A quest for the Baltic lake

[Berkis]

Oland and Gotland became an integrated part of the Danish Kingdom and there was lot of exchange between the regions, since it was easier to travel by sea than by land. Carles' attempt to gain a foothold in the islands of the Baltic Sea proved to be successful. With his kingdom enlarged, he felt it was time to change it also from inside. Galvenkind succession laws, for the first time in the kingdoms existance, were introduced, with an intention and perspective to enlarge the King's demense. The promise given to Keiser Ulrich the Ironside, after all, was kept. And then, the war against the Duke of Skane ended earlier than expected.

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With the Norwegian succession laws in place, Carles' daughter Ragna now was the successor to the throne of the Kingdom of Norway. But not only to that throne. She was also the successor to the throne of the Kingdom of Denmark, provided Carles doesn't have any sons in the future. For Carles, who was quick and gluttonous, it meant to be doomed for the rest if his life. Carles was searching for consolation to somehow compensate his unwise, but unavoidable succession policies. First, a grand tourrnamnet was organized and was won by the Mayor of Ystad, Erik af Lund, who had an extremely negative opinion about the King. The tournament and recent acquisitions were celebrated in a five day fair. A court jester, who happened to be a winer of tournament, every day had to do storytelling and poetry reading. Carles enjoyed it immensely.

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Suddenly, half a year later, a joke was played by fate. Carles received supposedly very good news. Fate so far had smiled upon him, he still didn't have a son....

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[AndyWolfgang]

Looks interesting, will be actively following.

 

[Tommy4ever]

I'm really enjoying this!

 

[Berkis]

Thanks for your encouragement!

The period of waiting placed a great strain on Carles' nerves. It was a time he could not control the events. He couldn't blame Yelizaveta, saying that she was the woman who embodied all the malign forces in the royal household. She was in her fourties after all, but despite all the dynasty intrigues and politics, Carles still wished her besides him and her to be the Queen of Norway. Putting his daughter Ragna into the Norwegian throne, but in fact giving the power to a regent, whoever he might have been, was too risky. Moreover, he wasn't sure that any plot would succeed at all. So, he abandoned any ideas about plots against Yelizaveta and was waiting to learn his dynasty' s fate.

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Huge, enourmous sigh of relief! Thora, Thora, Thora! Carles sweared he would be sexually abstinent for the rest of his life.
In 1243, the princess Ragna celebrated her 16th birthday. Carles immediately received several proposals to marry her, which he declined politely.

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So, Denmark had a monarchy, which rested on a tradition and the line of inheritance, that monarchy could pass down the female line. As to the Norwegian throne, Carles, as always, had a second strategy in mind, but this time he didn't have any need to use it.

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The coronation of Ragna took place at Nidaros Cathedral, in Trondheim. The festive procession included also some of Carles' vassals and Ragna's immediate retinue. The retinue carried a table top on which the dress and personal jewels of the Queen were laid out. When the procession entered the church, two bishops received the Queen and led her to the altar. Nobody knew for how long, but in the last days of 1245 Ylvings had got the throne of the Kingdom of Norway.

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[Legolas]

This seems like quite a promising development Congratulations and good luck planning more Ylving adventures!

 

[Berkis]

Thanks Legolas. Now I would gladly take up either suicide mission or would join a plot against myself to make Ragna the Queen of both Kingdoms. More likely though, Ragna will now face diificult times with her vassals.

 

[Berkis]

Unable to realize his claims on Danish Holsetin, the Duke of Brunswick launched a reckless war to depose Keiser Ulrich IV of Holy Roman Empire. The Duke Otto had thus precipitated a crisis, for which he was unprepared and the consequences of which he completely misjudged. He had played into Keiser' s hands, who gathered more than twelve thousand levies to win a war and revoke the Duke's title.

For Carles, who was cynical, believed in nothing, and was cold calculating rationalist the war suited his overall purposes. He watched these developments with alarm mixed with complacency and surely would have let loose against the Duke all the dogs that want to howl. He certainly would have eagerly grab his slice of cake of the Duchy, but that would have meant the war with the Keiser, he could not afford. Carles didn't wish to worsen his relations with Keiser through unneccesary discourtesies. Moreover, he wished to start major construction projects in the counties of Fyn and Skane and had calculated that the Kingdom could not maintain any real war for more than couple of years.

