Lotharingia -- A tale of resurrection

[canonized]

A beloved child indeed holds many nicknames.

Allright, so I was a little over-optimistic to expect to finish an update during the weekend; when I sat down to write a few hours ago I realized that I, for the first time since long, don't have any material. So first I'll play a few years, then writing, and then you'll have your update.

Take your time , friend . Don't want you burning yourself out XD

 

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Take your time , friend . Don't want you burning yourself out XD

Oh, I'm definitely not. The other way around, I've been stuck playing ES:Oblivion all day.

 

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Chapter XVII

Grudgingly, Godfried had finally resigned to the fact that he had to find Guntram a bride. For all he cared his son – whom he still did not mention by name less there was a higher-ranking lord close by, which there generally weren’t – could keep on getting mounted by kitchen maids and peasant girls, all hopeful in getting a good future by bonding with the future duke. Sadly the rest of feudal Europe did not have the same opinion, and the ageing duke of Upper Lorraine had jeeringly asked Godfried how come his spawn had not taken a woman. Godfried had always considered Duke Gerhard de Lorraine a fool in his own right and thus did not take his hidden insult seriously, but it had been a warning bell; the surrounding world expected the future duke of the largest duchy in the largest kingdom on Earth to marry, and marry well.

No-one expected Guntram to choose for himself however.

Adelaide Drengot was the third daughter of the Champagnese chancellor Jordan Drengot, and was thus not expected to earn neither reputation nor wealth all throughout her life; she was on the contrary expected to end up in a nunnery, or at most getting married to a courtier of her own status in one of the many French counties. Thus, there were few that took the proposal of the mighty heir Guntram d’Ardennes seriously. Of course Guntram did not put forward this proposal himself, but it was done by an envoy from Lorraine on the order of Duke Godfried. Adelaide herself – that previously had not drawn any attention to herself due to her rather secretive yet humble personality – was beyond herself with happiness. Guntram could have been far happier.

“Who exactly do you think you are, father?”
“As you just stated yourself, I am your father. It is a quite stupid question, even to come from you,” Godfried answered, irritated in being interrupted by his oldest son and heir storming into the study.
“I am your bloody heir, you can’t bully me around like a frightened stable-boy!” Guntram bellowed from the doorway, before turning around and slamming the door shut behind him. Instantly afterwards, he once again stormed in, this time all the way to Godfried’s desk. “In a few years it will be me ruling this duchy, and you will be nothing but a pile of dusty bones in a crypt!”
“But I am still alive, and as long as I am the lord of the castle in which you live, you obey me,” Godfried answered, demonstratively not turning his gaze up from the document he was reading, until Guntram, with a snort of distaste, quickly bent forward, snatched the scroll and crumbled it.
“I am no child, father! I am no helpless little boy like you were, that will stand being bossed around by his father! I’m the damned heir apparent, and you will –”
“Keep your mouth shut and realize that I am still fully capable of throwing you into the dungeon if it suits my mood!” Godfried bellowed. At Guntram’s spiteful gaze, he continued: “You don’t think I would dare to, do you? Well come on then, dare me! Give me one reason and see if I will flinch!”

Guntram said nothing, and only stood staring hatefully at his father.
“You will marry Adelaide whether you want it or not. Not because it is good for you; not because you would want to; not because of her looks, but of the well-being of the whole duchy. So stop sulking and start acting as the duke you think you will be.”
“One day you die, and I become the duke, father,” his son stated in casual tone when he walked towards the still open door – a guard dressed in the yellow and red robe of the duchy was curiously peering in. “And when that day comes, there will not be a pulpit in which your lack of integrity and courage is not told to the masses.”
“By then, I hope there will be no pulpits left. Now be gone with you.”

---​

In tales told by the elderly to the children during the long winter-nights many years later, it was said that with Adelaide Drengot came the shits, for only two days after her marriage to Guntram d’Ardennes – demonstratively not resting his eyes on her even once during the course of the whole day – in mid-August the dysentery broke loose with full force in Zeeland. Six days after the break-out the stewardess in charge of the province – which still was a part of the duke’s personal demesne – Beatrix van Brunesheim, died.

