Quite an eventful chapter there. Godfrey learns the futility of the revenge he has sought, his son comes of age, and perhaps most importantly, Godfrey learns why it is wise to never surprise the baboons 
Blood on the Sand - Tales of OutremAAR (HIP)
- Thread starter Khryses
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A cracking update. Poor old Godfrey-he seems to be gaining in territory and material things but losing the things he cherishes the most i.e. His loved ones. As you say I hope his son gets to succeed him!
I really do love your writing style. It captures really well the personality of Godfrey. It makes me wonder how you'll adjust it for whoever comes next...
I really do love your writing style. It captures really well the personality of Godfrey. It makes me wonder how you'll adjust it for whoever comes next...
VII: The Hyenas Laugh
O curse the name Louis; say woe to the day,
When he tried to tear Edessan Bolougne away.
All knights, squires and footmen whose brothers lie dead,
Saw blood and hot flame stain the sands flowing red.
Though Tripoli lies far, and the ocean is wide,
Run from the sword-points of vengeance, and hide
From the price of a county and our king's greedy scheme,
Comes the fear of Christ's Warriors from the place called Outreme.
'Twas the greed of a tyrant that brought us to shame,
Thousandscore for a county - curse the Roi Français' name!
-Excerpt from French Military Ballad (banned)
Woven depiction of Battle of Gravensteen
From my makeshift seat at the Pool of Gihon I rendered judgement and set out order across the Twin Kingdoms. I noted with interest that Grandmaster Hamelin had elevated an unbeliever to the post of Connetable, but that was a decision to be made within the Knights Hospitaller and not to be approved or gainsaid by me. I was trying to live a more simpler, godlier life as I felt Christ would have wanted us to, when I received word from Pope Marcellus that he would absolve my family and I of all our worldly sin for the reasonable sum of a mere 128 gold. While that was the larger part of the Kingdom's treasury, what price heavenly salvation? I had tried to be a good man but I was only too aware of the sin involved in my war in search of Radwan and I sent the Papal Legate away with a chest heavy with treasure from our vault. I was growing old now; I was no craven, but I was perhaps less casual about throwing myself into danger. Word reached me that Radwan of Qinnasrin finally went to face eternal judgement as his injuries and sins caught up with him, leaving behind his 21 year old son Alp Arslan to rule after him.
On 13 March 1118 my dear son Edouard was wed to Comtesse Bourguigne of Edessa in a ceremony in his own county seat in Cairo. Cardinal Guischard presided both in token to Edouard's royal rank and also as a sign to all that we had received papal approval for the union, despite the fact that the happy couple were first cousins. They had written to one another of course, but despite the fact that Edouard and Bourguigne had only met the week before they were already fast friends. They had so much in common, and with only a year between them they looked set for a long and happy life. I smiled proudly at them as they were joined in the sight of God; they made a most charismatic couple together at the feast that evening, and after the two of them left the company for their first night I spent many hours sitting before the fire mulling and on the long life I had been blessed with. Despite everything I had lost in the past few years, still I was glad to be here today, and to welcome Bourguigne into the family. She seemed a sweet child, utterly unlike my scheming older brother, her father. So it was that when she approached me the next morning I greeted her warmly. "I hope you slept well, daughter?" She blushed prettily, looked at her feet and then smiled at me. "Very well thank you, father. Now that we are close family, I wonder if I might make a request of you?"
My new daughter-in-law had a small request of me
In his eight short years on the throne, Louis VI had followed a very different course than that of his aged father. No longer was France the friend and guarantor of the Kingdom, she was occupied with more earthly matters between Normandy, Britanny, the Hispanic kingdoms firmly wedged into the Pyrenees and the vast Holy Roman Empire of the Germans. Some said that the King's only sin was to be a bit too trusting, assuming that all he met were good natured because he wished them to be and so allowing them to manipulate him; on that I could not speak, but he had made a habit of striking at independent counties and duchies to enrich and empower himself and the fortunes of France were rapidly rising in the world. Another cornerstone of his plans was to find a select few vassals who were willing to play along with his plans to gain advancement, and in Comte Robrecht II of Flanders, Louis had found just that.