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During the next two decades Carles also took his time to be obediens and fidelis to the Roman Catholic Church, explicitly acknowledging the papacy of the Pope Constantine II. By the mid 1260-ies almost all the counties of the Kingdom, except the counties of Fyn and Blekinge embraced Catholicism.

 

[Berkis]

After a prosperous and relatively peaceful decade of 1250-ies under the King Carles, Denmark was enjoying economic success, some degree of peace with its neighbours and between the King and his vassals. Carles had so far been one of Denmark's most powerful and effective rulers. He was determined to increase Ylving dynasty influence further South and East.
Carles' vassal, his half-brother Duke Halvor II ran vast estates in Ostergotland and Oland.There were many Swedish landowners in his counties, who were increasingly rallying for the independence of the Kingdom of Sweden and who pushed and nudged him to seek the independence from his liege. Halvor II was in his fifties, seemingly not very intelligent and rather weak-willed. Carles had treated him with contempt, using him merely as a puppet to carry out the King's policies in the Duchy. Finally tired of this constant humiliation, Duke Halvor renounced his oath of allegiance and opposed Carles. King Carles almost immediatley stormed north to deal with Halvor and his followers.

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Yet, after two years, king Carles rode north with an army of Danish Knights and Swedish archers to fight for the county of Uppland. Carles daughter, Queen Ragna of Norway had been fighting her vassals already for three years, when Duke Skjalg of Karelia, to whom Queen Ragna had recently granted the title of the Count of Uppland, had changed his allegiance and had become a vassal of the King of Rus, Gavriil the Pious. It was remarkable that the Swedes formed such a major part of Carles' army, so soon after their own defeat at his hands. The Danish army arrived outside the town of Hatuna at the end March 1264 to find the castle prepared for a long siege. The experienced Danish and Swedish troops made a manoeuvre and captured the second biggest town of the county Sigtuna in a matter of couple of weeks. Seeing that the resistance to Carles is hopeless, the castle opened its gates and surrendered soon after.

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In the summer of 1264, when Ragna was still fighting aginst the Dukes of Bergslagen and Ostlandet, Carles the Magnanimous added a new title and became the King of Sweden.

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[Berkis]

By 1270-ies King Carles has acquired such an important supply of money as one ususally keeps in readiness only in anticipation of a war. His court and vassals hold a very positive opnion about him, despite that Carles numerous times had openly declared that they kept their positions only becuase they were doing the things Carles found boring. The regent of the Duke of Smaland, Bishop Hug-Jofre of Rome in the meantime had begun garnering support for his duke's attempt for the throne. However, very plausible schemes, with very pleasing commencements, often end with shameful and lamentable conclusions. Carles revoked one of the count' s titles immediately.

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From 1272 on Keiser Siegfried I of Holly Roman Empire faced a large-scale civil war. At one point he was fighting even with thirteen adversaries simultaneously. Carles, howevever, thought that at this critical point he should not have exaggerated his claims. One gets intoxicated by victories as quick as down-hearted by losses. Thus, Carles had the thankless task of pouring cold water onto his marshal reminding him Ylving dynasty doesn't not live alone in Europe, but with many formidable neighbours.

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In the March of 1278, Carles had raised more than twenty thousand levies and declared the war to Keiser, claiming Lubeck. Despite fighting his vassals, Keiser managed to raise more than eight thousand levies and to invade Holstein even before Carles made his move. Learning this, Carles organized a counterattack. Keiser's levies were forced to fall back. In a running fight, the Keiser's troops were defeated.

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Carles' troops advanced across the borders of his kingdom.

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[Tommy4ever]

Well done in taking Lubeck and making yourself King of Sweden. You've now got an easy route for future expansion with your de jure claims over all Sweden.

 

[Berkis]

Thanks Tommy. I intend to go even further.