Adelaide, however, found herself rather well in the situation. Her belief in God was strong, but not strong enough to make the monotonous life of a nunnery seem appealing to a young woman of the court. As the third daughter of an official without lands of his own she would have been happy marrying at all – now she had a marriage far finer in wealth and prospect than any of her sisters, which cheered her up immensely. She was aware of the fact that the main reason that Duke Godfried had asked for her hand for his son, the heir, had been to insult said son, but with the alternative ways that her life could have taken she was very content with the happenings. Yes, her husband had not even looked at her during the whole ceremony, and yes, she felt as a stranger in the court of her father-in-law – that had not as little as looked at her either – but she managed to draw strength from this situation. No-one expected her to know German, and so she pretended not to and learnt to know the members of the court by observing their doings and the judgements on them made by other courtiers. No-one took notice of her, and so she could go anywhere she wanted in the so-called castle of Andernach. No-one expected her, a woman, to know or be able to do much and so she built up an invisible powerbase during the first months of her time in Lorraine.

The first person to actually acknowledge her was the duchess Camila de Bourges that, many years earlier, had been in a similar situation – French, newly-married, absent husband and lonely.

“How is life treating you, mademoiselle Adelaide?” she asked Adelaide in French one evening by the time dinner was served.
“I am faring well, Madame,” she answered, her head humbly bent down. “I am not making any noise to be seen or heard, and no-one is requesting me to participate in the administration, for which I do not believe I am qualified. I am grateful for being allowed to adapt to the situation.”

Camila shot her an odd glance at the notice of her son's young wife's humility, doubting its earnestness.

“Does my son treat you with adequate respect?” she continued. Adelaide bent her head down even more, the very picture of a pious and obedient modern woman.
“Adequate, yes, although he has not spent a day, nor has he…” Adelaide started blushing, mainly for effect. “Nor has he spent nights with me this far. But we are only just married, and I am his wife, so naturally I am content. How couldn’t I be?”

Camila felt both compassion and pity for the humble little creature in front of her, but also realised that it would not be possible to have a longer discussion in the same way. She instead started a conversation with spy master Reinhardt that sat opposite to her. Meanwhile, Adelaide smiled a discreet smile, and kept on listening to the talk of others while she herself appeared to be the most innocent and obedient person there ever was.

---​

A month before the calling off of the First Crusade in March and three months after the homecoming of Thiedric Gerulfing Emperor Henrik von Franken once again requested the aid of Lorrainese troops in Outremer. A large part of the duchy’s mobilized men-at-arms were already fighting there under the German banner, and the ones that weren’t had only recently arrived at home with Thiedric’s fleet and that without many of their brothers-in-arms. Reinhardt decided to not even bother Godfried with it, and thus dismissed the request immediately.

When the same request arrived again only two weeks later, he became more confounded and decided to discuss the problem with Godfried.

“Is he mad?” Godfried asked out loud as he read the parchment with the Emperor’s heavy seal on the lower part of it. “He is commanding half of the armed men on Earth and he still wants more, only to win all the wars he have picked with beydoms and emirates completely unrelated to the conquering of Jerusalem. No, he will have to do without what is left of our men, they have fought enough.”
“As you said, he commands half of the armies that we know of,” Reinhardt answered with a concerned tone. “In my opinion that is one of many reasons to work towards keeping his favour.”
“I am not sending the men all the way to Outremer again, Reinhardt.”
“I am fully aware that you are not. But consider this; we have already – I have already – denied one of these requests. If we deny one more, Henrik von Franken is unlikely to see it as a sign of goodwill and even though he is bed-ridden with a wound and has all of his attention focused on smaller emirates by the Caspian Sea he might turn aggressive.”
“Yes, it is a gamble, but if he keeps on being that pre-occupied with the Caspian Sea he is unlikely to notice what we do. Deny the request.”

The request came back after another two weeks, and before the council of Lower Lorraine had sent yet another declining answer, yet another arrived.

