Galle and Harald the Black came to service. I personally had to defeat the rebels in Tavastland, Nyland and Finland. And we also faced a treath as our old ally Holstein declared war upon us from the south. Our Teutonic allies betrayed us as they resigned from the alliance, and our former allies in Prussia and Pommern were also long gone from the old alliance that had stabilized the Baltic. It was a change of politics for us Norwegians. Since our only ally was now the Lenape, (who had decided to ally us right after the Teutons betrayed us) I decided that Norway is not in the need of an ally. Our army consisted of over sixty thousand of the finest warriors in Europe at that time, Norway was ranked the third power in the world at that time, only beaten by China and then Spain.

I quelled rebellion after rebellion with my Royal Army. Olav Galle came in charge of the Hålogaland Regiment, which was currently in Jylland. The Holstein attacks were repelled, the only thing that saved them from losing their own lands was a rebellion in Sjælland, so Olav Galle had to withdraw. And when the rebels were defeated, there was not much left of his army to take Holstein, only two thousand men, unknowingly of our heavy losses to the rebels in Sjælland, Holstein paid us 100,000 kroner in indemnities.

Things were to get worse for a while before they got good. Not only had there been rebellions caused by settlers in Vinland, unwilling to pay tax to the fatherland, rebellions from Swedes and Danes wanting their land back, rebellion from un-happy nobles and stupid Finns who did not know better than revolting. But now it was religious rebellions! The heretics of Martin Luther decided to fight with the sword for their cause. Specially in Sweden and Southern Norway these heretics gained roots. So I made my efforts to send missionaries to root out these heretics. It would take some years, but the empire would have the true faith once again.

During the end of 1520 and the beginning of the new year, Thorstein and I made new efforts in expanding our trade all over Europe. Some places we were successfull, but in most cases we got competed off. However, the economy was on its way towards stability. The Teutons decided to join our invitation of alliance, since they lacked any from before. The truce with Novgorod was broken and troops were sent into Novgorod. I could not go myself as I had to take care of revolting heretics. But 20,000 men were sent in there. Ryazan and Ukraine joined the war on the side of Novgorod, but those Ukrainian cowards sued for white peace once our mighty army defeated the Novgorians. Ryazan however waited until we had been damaged enough by atrittion during the siege of Novgorod and then sent at least fifteen thousand men upon the joint Norse-Teuton army at about the same size. The men were tired and run like cowards back to Finland. Ryazan then tried to invade the Teuton lands but were repelled. The war continiued but no real action took place, for a while.

On another front, on january 2. 1521, the Swedes rose up in a so called national rebellion under Gustav Vase, also known as Gustav the Coward. Some fighting with the Swedes would happen until I rode in there with the Royal Guard and finished them off in june. Gustav was executed and his head placed on a torch, the shortlasting rebellion had ended.

In the autumn of 1521, the Novgorians had rebuild themselves an army of eight thousand cowards, Ryazan invaded with around the same amount. I decided to defeat them myself this time. Those cowards obviously did not know how to fight when they were not in their safe homes in winter Russia, all they could do was obviously retreating and take use of their large lands. For once a few sword strikes had been given by our mighty cavalery, they ran like rabbits. I chose not to persue them into Novgorod, learning from my experience last year. However, we helped the Teutons getting back Ingermannland.

The merchants were unhappy that autumn, but who cared, the economy had at least started to go on the right track again and so had the stability of the nation. I was twentyone years old by now and I had gained more experience in govern, Norway was getting back on its feets. Personally, I had gotten involved with many new wimen after getting rid of Anna. I had a secret relationship with the widow of some nobleman in Østlandet, I also had a relation to her older and younger sisters, two of her friends and her fourteen year old daugther. It was complex, but every woman wanted a piece of the king, in hope of becoming queen probably. But my intentions of getting a queen could not lay in some whore from within the realm, I had to have some kind of relations with the foreign powers. So I made royal marriages with the French and the Scots, establishing very good relations with them. I let the Scottish king know the thruth as his daughter was married to me, but I fooled the old senile French king as he married his daughter to me in the belief he was marrying her to my brother. And I did not have a brother.

Relations stayed good with the French and the Scots, and the Teutons were still allies, for now. Eindridi of Losna had established settlements along the north of the carribean gulf. His band of nine thousand adventurers, seeking glory, were heading north, into the unknown...