Age of de Rennes - Breton Adventures

[Emperor Ike]

Age of de Rennes

Breton Adventures

Paris, State of France, European Union
January 5th 2040


It was the tenth year of World War 3 and Europe was in the middle of civil war. In short everything had started five years after the unification of Europe in February 5th 2025, and the American-European attack against Iran in June 1st 2025, which caused a lot of civil unrest in all over Europe. But our story takes place in the past and had been long forgotten until this very day. Deep under Paris in the bunker complex build by the French, two Rebels from Brittany found an interesting collection of historical writings. Writings that tell a much detailed version of the history of Brittany, their home and gave a new light for their cause. They knew from the first moment they opened the books that they had found the legendary books of de Rennes dynasty. The mighty dynasty that is said to rule much of Europe and being the longest dynasties to live in Europe from the dark ages all the way up to the modern age. One of the books, that they believed to be the first Book of Conan de Rennes had the opening lines they had hoped to see.
"...Between the years when the oceans drank Atlantis and the gleaming cities, and the years of the rise of the Sons of Aryas..." As I said earlier our story takes place in the past, in year 1066, just prior the Battle of Stamford Bridge in England. But our story doesn't take place in England, no, we start in Brittany where Duke Conan II rulers the small but independent Duchy. This is where our story takes place. This is AGE OF DE RENNES - BRETON ADVENTURES!

Index:
Conan II de Rennes
de Rennes dynasty lives on
Alain IV de Rennes
Adventures of Alain IV
Rebellion in Brittany
Arthur I de Rennes & Pierre I de Rennes
Regency period
Inheriting Orleans

[Emperor Ike]

Conan II de Rennes

Duke of Brittany, Count of Vannes, Count of Rennes.

This is Conan II de Rennes, Duke of Brittany, Count of Vannes and Count of Rennes. Head of the de Rennes dynasty. He is 33 years old and he just got remarried with Princes Adelheid of HRE. Though not childless Conan has no legal sons of his own, just Alain the Bastard. His heir at the moment is his sister, because their brother is a bastard. We can only guess that there have and will be al lot of bastards in this family but perhaps Conan is able to get a new heir with his wife.


Conan II liked to party often and sometimes he got so ill that he wanted to die. Of course nobody dared to kill their Duke, even though some of them might have wanted. But Conan usually got better from his sickness and continued his life style.



For a long time Conan was unable to impregnate his wife finally he did it. And in October 8th 1068 daughter was born to Conan and his wife. She was named Ria and immediately betrothed to Roger d'Hauteville. Who happened to be the heir of Apulia.



But Adelheid was unable to provide Conan with a male heir so Conan decided to legalize his bastard son Alain. Adelheid got furious about this and started to plot to kill Alain de Rennes the new heir of Brittany. When Conan's Spymaster Hugues revealed the plot Conan ordered his wife to be put in the darkest dungeon in Vannes. Well Adelheid didn't like her dungeon so Conan ordered her to be tortured.

[Aetherius]

Mmmmh, intriguant ...

[Emperor Ike]

de Rennes dynasty lives on

Princess Adelheid died after a year of imprisonment in the dungeon of Castle de Rennes. Of course she was heavily tortured for crimes she didn't have chance to commit but in Brittany even thinking about crime was a crime.


Duke Conan decided that it was a good idea to send his daughter to Apulia which was to become her home anyway once she would marry Roger d'Hauteville. So Roger's father become the teacher of Ria de Rennes.


There is a little record for the following years except that the spies of Brittany worked hard to uncover plots and there is a record that there was a wide spread blackmailing of homosexual people in Brittany. This is only found in the treasury records of Brittany as all the victims of blackmail paid the Duke a hefty sum of gold to keep their secrets in the closet.


In September 1077 Duke Conan II the Cruel's son Alain de Rennes got a son. This son and future heir of the dynasty and Brittany was named Arthur.


Also Conan II had remarried immediately after the death of Princess Adelheid and now his new wife had given him yet another daughter.


Soon after the birth of his new daughter Alix, Duke Conan II started to feel ill. Some thought that he had been poisoned others suspected a serious hangover.

[Emperor Ike]

Alain IV de Rennes
Duke of Brittany, Count of Rennes, Count of Vannes

Duke Conan II de Rennes finally died in January 1080, leaving his only son to inherit the realm. Many thought that Alain IV was not the right person to inherit the Duchy of Brittany because he lacked a proper education because he had been a bastard.