 

[Berkis]

Despite being in his seventies, King Carles still possesed of a rather good physical and mental organization. He ate, drank and worked without feeling it. Some of his most vigilant courtiers, however, noticed that he began to hesitate at several crucial points and proved unable to control an entire army. At his court he spoke almost all the time, falling into the old error, thinking that through intellectual liveliness and personal charm he can overcome all the difficulties in his way. Some of his vassals began to doubt that he ever had the guts to be King of Denmark and Sweden at the same time. In his dreams Carles often saw Yelizaveta's daughter Sbyslava swimming in icy ocean and laughing in his face. In the mornings thereafter, he was lingering irresolute. At the age of 75, absent-mindedness triumphed over him and yet after a year at the age of 76 he died.

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The legacy left behind Carles was indeed significant. After all, being a widower for more than thirty years, he put all his bets that Ylving dynasty will be continued by Ragna. Occassionally he felt rather helpless witnessing Ragna's fights with her vassals, which she managed bring to the end remarkably well. He was worried about her prestige, he was demanding his spymaster to uncover plots in Norway, at the same time plotting against her enemies. Since he was less than two decades older than her, he sometimes became frightened that one day she would pass away as suddenly as her mother. It was just at the very end of his days, when sanity episodically returned to him, that he began to believe that his lifelong efforts might have brought some fruits.

On May 17, 1286 Ragna became the Queen of four kingdoms. Her territories stretched from Lubeck in South and Iceland in West to the Arctic Ocean waters in North and to the east coast of the Baltic sea.

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A number of levies she could raise by far surpassed that of Holy Roman Empire, although still significantly smaller than that of Rurikovich dynasty. For the first time a member of Ylving dynasty was heading a true empire, whose neighbours taking their respective decisions had to think twice before taking action.

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[Berkis]

Although Ragna had been the Queen of Norway for three long decades, she had never waged any wars to expand her kingdom. Now, having an empire twice as big, she in a new way had to discovered how to weigh the characters of men, to discern their weakness and to profit by their meannesses and susceptibilities. Her Chancellor Duke Harald III of Ostlandet Nordland thought that Carles had made Ylving dynasty great and powerful, but robbed it of its friends, the sympathies of vassals, and finally, of any conscience. Once, at the moment of candidness he was openly asking her: "What good to us is all power, all martial glory and renown, if hatred and mistrust meet us at every turn, if every step we advance in our development is a subject for suspicion and grudging?"

Preservation of Carles' achievements meant constant watchfulness for threats from abroad as well as enemies at home. Ragna began domestic preventive actions for ensuring the Ylving dynasty acquisitions, before the streghth of the four kingdoms' crowns she had, fizzles away. She tried to insert a wedge between her vassals by being harsh to ones and considerate to others.

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Ragna spun further her web with subtlety. The forces against her combinations at the time proved to be not too strong. Only Countess of Kola was thinking herself more infallible than Ragna.

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Finally, kingdom's treasury was put into order. Carles, who had spent most of his life as a widower, hadn't been in a mood of denying many of earthly pleasures neither to himself nor to his courtiers. It had to be stopped once and for all.

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[Berkis]

With interrogation of Duke Haldor, she would do well, to tread softly at first, Ragna decided. She needed to learn more about problems afflicting the place before she could decide how best to solve them. When her information was complete, she would take firm action.

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Ragna, however, so far had not been able to be as ruthless with her vassals as Carles once was. Duke Gunnar I of Ostlandet was bitterly aggrieved by how Ragna was centralizing her power. He was a self-righteous and stiff-necked duke. His soul was tormented by the thought, that if not Ylvings, his dynasty would be the most powerful in Norway. Once he wished to be Ragna' s Chancellor, believing that she would rely on him for guidance and advice, but Ragna was dismissive of him. Now, he was going to foment a rebellion to unseat Ragna. He sent out messages to his followers all over Norway.

Even if there were other plotters, they qiuckly disassociated themslves from the rebellion. After heavy fighting, in which a reorganized Ragna's levies had distinguished themselves, Duke Gunnar asked the neutral vassals for mediation. Ragna, however, was not ready to yield to Gunnar' s late and desperate calls for truce. It was the stain on his honour that nothing would wash away, she said.

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After the war, Ragna's inclination to look on the dark side of things notably increased.The war had erroded her tempers and health. Without her solicitous and attentive courtiers, Ylving empire might have seen a new king. Some of Ragna's vassals, who rubbed their hands at such a prospect, did it, however, too early.