“I believe that Emperor Henrik is taking himself, and his war, very seriously.”
Godfried ignored Renhardt’s remark and, holding his head in his hands, muttered: “He is mad. I can’t believe that I supported him in the Civil War, he’s dragging the country into ruin!”
“Likewise, we need to bend over and obey him,” said Reinhardt, voice full of distaste. “When a by God appointed monarch tells you to help him fight windmills, you sadly need to follow him. So what is our answer this time?”

Godfried ignored Reinhardt’s unwillingness to use his liege’s appropriate title – an honour reserved for Camila, because he loved her and Reinhardt, because he would not waste energy on learning an old, insubordinate dog to sit – and stated what they both already knew he would say; Henrik would get his army, even though it was heavily decimated from the previous tour in the crusade.

---​

Thus endeth the seventeenth chapter.

 

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Short chapter this time, I know. Just felt that I needed to post one, since I am going to Greece 03:00 GMT+1 tomorrow, and will be gone for a week.

I'll send you a thought when I'm frying on the beach, mates. See you in a week.

 

[canonized]

"it was said that with Adelaide Drengot came the shits, for only two days after her marriage to Guntram d’Ardennes – demonstratively not resting his eyes on her even once during the course of the whole day – in mid-August the dysentery broke loose with full force in Zeeland."

ROFL this one really made me laugh .

Great chapter though XD . Lots of unexpected consequences from each decision , a very human chapter !

 

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Chapter XVIII

Around the same time as it was revealed that Guntram and his wife Adelaide expected a child, despite their lack of contact with each other, Folkhard married. The bride was a Fressenda de Heisnes from the county Eu in Normandy, in Northern France. After having created ties with the neighbouring kingdom of France both through his own and his oldest son’s marriages, Godfried decided that it would be good to also create bonds with England, ruled by the highly unpopular yet mighty Normans. The duchy had little or no previously recorded contact with the kingdom isle, and Godfried’s gesture was seen with suspicion by many of his subordinates and subjects.

In fact, the move was done as a mere precautionary measure; Godfried was growing outright scared of the irrational Henrik von Franken – presently, in 1088, away waging a war by Khwarizmian by the Caspian Sea – and wanted to, in case of a disintegration, be well-connected with the outer world. Of course he did not tell anyone about this, except for Camila who said that he was suffering from hubris. Nevertheless, thought Godfried, you can never be careful enough. He did not have any illusions that he would be the one to proclaim independence from the German yoke, but he did not mind paving the way for his successor.

Of course the whole issue of a successor was growing more and more delicate. Guntram had carefully and deliberately avoided Godfried since their fallout, and had not – to everyone’s relief – showed up at Folkhard’s wedding. Folkhard on the other hand – the prodigy, the book-taught, the intellectual – had become increasingly distant lately, and spent a lot of time on his own, riding around the grounds alone on his mare. He and his wife, Fressenda, got along well enough but had little in common and thus only courted each other as much as the honour required. Folkhard’s development worried Godfried to a large extent, as he had secretly hoped that his youngest son one day would rise up and crush the ignorant bastard first sired by Godfried and Camila; as it was now, Folkhard seemed as ineffective as Guntram, only in a completely different way. The bright days of Lower Lorraine were drawing to an end, Godfried thought to himself, and as he had passed the midpoint of his lifeline he worried a whole lot more than he had ever done before.

Luckily, Godfried had other things on his mind, one thing being the growing turmoil in Acre in Outremer. The locals, being either Arabs that disliked being subjects to a Christian duke far away or being Franks, Germans or Italians with a little too grand plans, constantly caused problems either by revolting or trying to fight Christianity itself. Godfried was beginning to wonder why he had bothered with the God-forsaken place in the first place.

In January 1089 two major things happened. First, steward Judith died, thus leaving Godfried without a qualified treasurer and Reinhardt a widower. Secondly, Godfried’s second grandchild was born, being Folkhard and Fressenda’s daughter Mathilde. Two months earlier Adelaide had given birth to a daughter that was christened Jutte, and as far as Godfried knew, Guntram had barely even seen the child.

