Wulfhere “The Saxon” Haraldsson Crovan
King of All Norway of Sweden, of Denmark and of Serbia
Ruminations on the middle years, 1339-1342
I have continued to collect vassals from among the terrorized minor lords of the Continent. Since I rule directly over none of these lands, they continue to not matter to me very much at all.
Except for the fact that enough Balkan Lords have pledged their loyalty that I can claim Kingship of Serbia. It will be nice to have a good, stable, quiet place like Serbia in my dominion to counter-balance the treacherous, violent, politically fragmented Scandinavian lands.
My new title, situated as it is, very close to their homes, has started a new round of pledging. These are not quite as suspicious as the German pledges if only because Mighty Norway is the only possible force that could keep the Turks from overrunning the whole peninsula. Well, that and the fact that the Turks are strangely addicted to sea-borne invasions of England.
There has been some speculation on why my effete son Thurcytel is heir to the Crovan thrones, to those people, I present my son Edric.
I have ordered the Royal Table-Setters to equip his forks with corks from now on.
Not that it matters anymore.
With the addition of Bacs, my lower-Balkan Empire continues to swell. I am beginning to wonder if an Imperial Title is in the future.
Now the Count of Hellas has pledged loyalty as well. The Crovan Empire stretches from the frozen lands of the Lapps to the toasty warm waters of the Mediterranean.
Even Half-Dan himself might stand in awe of my gains. Well, actually he probably wouldn’t, since I didn’t have to kill anyone to gain it all.
Today a letter arrived from the frozen north. Apparently, Leofwine has become somewhat despondent, as any nine-year old exiled to the army in the frozen north and six months of night, might.
He was wondering if God was real. I wrote back telling him that God was real and that our happiness on Earth was directly related to if God loves us or not.
For example, I am King of a great swath of the planet, by virtue of the fact that Skule the Usurper’s line was brought to a premature and pitiable end, and that I am ruler of the single most powerful Empire in the World and my castle is toasty warm, so God loves me plenty.
I told him to look at his circumstances, in comparison to mine, and decide for himself if God loved him.
Two of my German Vassals are about to learn a valuable lesson about declaring war without prior approval from me.
I hope they enjoy their new Italian overlords.
Now it is time to reflect on my continental Empire. As you can see, except for Great Lithuania, Norway is the single largest power on the continent. Italy exists, but in such a scattered way as to be useless and Apuila somehow is holding on in the south.
The part that worries me is that, of everything here, only the bit of Denmark you see and Adrianopolis belong to the demesne.
To celebrate my new Royal Title, I have fathered another son, Alfwold.
Yeah, I know. Not much to celebrate here.
Well, well. Have we discovered the cause of all these German Lords pledging the Norwegian throne? Were they merely hoping for Viking Steel to back up their own petty wars? Will Wulfhere’s refusal to help lead to a flood of German Lords attempting to de-pledge? Did anyone expect Wulfhere to be so peaceful? He really is the anti-Crovan! Join us next time when Wulfhere gets attacked by Ninjas on the next exciting episode of