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[Berkis]

During the last years of her reign, Queen Ragna was inspired by no other wish, than to spend the couple of years that yet remained to her as quitely and as retired as possible. Keiser Adalbert of Holy Roman Empire at that time was desperately fighting the war to stay in his throne, against eleven of his vassals. For Ragna it would have been easy at that moment to grab a slice of cake from the neighbouring Empire. Her Marshal, Duke Aslak of Bergslagen nudged her to do exacatly that, by declaring war to the Holy Roman Empire. She replied that a war between Norway and Holy Roman Empire was an event of a huge importance, which may easy turn into terrible a disaster for the whole Ylving dynasty. Besides, the cause to acquire one or two counties would be so trivial that she considered it was the duty of every man and women of honour to seek to prevent the war by every means in his or her power.

Duke Aslak was desesperate, for he knew that the window of opportunity would soon close. Ragna retorted, that he had no judgement for what matters and what does not and that he let himself be influenced by carping gossip, which he passed on and caused annoyance without reason. The Duke once more tried to persuade her to raise her levies, insisting that brilliant military victories make the best basis for diplomatic arts. Everything went as if oiled, he said. Ragna was obstinate. In his closer cercle, the Duke began to blame the women who, according to him, embodied all the malign forces in any royal household.

The Duke was on the verge of declaring the war on his liege, when shortly before the Christmas of 1299, just couple of weeks before the beginning of the new century, Ragna's vassals received the news. The greatest of Ylving Queens had passed away. The new century for Ylvings had begun with new challenges.

 

[Berkis]

It was power itself, not its trappings, that the new King Arnmond loved. Although his former and new vassals remained very sceptical about his abilities, he, immediately after getting to the throne, felt full of irrational optimism. He fully realized that any king is a creature of the moment, who is constantly under threat from rebels and neighbouring monarchs. He knew that he needed military support and therefore less than a week after becoming the King, he gave the long-disputed Duchy of Holstein to his kinsman Ernst, and a half of Iceland - the county of Austiland, to the Duke of Iceland Gudbrand. Gudbrand thus became increasingly isolated geographically, but more independent in reality. Nevertheless, Arnmond thought, that thus he had avoided a war, or at least has postponed it until his grip on his vassals would have become stronger.

Arnmond had a chance to visit some of the Holy Roman Empire counties some years before. Thus he knew that Ylving possessions need to be developped much faster in the years to come, if he wished to be able to repel the possible attacks from South and East. Arnmond decided to move his capital away from Narke. A place such as Narke seemed constricted by its walls, like a fat man in a tight tunic; the houses were too close together, the marketplace too crowded, the streets too narrow; as people and animals jostled for space, there was a feeling that fights could brake out at any moment. Arnmond wished a capital to be built according to a plan, with streets laid out on a square grid pattern.

Although Ylving possession formed an Empire, Arnmond knew that he stilll could not match neither HRE nor Kingdom of Rus armies in terms of the number of levies. Neither he would be able to compensate those shortages with mercenaries. So, he needed to be more advanced in weaponry.

It was not long after his artisans started to produce the two-handed or greatswords. One had to be really fit and strong to fight with this heavy weapon, which could weigh up to four kilos. Danish and Swedish levies were becoming trained to form a large square on the battlefield. There would be a man with a greatsword at each corner, to stop the enemy from breaking into the square at that point. Arnmond' s knights also were increasingly in possession of bludgeons and crossbows. Arnmond also realized that the exercise of power demanded the physical presence of the person wielding it. He, therefore, was constantly travelling, accompanied by rich display in order to affirm his power with his vassals.

 

[Specialist290]

Just caught up with this AAR. Impressive work, uniting Scandinavia like that. Got any plans to make it an empire in name as well as in fact?

 

[Berkis]

Thanks. Still playing an older version, so will have to live and survive with four crowns till the end. With the current king it is getting more difficult, since he is of German culture, which none of my four kingdom provinces has :glare:

 

[Berkis]

King Arnmond realized after a while, that he also has to improve his Empire' s townspeople and his knights morale. In particular in the counties which bordered the Kingdom of Rus and the Holy Roman Empire. The dominant Scandinavian cultures in the counties, which relatively recently had been absorbed into Ylving possessions, were still relatively weak. Whatever he planned, whatever he might build could be wiped out in some days and months by the armies of his mighty neighbours. In the summer of 1300 he established the Order of the Golden Arrow. Its motto was Four in one, or Quattuor juncta in uno.