Even though Duke Alain IV all ready had a son to inherit the realm there was always room for some more. Perhaps a daughter could be used to create an alliance. That's what Brittany needed if it wanted to remain independent.


After a long period of illness Alain IV finally recovered.

[Hyena Dandy]

Nabad!

I'm doing a Breton AAR myself. Rather different in tone, but I seem to have had similar problems with Adelhaide and the duke not exactly being eager to pop out little boys. Also legitimized Alain. It'll be fun to see how your Brittany differs from mine.

[Emperor Ike]

Adventures of Alain IV

Alain IV soon proved to be an just leader and everyone loved him.


But just like everyone even Alain had ambitions. His chancellor worked day and night to find claims for his liege to use against the enemies. One claim was found for the County of Anjou which was currently held by the Duke of Anjou who enjoyed the protection of France.


In 1090 Measles arrived in Penthievre.


Pope Alexander II decided to call an Crusade to liberate Jaffa from the infidels. Many joined the crusade but few returned.


Two years later Queen of Sicily was proclaimed the ruler of Jaffa after her efforts in the Crusade.


Alain IV decided to marry his son to one of the young duchess in the kingdom of France to gain an ally and later on secure inheritance for the de Rennes dynasty.

[Saithis]

I like it! Brittany is always one of my favourites and I look forward to seeing how far Alain & descendents can take it.

Also I loved the opening, fantastic!

[olvirki]

Good AAR.

I just got one question. You said that this was written on the 10th year of world war 3 and you said the war started 5 years after 2025. So according to this this must be written in 2040, but you state it is written in 2050. Is this an error, or did I miss something ?

But again, good AAR, I will follow this AAR.

[Emperor Ike]

Oh it was an mere error.

Rebellion in Brittany

In order to secure the succession in Brittany Alain IV reformed the law by making it Primogeniture. This would secure all the holdings to the eldest heir but many of the Counts and other subjects to Alain IV didn't like this.


Mayor Raoul of St. Malo was caught plotting against the Duchy in Nantes. He was imprisoned immediately and his plans to place Elective succession in Brittany failed.


But Mayor of St. Malo was not alone in this. And the Count of Nantes decided to rebel against Alain IV.


Count Bleiz of Penthievre decided to ask the Pope to excommunicate Duke Alain IV soon after he rebelled too.


Alain IV still hold an upper hand against the rebels with his bigger armies and soon the rebels were forced to retreat to their castles.


Alain's victory in the Battle of St. Brieue brought the rebellion to it's end. All rebel leaders were imprisoned and their lands seized.


The Pope had and the new Pope was offering Alain a chance to redeem himself by joining the Crusade to liberate Sardinia. Alain was ready to do this but the Crusade was over before he could join it.


In September 6th 1102 Duke of Anjou declared war upon the still recovering Brittany.

[Emperor Ike]

Arthur I de Rennes
Duke of Brittany, Count of Rennes, Count of Vannes

The war between Anjou and Brittany ended in the imprisonment of Alain IV by the Armies of Anjou. County of Nantes was lost to Anjou and Alain IV was taken to the dungeons in Anjou. But he was still allowed to see his wife and interact with her. Many more children were born to Alain even though he remained in jail. And in 1118 at the age of 61 Alain IV passed away leaving Brittany to his eldest son Arthur I.


Arthur of course wanted revenge on Anjou but at the current state it was not possible. The realm was on the brink of another civil war after the death of Alain IV. But some how Arthur I managed to restore order and unite the lords of Brittany behind him. He also found out that the army of his late father had grown to match the armies of Anjou, lot of improvements had been made by the lords in the past few years and Arthur knew that having large army would bring Nantes back and maybe even more.


In 1121 Anjou decided to attack Brittany once again. Only this time Brittany was prepared to defend itself with all of her strength.


Anjou made a great mistake when it brought all of it's armies to siege the castle of Dol. While the armies of Anjou had been allowed to march to siege Dol, Arthur I had gathered all his armies to Vannes. From there here lead his armies to fight the besieging troops of Anjou in Dol. Anjou had lost many men while trying to take the reinforced castle of Dol and when the armies of Arthur arrived Anjou was outnumbered. The

Pierre I de Rennes
Duke of Brittany, Count of Rennes, Count of Vannes

Even though the battle of Dol was won by Arthur and his men, Arthur was not to see Brittany take revenge on Anjou as he was fatally wounded during the battle. In February he finally died of his wounds leaving Brittany to his three years old son Pierre.

