Heirs of Charlemagne

[east_emnet]

This will be my first AAR for CK. Just to let you know, I will probably be very inconsistant with how quickly I post updates. However, any responces, critiques, insults (well, maybe not) are welcome.

I will leave you to speculate who exactly I am playing as. I will be playing around with my first update for an hour or two untill I am satisfied with it.


POV: Point of View

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Of Marriages POV: Guillaume de Toulouse
Chapter 2: I Am So Happy, Pierre POV: Pierre de Toulouse
Chapter 3: Languedoc POV: Guillaume de Toulouse
Chapter 4: My Money, My Land POV: Guillaume de Toulouse
Chapter 5: A Son POV: Guillaume de Toulouse/Pierre de Toulouse
Chapter 6: No Son of Mine POV: Guillaume de Toulouse
Chapter 7: Old Hugues POV: Guillaume de Toulouse
Chapter 8: No Longer Walk the Earth POV: Guillaume de Toulouse
Chapter 9: A City Without Walls POV: Pierre de Toulouse/Guillaume de Toulouse
Chapter 10: Love and Hate POV: Lois d'Hautpoul
Chapter 11: I Have You POV: Hugues de Toulouse
Chapter 12: Asleep Beside Her POV: Oda von Pfirt
Chapter 13: A Plan POV: Adelaide de Vermandois
Chapter 14: By Death and Suffering POV: Jabir Najeeb
Chapter 15: Moorish Ships POV: Raymond de Narbonne
Chapter 16: You Have a Dead Serpent POV: Raymond de Narbonne
Chapter 17: Like an Innocent Man POV: Hilde de Bourgogne
Chapter 18: Serious Work Ahead POV: Pierre de Toulouse
Chapter 19: The Enemy POV: Guillaume de Toulouse/Hammud Bari
Chapter 20: Never Taste Death But Once POV: Raymond-Bernard Trencavel/Pierre de Toulouse
Chapter 21: The Shadow of Death POV: Pierre de Toulouse
Chapter 22: Half So Barbarous POV: Guillaume de Toulouse
Chapter 23: A Friend and a Master POV: Pierre de Toulouse
Chapter 24: Understand POV: Pierre de Toulouse <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<My Favorite Update
Chapter 25: A Dark Day for France POV: Hugues de Toulouse/Guillaume de Toulouse
Chapter 26: I Should Have POV: Adelaide de Vermandois
Chapter 27: Eureka POV: Pierre de Toulouse
Chapter 28: Rebellion Against Tyrants POV: Werner von Habsburg
Chapter 29: In an Hour of Play POV: Gaston de Toulouse/Bregida de Toulouse
Chapter 30: Like a Rose Bush POV: Pierre de Toulouse
Chapter 31: A Noble Cause POV: Odo de Lagery
Chapter 32: It is God's Will POV: Lois d'Hautpoul
Chapter 33: Heretic POV: Guillaume de Toulouse
Chapter 34: Gaston's Guilt POV: Gaston de Toulouse
Chapter 35: The Sleeping Lion POV: Raymond de Toulouse
Chapter 36: A Squire POV: Pierre de Toulouse/ Gaston de Toulouse
Chapter 37: In the Presence of Mine Enemies POV: Raymond de Toulouse
Chapter 38: Scaevola POV: Eberhard de Toulouse
Chapter 39: To Ration Justice POV: Gaston de Toulouse/ Eberhard de Toulouse
Chapter 40: Cobbler POV: Gaston de Toulouse
Chapter 41: A True Friend? POV: Bregida de Toulouse
Chapter 42: The Merchant of Venice POV: Hammud Bari
Chapter 43: A Doubtful Friend POV: Raymond de Toulouse
Chapter 44: May Day POV: Bregida de Toulouse/ Eberhard de Toulouse
Chapter 45: Coming and Going POV: Raymond de Toulouse
Chapter 46: Interlude POV: Pierre de Toulouse/ Gaston de Toulouse
Chapter 47: Interlude (Part 2) POV: Gaston de Toulouse/ Miquel de Toulouse
Chapter 48: No Kind of Insurance POV: Raymond de Toulouse
Chapter 49: Another War POV: Guillaume de Toulouse
Chapter 50: An Enjoyable Hobby POV: Eberhard de Toulouse
Chapter 51: A Secret Revealed POV: Gaston de Toulouse
Chapter 52: Most Prominent Vices POV: Adelaide de Vermandois/ Eberhard de Toulouse
Chapter 53: Landing in Laigin POV: Gaston de Toulouse
Chapter 54: The Counsel of War POV: Pierre de Toulouse
Chapter 55: A Change in Mind-set POV: Baudoin de Boulogne
Chapter 56: Inner Voices POV: Eberhard de Toulouse
Chapter 57: Adela POV: Bernard de Narbonne
Chapter 58: Gisulf POV: Gisulf
Chapter 59: The Second Counsel POV: Guillaume de Toulouse
Chapter 60: Awakening POV: Eberhard de Toulouse
Chapter 61: The Court POV: Bregida de Toulouse


OTHER
Important Characters (Contains Spoilers)
Specialist290's de Toulouse Family Tree

[Ayeshteni]

Well there is only one candidate.

I will not spoil the 'surprise' for others though. I will follow this though methinks.

Ayeshteni

[east_emnet]

What surprise? I know nothing. ( )

In all seriousness, are you so sure about who I'm playing?

[Ayeshteni]

What surprise? I know nothing. ( )

In all seriousness, are you so sure about who I'm playing?

The Count of Vermandois?

Ayeshteni

[east_emnet]

Maybe.










...not

[Ayeshteni]

Ah, well I will await your first update then.

