The Fitzgeralds: Earls of Desmond

**coz1** · 12-03-2006 15:16

Oh boy - another regency.

It never ends, does it? Still, this would be interesting to play out in an exported game. With England and Scotland all messed up, Ireland would be in a position to do pretty much what she wanted. If you do, however, you may want to mod in some explorers and conquistadors. I would think they would gravitate there if Ireland was the strongest monarchy in the Isles, rather than as they did historically.

Looking forward to the last chapter of yet another highly enjoyable AAR, RossN.

**Draco Rexus** · 13-03-2006 03:01

The luck of the Irish, my friends, the luck of the Irish... Just whe things look like they're going great, Mr. Murphy walks on by and mucks things up, and royally to boot!

Can't wait to see how you finish this one off, Ross!

**RossN** · 13-03-2006 03:06

prussiablue: Well we started (almost) on a regency, so why not end on one?

J. Passepartout: Heh, well indeed.

coz1: Yeah, and I fully intend to transfer this to EUII at some point (Another good reason to end in 1419/20)!

Draco Rexus: I think it seems very fitting that a story that began with a premature case of old age should end with a boy king. Don't you?

Well I'd like to thank all you guys for supporting and reading this AAR, which I admit has proven harder to write than I expected, but all the more enjoyable for it.

Rest assured that I intend to start another AAR very shortly (feel free to provide suggestions!). It's been a real pleasure guys.

Part 50: The End

Above: The FitzGerald family crest

So once again the FitzGerald family found itself under a regency. This time however instead of placing a single regent or a feuding handful of elites the regency was firmly legally placed in the hands of the court as a whole. Descisions were made by the appropriate minister and then put to a vote by the court as a whole; perhaps understandably people where worn out by the old factionalism. Nor was there the kind of all domineering personality as had been in the days of Maud.

There have been accusations, particularly by later historians that this form of cautious moderate goverment led to stagnation and lack of imagination and there may well be truth in that. Nevertheless it did keep the country prosperous, safe and at peace for twelve years and Cummascach was old enough to take over. The young king came to power in a realm that was all his great-grandfather, that first Maurice who was Earl of Desmond might have wished for.

Indeed the time of Cummascach already seemed to belong to quite a different era in his lifetime, this the first King of Ireland to never remember a time when there had not been a kingdom. The old world of independent nobles was but a distant memory, and soon not even that and with it the age of the Lordship of Ireland and it's relics. Within a few decades so entrenched would the FitzGeralds become as one of the great royal families of Europe that few could ever recall a time when they had been merely the lords of poor and distant Desmond, a small Earldom of no great importance.

*

There remains little to tell.

There was a story, possibly acroprycal, often repeated in the era of Cummascach that told of a wandering bard who had once ate dinner with a noble lord in Desmond.

The meal was excellent and hearty fair, and of high quality as was the wine yet the bard was quite surprised to find himself eating off plain wooden plates and drinking out of wooden cups. Why, he asked the nobleman, had he gone to so much trouble with the meal if he did not have the silver and gold to do it justice?

Young Maurice, who was then the Earl, answered him so: "I do not invest in such luxuries when the money can be better spent on the meal - meat tastes the same off wood or gold. That is why some men fail and some succeed; those that are more interested in the appearance of wealth and power usually lack the stomach to digest it. Those who want the substance know it tastes the same no matter how it's served."

fin

**prussiablue** · 13-03-2006 03:33

Bravo.....also glad to hear that you are ready to start a new AAR. HOI2, perhaps?

**King of Men** · 13-03-2006 05:26

Great ending, Ross. Substance of power, indeed. I do think a continuation into EU2 could be a fine thing; permit me to offer my converter, linked in my sig. [/blatant self-promotion]

**coz1** · 13-03-2006 18:47

Nicely ended. Sounds like even in regency, Ireland will move forward a stronger place. Maurice would have been proud.

Very enjoyable all the way through, and I'm looking forward to seeing what project you tackle next. Congrats on completing another fantastic AAR, RossN!

**Deaghaidh** · 13-03-2006 19:08

Originally Posted by King of Men

Great ending, Ross. Substance of power, indeed. I do think a continuation into EU2 could be a fine thing; permit me to offer my converter, linked in my sig. [/blatant self-promotion]

Another bit of advice if you do so, is get the monarch list for Desmond from the AGCEEP mod, as it has all the historical fitzGeralds IIRC. It should be simple to replace Ireland's default monarch list (which IIRC consists mainly of O'Neills) with that, and it'll give you some historical personalities like Silken Thomas Fitzgerald.

**RossN** · 13-03-2006 22:12

Thanks for all the good words guys, I'm delighted you enjoyed it so much.

I will continue the FitzGerald story (in EU II form) at some point, but for now I feel I have said all I can about their story.

After careful thought my new AAR is an EU II one, focusing on a Florentine family, tentatively entitled 'The Substance of Power: A Tuscan AAR'.