[Emperor Ike]

Regency period

Even though Duke Arthur I died early during his reign, the regency council decided to continue to war that they had begun to win.


Breton armies chased the Anjou troops to Mortain where they destroyed them once and for all. Anjou was left with only castle garrisons.


A year after the battle of Dol Breton troops stormed the castle of Angers along with other castles controlled by Duke of Anjou. This marked the end of the 2nd War of Anjou Aggression.


Nine years later the Regency of Pierre I finally ended.


Year later the dukes wife, Duchess of Lancaster begun to except their first child.

[Emperor Ike]

Pierre I inherits what is left of the Duchy of Orleans.

In 1141 France was in the middle of a Civil War. The reasons for the war were unclear as there were several factions. Some wanted to depose the king and some wanted to acquire the Kingdom of Aragon. What matters is that de Rennes dynasty rules in Orleans. Though they are losing to Mauretania in Barcelona.


In 1146 someone tried to assassinate Duke Pierre but they failed. They never found the other assassin that got away.


In the coming years the size of Orleans diminished. They lost Barcelona and their other Iberian holdings to Mauretania while France was too busy gopling up the Castilian provinces. They also lost Champagne region and Burgundy to the cousins of Pierre I. Good thing. In 1154 Pierre I inherited what was left of Orleans.It was three provinces. Landlocked in the middle of France.


The dukes and counts continued to fight for the crown of France and Aragon. Finally in 1163 King Baudoiun of France and Aragon was assassinated. The crown was divided. Aragon gained some lands in Iberia and became a Kingdom once again and France was given to another powerful Duke.

[Emperor Ike]

de Rennes to the throne of France and Pierre receives a lot of titles

By the luck of Elective Monarchy Duke of Burgundy Arthur de Rennes became King Arthur I of France. All hail de Rennes! Long live the king!



Only three years later Pierre I decided that it was better if de Rennes dynasty would rule France as whole. So he decided to swear fealty to his cousin the King. The King accepted Pierre to the Kingdom with open arms.


To be honest he gave Pierre the duchy of Burgundy. What a joyful day.


Later he informed that Pierre shall also become the Duke of Champagne.


In 1168 after the glorious victory in Iberia King Arthur decided to throw a feast to his loyal vassals. Pierre participated of course.


Year later Pierre received the duchy of Poitou as well as land in Iberia and Duchy of Toledo. It's good to be the cousin of the King.

[Machiavellian]

Excellent stuff so far. I am looking forward to reading more.

[Emperor Ike]

That was unexpected

Our dear cousin the King continued to give Pierre ducal titles in both Iberia and France.


By the time Pierre got the title of Barcelona he controlled over half of France and large parts of Christian controlled Iberia.


Then it happened. The unexpected event of them all. The de Jure Dukes and counts of Aragon voted Pierre to become the King of Aragon after the late king had passed away. Kingdom of Aragon had declared it's independence after our cousin had inherited France.


So we decided to go and reclaim the lands of Barcelona for our first task. And we won.

[Emperor Ike]

Aragon and France United under Pierre de Rennes!

But then in August 1180 our dear cousin the King of France passed away and Pierre was elected as his successor. The Kingdoms of Aragon and France were once again united. But with big kingdom comes a great responsibility.


The heir to the throne Prince Ike of Aragon passed away only at the age of 38 leaving the electors ponder for a new heir.


Of course not everyone liked this new change of kings to Bretons. But with the help of those loyal to the de Rennes dynasty the rebels were quickly defeated.

[Bballman23]

I usually read AARs with more detail than this, but I like how this is going. Just enough detail to keep it interesting, and never lags. I'm suprised at your rapid rise; time to make the kingdoms primogeniture so you don't follow in the path of the last few kings of France/Aragon!

[Emperor Ike]

I usually read AARs with more detail than this, but I like how this is going. Just enough detail to keep it interesting, and never lags. I'm suprised at your rapid rise; time to make the kingdoms primogeniture so you don't follow in the path of the last few kings of France/Aragon!

Well I actually didn't have intention to take over France in any point but I can this huge kingdom to further my previous plans and then perhaps divide the Kingdom of France.