Ayeshteni

[Bismarck1]

I will wait till first update before i give any critiques.

[east_emnet]

Chapter 1: Of Marriages

“A kingdom for a stage, princes to act
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!”

“So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France?”

William Shakespeare, Henry V



Guillaume de Toulouse was sitting alone in his manor. He scratched his chin as he poured over maps. News had just reached Toulouse that William the Bastard of Normandy had been crowned king of England one week ago, and Saxon power is being pushed to the north. Times are changing, Guillaume mused. Guillaume stared long and hard at a map of France. He had drawn in ink the borders of the duchy he now ruled, that of Toulouse. He sighed. The only real title he had was the duke of Toulouse, but he had lands that could compose at least two or three additional duchies.

He shook his head. Over the last few years, Guillaume had begun to gain the reputation of being a good schemer, and knowing how to run a court. That had been one of the main reasons why he was duke now. Everyone under him was on good terms with him, and Guillaume thanked God for that. All of the court was in a good mood. Well, they all have a reason to be in a good mood, Guillaume thought, there will be about four weddings in the court soon. He smiled, including mine.

He had arranged all of them. The first one he had arranged was for his cousin Hugues de Toulouse to Oda von Pfirt, who is a noblewoman who is not even twenty. “Cousin” was an odd term to give Hugues. Hugues had only recently turned 61, while Guillaume is about 26 years old. Hugues two sons are closer to Guillaume’s age. The older son, Hugues, was to marry Hildegrade de Bourgogne, the eldest daughter of the duke of Bourgogne. Pierre, the elder Hugues younger son, was to marry a young woman of the court, Euphrosine d’Anduze.

My own marriage. It had been hard, but was to marry a noble lady named Adelaide de Vermandois. If his research was correct, the de Vermandois family were direct descendants of Charlemagne.

Guillaume could not help but smile.





- Oda, Hildegrade, and Adelaide: The newcomers to the court

[bigdan]

Sounds interesting only problem is Toulouse is one of the enemy in my story. I suppose I can overlook that little fault though if the Treancavels are made dukes after you take over France which I'm assuming is probably one of your goals. I understand what Guillaume is saying about being cousins with someone who has children your age. Actually my cousin's kids are older than me! Good job keep this up.

[Veldmaarschalk]

Good start and surprising to, I also thought you would play the count of Vermandois

[Ayeshteni]

I knew there had to be a Vermandois in there somewhere.

Nice start. Will follow.

Ayeshteni

[east_emnet]

bigdan: Perhaps they can be made Dukes, but an unrevealed part of Guillaume's personality would make that kind of difficult.

Acctually, there is no real family tree conection between Hugues the Elder and Duke Guillaume. They just have the same dynasty name so I am just assuming that they are distant cousins.

Veldmaarschalk: Thanks. I perfer playing as dukes or Kings and I don't think I could do much as the count of Vermandois.

Ayeshteni: Of course, there is always a de Vermandois involved. Don't you know of the big conspiracy?



Alright, hopefully I will be able to get the next update ready for later today. More realisticly, It will be done for tomorrow.

[anonymous4401]

I insult you, sir!

Good start.

[east_emnet]

anonymous4401: Thank you.


Imageshak does not seem to be working for me, so the next update may be alittle delayed.

[east_emnet]

Chapter 2: I Am So Happy, Pierre

“Love conquers all.”

Virgil


For Pierre de Toulouse, it was perhaps the happiest day of his entire life. He knew the Duke was looking for a wife for him, but he had never expected the Duke would let him marry Euphrosine.

Duke Guillaume had laid his hand on Pierre’s shoulder and said, “You want this?”

Pierre remembered replying hesitantly, “Yes, I do.”

In actuality, Pierre wanted this more than anything. The whole morning after the Duke told him his decision, Pierre searched the manor for Euphrosine. When he found her, she was sitting on her own like she usually was. Euphrosine was never the most talkative person at court, and she tended to shy away from people she did not know. She seemed to become a completely different person alone with Pierre.

Euphrosine was crying. “Have you heard?” Pierre asked.

She quickly got up, noticing that he was there. “Yes. Yes, I have.”

Pierre wiped a tear off of her cheek, “Why are you crying then?”

“It’s just,” she paused, looking down, “I am so happy, Pierre.”

“Isn’t it something?” Pierre shook his head, “Do you know how rare a marriage this is for people of our standing? In this day and age love and marriage are two entirely different things. Do know what this is like? It is like one of those Greek epics…”

“Pierre…” Euphrosine interrupted, smiling now.

“What?” Pierre snapped back playfully.

“We are going to be parents. I’m pregnant.”

Pierre’s eyes went wide. Then he threw back his head and laughed. The two of them then embraced for the longest time. They did not notice when Duke Guillaume walked into the room.

“Well,” He said, which made Pierre and Euphrosine jump in surprise, “I see that I have at least one good decision.” He shook his head, this was making him think of his own marriage yet again to a woman he had never met.



- Pierre and Euphrosine

[queenimperiale]

Really good! I like it!

[Ayeshteni]

£10* says she dies in childbirth. Any takers?



Ayeshteni

*virtual money of course

[anonymous4401]

An anonymous4401 Dollar says she doesn't?

[east_emnet]

queenimperiale: Thanks. I am new to this, so any praise at all will help.

Ayeshteni and anonymous4401: What? You think she going to die just because they are happy? Have fun placing bets.

Here is good game: how many of the eight people I have introduced so far will be dead in 20 years?

[Veldmaarschalk]

Three at least,

Guillaume, Pierre and Euphrosine

I see a lot of tragedy ahead, a young orphan duke