It was a horrifying thought for those of us born in France; the young Dauphin we honoured before we left had become a greedy and avaricious king whose eyes had lit upon a Boulogne independent of his authority and answering to Edessa far away across the seas. He thought it vulnerable and so he thought to stoop upon it as a buzzard upon its prey; his Flemish jackal leapt for his share of the prize, racing his master to be first to the prize. Now with her marriage to my son, the young Comtesse had won her lands a measure of protection but we had a hard decision to make - did we fight against our old liege for the sake of our independence, or might it be better, wiser to simply let the separation be made and focus our attentions on our new land? A number of my vassals within the Kingdom spoke up in concern; they had inherited old family lands in northern Italy and if we did not guard the rights of my son's wife would we truly stand in defense of their own rights? There was no decision to be made, we must make it clear how seriously we regarded the King's opportunism.
Louis is in debt, his lean treasury slowly draining, and with little military talent of his own
I determined that insofar as we were able, I would refrain from any kind of open war in France. Surely the King could be made to see that this was territory he dare not touch, that he was threatening the very gains the Crusade had made in the Holy Land with his intemperate greed? I directed that the levies of the Kingdom of Jerusalem only would be raised, placing them under Prince Edouard and directing him to see to the capture of French Tripoli. I myself would take my household knights as an escort and take the long journey to France to see what my so-called towering reputation and military prowess could do to calm affairs and prevent any ravaging of Boulogne until the peace could be negotiated. Hopefully our skill and prowess should see us victorious against most even odds, while our all being mounted should keep us clear of any bulkier entanglements.
I heard that in the early weeks of our absence my son carried out a swift and aggressive campaign against the local French lords and swiftly took much of the territory under siege. When I was able to treat with Louis I would have that at least to barter with - what price Boulogne, if it meant he lost control of the whole Duchy of Tripoli in the Outreme? There was a minor matter as well, of a mob in Caesarea, provoked by the high-handed attitudes of one of the Iskandaryan merchant families, looting and burning its trading post there but that was a matter for my council to deal with. I landed east of Ypren and sent a messenger asking to treat with Louis and Robrecht directly, confident that we would soon work out the misunderstanding. While we waited we heard of a band of some four hundred Frankish soldiers looting and burning down the Aisne and rode out to save the townsfolk. When we confronted them the marauders fled back into the trees and we rode in pursuit, that they not escape to wreak more havoc after we rode on.
It was an ambush
Far from deserters raiding and pillaging away from the French army, the marauders proved to be part of a cold and calculated plan to lure us in, after which some nine thousand of the cowards sprung from hiding, French and Flemish alike. Clearly the Princeps of Jerusalem was a greater prize in this war than the province that Louis had originally gone to war for - that, or all resistance had already been quelled in the area. Seeing the battle had abruptly become hopeless I shouted to my men to try to cut our way out of the trap, but in the hideous chaotic melee scarcely four hundred of us managed to cut our way free and after Grandmaster Hamelin fell I was the only one to escape the pursuit. I was on the outskirts of Brugge when a man dressed as a prosperous merchant emerged from a low smithy and called to me; it was Reybaud the Sly. He had managed to find passage for me in a trading sloop bound for Tripoli, and found a change of attire for me that bore my insignia somewhat less brazenly. I cannot speak for whether the crew were fooled by the change, but they at least acted as though they did and I was 'Godfrey' again for the journey home. 'Home'. Such a loaded term, I had always seen Boulogne and France as my home despite my years across the seas, but now? Now I simply did not know. This seemed like a war that I could not win.
In French Tripoli Edouard was having substantially better fortune and had already reduced all the coastal strongpoints; now he was beginning to move inland when word first arrived of some fifteen hundred French landing north of him in Antioch. Edouard was brave, but not as foolish as his father - he immediately led one of his armies to reinforce a second outside of Valenia, so when the French were reinforced by another six thousand partway on the march south to confront him he was not caught unawares. During the great battle he cut a path across the field toward the French commander, but his horse went down and a brief panic swept through his men before he secured another and was able to display his survival. Their courage redoubled, the Kingdom army was able to thrash the host thrown against them, burning their bodies in heaps upon the bloody field. The Duc d'Orleans and Baron Bartholemi were slain that day, as well as many other brothers in Christ. That was the point when my vessel arrived in occupied Tripoli, where already trade was having a resurgence with the completion of an Iskandariyan merchant house.
