Duke Poppo (880 – 887), aka Poppo the First, Poppo the Elder, Poppo of the Porn Stache
So this is Duke Poppo of Austria. A naïve appeaser, kind of celibate (less fertility) and who has lots of siblings, but only one son, also named Poppo. He also has an epic porn stache. Very german that moustache is.
One of Duke Poppo’s siblings (Wilhelm) became count of Steiemark on their father’s death. At first, Poppo tried to appease him, since he created a faction against the duke and had way more soldiers than Poppo had. The other vassal count also didn’t seem to like Duke Poppo very much, so this course of action was actually wise at the time. To appease Count Wilhelm, Poppo made him cupbearer and steward of Austria.
To avoid the situation of having one of his vassals outnumbering him in troops, Duke Poppo built a militia training grounds in Wien. The soldiers trained there would be simple peasants with pitchforks, but they would do to intimate would be usurpers.
In 882, Poppo’s wife succeeded in killing the Duchy’s spymaster, Dietmar, a genius at intelligence gathering and black ops. The wicked woman was the next best candidate for spymaster, so there was nothing Poppo could do but put her on the job after Dietmar’s death. Truly the work of a genius at getting what she wanted, but not the best at getting what the duchy needs more.
Much of Poppo’s reign was occupied leading troops for King Karlman’s wars with the Danes. The Danes had tried to invade Bremen and Duke Poppo led one of the armies that spent the entire war near Holstein, intimidating the Danish king. Poppo eventually became a better organizer of armies due to his experience in the few conflicts of that war.
Taking inspiration from one of the comments on this thread, I decided Poppo could plot against his count brother. Much to my surprise, Wilhelm’s wife seemed to hate him very much, which was very fortunate, since she was also his spymaster (not very good examples of spymaster wives so far, right?). It didn’t take much to convince her to be part of the plot against Wilhelm’s life to put his son, Arnold as the next count. I was even more keen on this happening, since Poppo became Arnold's tutor. I would try my best to make this Arnold very like the governator of Steiemark.
At first, Wilhelm’s wife, Mechtild, tried to kill him in a carriage accident.
But that went very wrong. Not only did the plan not work, but somehow Wilhelm discovered his brother was behind this. Poppo would be despised for the rest of his life by others, especially Wilhelm.
In Christmas Eve 882, Mechtild gave a better plan as present to Poppo. This plan would involve Wilhelm falling from the top of a tower. And it worked! Santa Klaus indeed does exist, it has been proven.
Still on the subject of how evil the women were in the 880s Austria, Poppo’s wife plotted to terminate the life of poor Count Arnold when he was still a child. And by 883 she had succeeded. The woman had killed one of the best spymasters in the game at the time, poor Arnold didn’t stand a chance even if he was the last action hero. So, the plan to have a governator will have to wait.
In 883 also, the Slavic uprising in the neighbouring kingdom of Greater Moravia started. This would be very important later, as it was the first sign of the collapse of that kingdom. It must be remembered that their king held one of Austria’s de jure counties.
In 884, Poppo probably sat on a pooper that a lot of his soldiers used, because he acquired “the great pox” (syphilis) even though he was trying to be celibate. Either that or his wife was reviewing the soldiers more thoroughly than he was. The disease would be with him for the rest of his life, making him ever more deformed.
In 885, Poppo’s son, Poppo II (or Poppo Junior if you prefer) came of age. He was a flamboyant schemer, but actually his best stat was military leadership. So he became leader of Poppo the Elder’s troops on the battlefield.
And Poppo the Younger would need to take action very soon after his 16th birthday, because his father had watched the events in Greater Moravia with a lot of interest and knew that King Svatopluk was fighting a two front war. So Poppo took his chance and made it a three front war, by trying to take his claim on Znojmo. Later on, others would make this into a five front war.
Poppo the Elder called his banners and soon he could field an army of almost 500 men to try to take Znojmo province. For most of the war, the army just besieged the castles and villages of Znojmo uncontested, with the armies of Greater Moravia occupied elsewhere. But on the summer of 886, King Svatopluk marched south with a force of 530 men at arms. Not taking any chances on the field of battle (especially with the possible death of his heir, that was leading the army in Znojmo), Duke Poppo the Elder took a loan from the Jewish community of Wien. With this money, he hired the Finnish Band (what the hell were Finns doing in Austria, I don’t know, maybe looking for a sauna?) and sent their 1,500 force to help his son in the battle defending Znojmo.
Just the word of the approaching 1,500 men force made the Moravians turn their tails and retreat.
But that retreat wouldn’t matter. After Znojmo had been totally taken, Poppo the Elder ordered the combined armies of his son and the Finnish Band to destroy Svatopluk’s forces (that were facing their other enemies at the time in the north of the kingdom). In Christmas Eve 886 the armies of Greater Moravia were decimated and the Austrians were free to besiege other castles to force Svatopluk to give away rightfully Austrian province of Znojmo to the Duke of Austria. This victory is another proof that Santa Claus exists. Or maybe Hanukkah is for real, considering the Jewish loan and all.
In the summer of 887, King Karlman of East Francia and Bavaria finally died, after reigning for decades. Due to the succession laws, his youngest son, Karlman II, became King of Bavaria and suzerain over the dukedom of Austria. Karlman II was still a kid, so he was very pliable. His regent made an offer to Poppo I, to make him chancellor of the realm, an offer Poppo accepted.
The world at 887
In August of 887,King Svatopluk started accepting defeat in his other wars. It would not be long before he accepted defeat against the Austrians as well. But Duke Poppo I would not see it. His syphilis finally got the better of him in November of 887 and he died before the end of the war, at the age of 42.
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Good start so far. And hey, the heir being in the dynasty, and being a duke...can't be that bad.