In the meantime, Duke Gudbrand of Iceland whose wife was Arnmond' s half-sister Ingrid, decided to get rid not only of his liege, but also his wife. He executed her for treason. Some days later he opened a grand tournament in Austisland, probably to win himself a young, nice wife. But he was in for shock. More than a hundred knights loyal to Arnmond arrived in the tournament and each having a picture of headless women on his shield. Thus, the war of Icelandic independence had begun. While Arnmond was assembling his levies and fleet in the Baltic sea, Duke Gudbrand almost completely wiped out the troops loyal to Arnmond in Iceland. Arnmond' s fleet with three and a half thousand thousand levies sailed out for Iceland only half a year after after Gudbrand had declared war to him. Luckily for Arnmond, almost twice as much assembled levies he still had on the continent. His position had became really precarious, because a month after the war in Iceland had begun, his kinsman Duke Ernst of Holstein, whom he had given the tiltle only a couple of months ago, declared a war on him, hoping that all Arnmond's levies would be very far away.

After some initial successes Duke Gudbrand was in Eurphoria. It seemed that Icelandic independence is within his grasp.

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However by the year 1304, he was heavily outnumbered and he knew that the war is a lost cause. Arnmond ordered to capture him alive. Gudbrand was chained brought to the continent and publicly executed.

The victorious Arnmond rewarded his knights with gifts of land.This caused a problem for the knights. Should they stay and enjoy their new land in Iceland? Or should they go back to their wives in Scandinavia? They knew that if they left their comrades in an enemy country they would be called cowards. However, a couple of years after the war ended, majority of them returned back home.

Duke Ernst knew, that he had overreacted just couple weeks after he declared war to Arnmond, when he faced Arnmond's troops at the gates of his castle. His spymaster, Count Audun of Sleisvig had deliberately feeded him with disinformation about the Arnmond's intentions and the number of levies sent to Iceland. Now the Count waited for his chance to become the next Duke of Holstein.

 

[Berkis]

Soon after the Icelandic war Arnmod in 1306 organized a tournament. It took place around a tree with golden and silver leaves. Break an opponent's spear and you gert a silver leaf, knock him off his hoarse and you get a gold leaf. Arnmod' s best 100 knights in the Kobenhavn tournament had whalebone swords, "armour" made from boilled leather - hard but light - and wooden shields. Clever Arnmod. He remembered his first tournament twenty years before, where two kinghts were killed and another brain-damaged. Therefore, he better saved the sharp steel and hot blood for the battlefields of Iceland.

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There, however, was a very suspiciuos episode in the tournament. In one of the fights, Count Audun of Bornholm fought his way towards Arnmod and tried to wrestle him off his horse. That was cheating. King Arnmod wrestled back and threw the Count on the ground. The Count' s knights were furious and wanted bloody revenge. Arnmod' s foot soldiers, on the other hand, watching the fight aimed their arrows at the Audun' s knights, who were forced to cool down. From then on Arnmod issued a rule that in his tournaments knights should not lay hands on an opponent - a lance, an axe or a sword, yes, but not a hand. Arnmod also came up with a scoring system in the tournament. If one knocked an opponent off his horse, then he got five points. If, however, he broke the tip of his lance, then he got one point. If one hit his oppondent's horse with his lance, then he lost one point.

Duke Skule of Ostlandet, on his part, had taken a beautiful young woman to the tournament in Kobenhavn. Before the tournament began he boasted that if any knight could beat him in a joust, then the winner took his armour and his weapons...and the young woman. Knights came from far and wide, but Skule beat them all and the young woman was his. But then, those who were beaten found that Skule's armour was screwed onto his saddle....

At the end of the tournament there was a ladies' sprint race. They ran as far as a man can throw a stone, towards a table. On the table was their prize, which was a piece of cloth.

The tournament had just ended, when Arnmod' s messenger came in with news. Duke Guttorm of Orkney had proclaimed his independence. Arnmod once again had to dispatch his levies overseas in a long and costly campaign. The war of Fairy independence had begun.

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