The Battle of Valenia
Following the Battle of Valenia we had high hopes that Louis would realize he had bitten off more than he could chew; the destruction of so many of his men was a massive blow to a king already lean on funds, and sailing armies the length of the Mediterranean was an expensive proposition. I was speaking with my son at the Siege of Maraclee when we received word of a vast Flemish host of five thousand or more landing in Norman Antioch and marching toward us. At that point I realized that without the Egyptian levies we simply did not have enough men, but that was a step I was still unwilling to take lest the Holy Land be left open to the unbeliever by one man's avarice. Instead I opened the Kingdom's coffers and hired the Swiss Company, not so much for the military skill which its leader utterly lacked, but rather the three thousand disciplined pikes he had to his name. While they still journeyed to join us I gathered the levies available to me and prepared to face the Flemish at Hazart, in a mountain pass behind a river crossing. While Robrecht's men yet outnumbered us, we felt reasonably confident in the outcome; we had won against worse odds, and the Swiss were coming. Whether they became aware of this somehow (as my son believed) or their courage simply failed them they halted three days out and turned east, marching on my niece's seat in Edessa itself.
Unwilling to leave my son's wife to face the great host alone, we crossed the border into Qinnasrin to parallel and race them there through the desert. We anticipated some trouble with the locals, but all the Beylerbey's armies were in the south warring against Damascus once more and so the only infidels we saw were villagers and travellers bemused by the appearance of a Frankish army not bent on conquest. In the end the Flemish intercepted us near Halab and we began a brisk meeting engagement as a growing number of locals came to watch with growing disbelief. I suspect they had never seen the heavy Christian armaments being used against other Christians before, and we certainly gave enthusiastic display of their use. The next day our audience had grown and we commenced a grand battle, joined by some two hundred of our Edessan allies; I led the central battle with my son on the right, and we had already gained the upper hand when the Swiss arrived one hour before noon and advanced into the enemy where they had sorely pressed our own left. Once more we soaked the dunes in Christian blood and returned to complete the reconquest of Tripoli.
Before the Battle of Qinnasrin
We received word fourteen days later that a fresh French army had arrived in Antioch, while a fourth was rumoured to be journeying down the Mediterranean. I called upon the Almighty to damn Louis to the farthest reaches of hell - how many of my countrymen would he make me kill? I led my levies north to ensure I was in a good position to beat the French to Edessa or Tripoli, whichever path he might seek to take. That was when the other French fleet arrived and landed its army directly into Trapesae in French Tripoli. I knew better than to give them time to recover from the long journey and sent Edouard south to lead the Swiss against them. Scarce had he left my camp though, than I heard that the French army to our north was marching directly against us.
The twin battles of Saone and Trapesae proved decisive in the ongoing conflict; if won by the French, they would virtually destroy the military of the Twin Kingdoms save for the Egyptian levies who were still primarily unbelievers whatever their leadership. We could not raise the Knights Hospitaller in a secular war, so this would put us firmly on the back foot for the foreseeable future. Equally the loss of another eight thousand men would surely soon start to wear on the forces arrayed against us; they had already lost near fifteen thousand between my own unfortunate expedition and theirs into Outremer. The fighting went on for the better part of a day and into an evening lit by torchlight, and in the end we won both battles and I seized both Prince Roubaud (Louis' younger brother) and the Prince-Bishop of Rouen as captives. Edouard succeeded in slaying Mayor Angelbert and forcing the Duc d'Bourgogne to yield; our Christian captives joined some twenty two infidels in the cells beneath the Tower of David.