---

---​

In August, something most peculiar happened, that puzzled the entire Christian world except for Henrik von Franken and his closest commanders. This was however not due to their own virtue, but because of the fact that they now were on the far shore of the Caspian Sea and had no contact with mainland Europe except for a messenger every second month.

In Jerusalem as the Christians called it, Yerushalayem as the Jews called it and Al-Quds as the Muslims called it, Kuno von Nordheim had all of a sudden found himself locked out after a raid he and his regiment had performed on Arab territory. In the castle of the town sat now instead a Frenchman by the name of Guy Khoury.

Guy Khoury had been born as the third son of a minor land-owner in Gascogne, and had as a teen taken up the sword and the cross in the French crusade that rendered Bertrand Capet duke of Oultrejourdain. After that he earned his living as a hired sword in Outremer, using his skill and knowledge in battle for the favour of whomever payed the best. This life had evidently started to bore him, and so he had spent the past year infiltrating the court of the constantly battling, although highly esteemed and respected Duke Kuno von Nordheim of Galilee. The infiltration was done through lies and cunning; first he won the rivals of Kuno to his side through proclaiming that the military supported him, if they would get rewarded an appropriate amount of gold. Thereafter he convinced the city-guard to turn to his cause through saying that the nobles had promised to pay a respectable amount of gold to whoever helped them seize the capitol.

And so Kuno von Nordheim, friend of the pope and conqueror of the Holiest of Holy had to face the disgrace that his duchy had been usurped by a French adventurer whom now had proclaimed the kingdom of Jerusalem. Insulted and furious he left Outremer together with the courtiers still loyal to him – remarkably enough, his wife was not among them – and swore first never to return, secondly to never forgive the French for the dishonour they had caused him. And so it happened that the first king of Jerusalem was not only French and of low nobility; he was also excommunicated.

---​

Thiedric Gerulfing died on Christmas Eve in 1089, leaving Holland to his oldest son Herold, who by this time was only six years old. Godfried grieved the loss of a good commander and a loyal subject whom he in the later years had started to regard as his friend, and spent a big part of the ducal treasury on ensuring that Thiedric’s burial would be a grand and honourable one. In a gesture mainly intended to show disrespect to his father, Guntram decided not to participate. However, since Thiedric was widely liked and respected, this only earned him the disliking of almost all the lords he would one day rule over as a duke. Guntram’s reign was looking dark before it had even started.

Throughout the first months of 1090 A.D. Godfried entered something of a depression, largely due to the stress that the now proclaimed succession-crisis had exerted on him. He talked to no-one except for Camila and Reinhardt, and at some times started to wonder why he had even from the beginning bothered to sit down on a ducal throne that was more of a burden than a privilege.

“Damn my father, and damn my subjects,” he tended to mutter to himself. His father for being the way he was, and for giving Godfried the throne, and his subjects merely due to their existence that caused him so much extra work. Even his library failed to give him the happiness and assertion it once had, and Charlemagne had never felt so far away, both in space and time, and the resurrection of Lotharingia that he once had felt so optimistic about had now turned into some sort of fairytale.

Of course, all of this was before he met Dietrich de Lorraine.

---​

Thus endeth the eighteenth chapter.

 

[canonized]

Wow , some unexpected twists and naturally the turmoil and instability of the Holy Land always creates bad blood . An excellent chapter !

 

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I love the style..almost like a voice-over to an epic movie.

I loved the little incident with the adventurer taking over the Kingdom. Neat-o.

 

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I loved the little incident with the adventurer taking over the Kingdom. Neat-o.

I still have no idea what happened there. :wacko: The first day, Kuno was sitting peacefully as duke of Galilee, and the next day this completely random guy without a court proclaims the Kingdom of Jerusalem in the lands formerly known as Duchy of Galilee. So the duchy of Galilee is now in Innsbruck...

 

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So now the duchy of Galilee is in Innsbruck...