The decision point of the war, the twin battles of Saone and Trapesae
As we returned to Tripoli and secured the last inland holdings from the French, I received a special war tax raised in Jerusalem which made a very valuable addition to our ever-dwindling war chest. Equally the ransom both Dukes were more than willing to pay to regain their freedom. It seemed the sinews of war were rapidly becoming golden lucre rather than the courage of the men willing to fight for what they believed. I was not at all sure I liked this for I felt a man from a different time, a cleaner time - yet as a fifth French army arrived in the Levant I feared I had no choice but to continue to engage in this 'Cousins War' and to keep my hands as clean as I may. I led our levies against the French and broke them swiftly before they could go wherever they intended, then Edouard and the Swiss did the same to the Flemish army that followed them. It seemed we were doomed to a neverending defense of our coastline as we warded off attack after attack from my old homeland and we ransomed all that we could from our cells save for the Prince and Prince-Bishop. Under these circumstances I would as soon have attempted to negotiate a white peace with our greedy foes, yet my niece was outraged at the French betrayal and announced that she would accept nothing but full surrender and reparations. My son agreed wholeheartedly with her, alas - ah, the hot blood of youth!
The winds of plague that ever follow war began to fall across the Kingdom, as Measles began to spread through Jaffa and Caesarea. We received word that the Queen of Castille and Leon had joined Louis in this war, and decided that we must not leave the initiative to the French forever. The Swiss Company would set sail for France. On 7 July 1120, we received the surrender of the 2-year-old Comte Robrecht III of Flanders - his father and grandfather lost their lives in the fighting, and at last he saw no choice but to pay an indemnity for my niece's forgiveness. Yet she herself was not without trouble, as another six thousand French arrived upon our coast while a rebellion broke out in Edessa. Her own forces largely dead upon the sands, Bourguigne urged Edouard and I to ride to her rescue though first we had to see to our latest crop of invaders. We managed to strike each body of the French in turn and defeat them in detail, until the last two thousand fled into the wilds of Byzantine Anatolia rather than face us.
The Swiss Company arrives in France for the Twin Kingdoms
Smallpox joined the plagues afflicting the Kingdom of Christ as the Swiss arrived in northern France while Flanders caught fire with civil war. At last the French seemed to be running short on men, and without the manpower of the Flemish to back him up he lacked the might to defeat even the half of the Swiss Company that remained in our service. The Swiss quickly recovered the occupied strongpoints in Boulogne and my son took half our surviving army to Edessa to see to it that my niece would still be in her castle to declare the victory we hoped to secure for her. He won of course, but in the Battle of Resaina he took a deep wound to his leg from enemy archery that concerned me - especially as the first reports from the battle had him losing his leg! Thankfully this proved not to be the case, though it proved inspiration for a dark conspiracy that caught me entirely by surprise.
I had mentioned previously that the Egyptian levies had remained untapped in this ongoing war, but our other usual allies the Knights Hospitaller had also managed to remain peaceful, an unusual state for these holy warriors. Some of them had expressed concern at this war with France for a county in Western Europe rather than our true duty as warriors of Christ to fight the infidel, but Grandmaster Hamelin was a friend of mine and managed to keep this ill-feeling in check. After his death in my visit to northern France, the office of Grandmaster passed to Radhi, former Constable of the Knights Hospitaller and an unrepentant Sunni. He conspired to seize control of the Kingdom, winning the loyalty of many of his followers through the suggestion that with Christ's Kingdom under the hand of a Holy Order it would never again find itself embroiled in a war for earthly ambition. Fortunately there were enough clear-sighted men in the order that I was informed of their intent before they could launch their coup.
In the end The Knight's Plot was quelled as the traitors stormed into the throne room in David's Tower. Grandmaster Radhi pronounced his victory and sealed his fate as loyal Knights Hospitaller, Templars and elements of my own army swiftly returned to Jerusalem sprang from the surrounding servants' corridors. The conspirators surrounded, I emerged from the private chamber behind the throne and leaned on my blade. "Take them," I said. Grandmaster Radhi was one of six traitors to survive the ensuing struggle. He did not survive the gibbet we strung from the walls, refusing to shed the blood of even such a treacherous Grandmaster as this. We heard from Europe that when Louis managed to scratch together another army from the dregs around Paris and sent it north the Swiss defeated it handily, at at last the pressure of his losses and his debts was too much; Louis sent his capitulation to my dear niece along with so much gold that he was reportedly over four hundred gold in debt. With scarce two thousand soldiers remaining from our Kingdom of Christ, we were pleased to go home and - with a letter releasing the Swiss from service already on its way - released our levies on 24 May 1121.
In-laws.
King Louis' final capitulation
Quite an eventful chapter there. Godfrey learns the futility of the revenge he has sought, his son comes of age, and perhaps most importantly, Godfrey learns why it is wise to never surprise the baboons
Never, ever surprise the baboons.
Aside from the promise of inheriting Edessa in the next two generations, the Twin Kingdoms didn't gain a thing in this chapter but there were hideous losses on both sides - more dead French and Flemish in raw numbers (some 32 000ish in all against around 8 500 of ours) but that included the complete annihilation of our massed knightly retinues in Godefroy's ill-advised first campaign to Flanders. Retinues are around half the size in HIP, so that was around ten retinues that died at Gravensteen and during the subsequent pursuit. Given all parties concerned (possibly excepting the Spanish) are either broke or in debt at the end of it (other than his dear niece whose personal treasury stands at 938 gold after the two surrenders) and most of them are suffering some kind of revolt or civil war, I definitely felt Godefroy's frustration as Louis launched army after army at us, usually outnumbering us by some degree when we finally brought him to battle. If not for the Muslims fighting among one another in the same period I'd have been amazed if we could have held against any kind of Holy War - and now we're all exhausted and bloodied, Godefroy is 61 and we're hoping to recover before the next war.
In-laws!
Amazing new post! Those perfidious French!! Seemed like a really draining war but glad that Godefroi did the right thing by siding with his niece and son
I liked the plan to open up 2 fronts towards the war end-were you able to see from stats somewhere how many men Louis could still muster or were you just able to tell?
As always another great read
I liked the plan to open up 2 fronts towards the war end-were you able to see from stats somewhere how many men Louis could still muster or were you just able to tell?
As always another great read
Catching up on this AAR. It's great to see a HIP AAR as I am playing with it right now and love the flavour it gives.
That's quite an unexpected turn of events - how dare the French wage war against Jerusalem?! Plus, the ballad gives it a nice touch.
Though if I may ask, how come the reply to a call to arms is 'Damn. It. Fine, yes, whatever'?
That's quite an unexpected turn of events - how dare the French wage war against Jerusalem?! Plus, the ballad gives it a nice touch.
Though if I may ask, how come the reply to a call to arms is 'Damn. It. Fine, yes, whatever'?
Many thanks, I'm glad you're enjoying it. HIP is a lot of fun, although the change in place names means I'm using 'Find Title' a lot more often in this game (for example, to find out I'd just declared war on my big angry southern neighbour Misr at one point).
I'm not sure if there's a way to tell exactly how many men he has left, but with Reybaud the Sly attempting to fundraise in Flanders and Mayor Onfroy attempting to inspire someone, anyone to revolt against Louis and distract him - and their areas of vision around them - I found there didn't seem to be that much left marching about in France. Add to that the fact that the war score was 87% in my favour and the largest score Louis had was his occupation of Boulogne and I thought it was a worthwhile gamble to send a smallish force that could keep reinforcing independently to the far side of the continent, especially if I could simply disband them at the end of the war instead of having to sail them all the way back.
Shipping is expensive.
Haha, about that...
Yes, I've been tweaking some of the responses in the screenshots to something I felt more accurately reflected my (or Godefroy's) reaction and response. In this case the fact that my/his darling new daughter-in-law had brought a cross-continent war or two in her dowry just as I felt Godefroy was reconsidering the virtues of war in representing Christ.
There are another couple scattered through the AAR, and they'll probably continue whenever I feel that 'Ok', 'Accept' or 'Decline' just don't quite cut it.
Ahh, artistic manipulation.
... In a good way though. It would be great if there were more flavoured replies regarding e.g. call to arms which depend on for example your character's opinion towards the other character.