The Duchy of Petra was around Besancon in my game. That's CK for you.

 

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The Duchy of Petra was around Besancon in my game. That's CK for you.

And that's why we love it.

 

[Enewald]

de Lorraine?

Interesting...

and I have no idea why I didn't comment the last update even if I read it on the day it was posted... :wacko:

 

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de Lorraine?

Interesting...

and I have no idea why I didn't comment the last update even if I read it on the day it was posted... :wacko:

...what? Enewald read something and did not comment? You're not getting ill, are you, old boy?

And yes, de Lorraine. As a spoiler I can say that he is the duke of Upper Lorraine.

 

[Enewald]

...what? Enewald read something and did not comment? You're not getting ill, are you, old boy?

It was probably that I opened this page, and the net was disconnected... and the next morning I just forgot to comment.
Sad. So sad... o



And I am not old...

 

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It was probably that I opened this page, and the net was disconnected... and the next morning I just forgot to comment.
Sad. So sad... o



And I am not old...

Would you rather have me call you "young boy"?

Also, sketching on the next chapter now, I think I dare promise it will be up at latest on Sunday.

 

[crusaderknight]

I am ashamed to say I have been slacking off. I haven't read this AAR in some time. I'm not sure how I fell out of habit reading this superb AAR, but I shall get back into said habit. I really have missed reading this AAR.

 

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I am ashamed to say I have been slacking off. I haven't read this AAR in some time. I'm not sure how I fell out of habit reading this superb AAR, but I shall get back into said habit. I really have missed reading this AAR.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. Well, I unexplicably fell out of habit with Morea a few times as well, so I guess you've got credit. Good to have you back though.

 

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​

I wanted to let all my readers know that the new issue of the AARLander is out.

I might be a little overambitious, considering that half of my known readers are already on the staff of the AARlander -- looking at you, canonized and crusaderknight -- but since I've gotten two articles into it, and since this will contribute to my post-count, harr-harr, I am happy to announce the latest edition of the AARlander, and I advise you all too have a look at it.

Regarding next update, it is one that is only loose based on gameplay and otherwise actually based on me manipulating the save-file, so I have little material to gather inspiration and ideas from. This makes it a little harder to write, but it'll be out in a few days.

 

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I have read prologue from your AAR and surely I will read the rest of it providing I find time for it. So far its looking good. Narrative AARs are my favourites even though they take time a bit to read them. I like your writing style and that you have made up a background for this AAR.

Well, I have read three chapters now and it sucks...No, no, just kidding. Its marvellous! Like reading a book. excellent narration!

I´m planning to do an AAR, but I think it will come to nothing. English is not my native languange and its very hard to write in another languange. Also I dont know what to write and where to write...
But its great that at least someone knows

 

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I have read prologue from your AAR and surely I will read the rest of it providing I find time for it. So far its looking good. Narrative AARs are my favourites even though they take time a bit to read them. I like your writing style and that you have made up a background for this AAR.

Well, I have read three chapters now and it sucks...No, no, just kidding. Its marvellous! Like reading a book. excellent narration!

I´m planning to do an AAR, but I think it will come to nothing. English is not my native languange and its very hard to write in another languange. Also I dont know what to write and where to write...
But its great that at least someone knows

Haha, glad that you are enjoying it, Auray, welcome on board! And I couldn't agree more -- I definitely find narratives the most enjoyable reading, but they do take a lot of time to catch up on (Timelines, anyone?). The updates are rather short in general though -- ca. three A4-pages each in MS Word -- so you'll be there in no time.

As for you planning to do an AAR, I think that you should do it if you feel it could be a fun thing to do. If you think it could be a nice way to spend your time, then I strongly encourage you to go for it -- what is the worst thing that can happen? Well, the worst would be if it dies, and my first one died after two chapters. If you'd feel like you need advises regarding AAR-writing in general, or an AAR of yours specifically, send me a PM or start a thread in AARland, there are always plenty of people around to help. And hey, all of us, from canonized and Mettermrck to Rensslaer and even stnylan have been new at some point.