VIII: Father Time
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart ,and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
-Matthew 11:28-30
The heart of the Twin Kingdoms
In the wake of the Knight's Plot, I took more of an interest in the elevation of a new Grandmaster to lead the Knights Hospitaller and was gratified to find that the senior brothers of the order chose Guilhem d'Hautville. Guilhem was a good Christian, a just man and my wife's illegitimate nephew to boot. While Jerusalem's alliances with Antioch and Norman Sicily had lapsed with the death of my dear Cecile, there was still a modicum of family feeling between us and I certainly felt I could trust him more than the so-called Black Hospitaller who didn't even share the faith he had pretended to defend! I had been forced to return to Jerusalem to put a stop to Radhi's treachery yet Cardinal Guischard was able to absolve me of my broken oath. God understood why I had been compelled to return to the Holy City and forgave me; the Twin Kingdoms would once more be ruled from their capital and doubtless would in the next generation as well. Perhaps in time Egypt would become incorporated into the Kingdom of Jerusalem rather than simply being protected by the same ruler? Only God could say for sure.
It was not long before my niece called for aid once more, this time against a new Edessan Revolt organized by her bastard half-brother Raoul. Regretfully her own forces had yet to recover enough to handle Raoul's forces and I assured her that of course we would aid her. Once again this was a matter for my family rather than the Twin Kingdoms as a whole and so we sent some twelve hundred of my personal levies north under a talented commander to quell the traitors. I myself was still occupied by the business built up in Christ's royal seat and had forbidden my son to ride out so long as his wound remained unhealed so our commander was the Constable of Arsouf. Edouard disagreed violently with my ban of course, insisting that as she was his wife he had every right to defend her but my word was iron. He devoted himself to his recovery, but by the time he was mended the fight was all but over. Regrettably our own coffers were drained from the endless war against the French and we were forced to take a small loan from the local Jewish moneylenders, but we were able to repay it by mid 1122 before we were pressured for any special favours.
Raoul's Revolt
With all these endless wars and plots I found I was becoming disillusioned with my brothers in Christ. There always seemed to be some pretext for why they claimed God wanted them to enrich themselves and in truth our worst enemy seemed to be one another. With the revolt finished and Raoul executed by my niece's hand, I was pleased to welcome my men back to Jerusalem once more. Unfortunately it seemed Bourguigne was simply not a powerful enough ruler, whether because of her gender or some innate lack. Fortunately she would have Edouard beside her to give her steel, and to keep her and their children safe. The notorious libertine Duc Tancred of Acre at last died of his gonorrhea around that time as well, though truth be known I was more occupied with my daughter. Blanche was a lovely young maid with a short temper and a cynical bent, but near as silver of tongue as Mayor Onfroy and through that worthy's offices I had found Manfred, the heir to the Duchy of Hamburg. Following the loss of Pierre I was reluctant to allow my dynasty to rest on a single thread and so I ensured that the marriage to come would be matrilineal.
Prince Edouard grew up in a hostile and exotic land, and survived where Pierre did not. He was injured in a war that wracked half a continent while forty thousand died all around him, then regained his health and strength. And then after returning home from a patrol with his knights, his spur caught in his stirrup while dismounting and he struck his head upon a rock. Such a stupid little accident. Such a senseless waste. He survived three days more they tell me, but still died long before I could reach him. I have to wonder, am I cursed? Now the Twin Kingdoms rest on the life of a lone unwed maiden; Blanche de Boulogne, Princess of Jerusalem. I name her High Almoner so that those of the Kingdom can get used to her exercising a ruler's first duty; charity. The wedding is held in Jerusalem on 6 August 1123, and the two make a touching couple - if a very young one. Both bride and groom are 16 when they turn at the altar to face us, united in God.
My daughter is wed
Somewhere in the intervening months Manfred de Monte has been replaced as the Duchy of Hamburg's heir and will no longer inherit any lands of his own, yet I cannot bring myself to mind. We have had enough of entanglements in Europe, and at least this way I can keep both Blanche and Manfred with me in Jerusalem, where I can keep them safe. I spent many evenings kneeling in the Holy Sepulchre, praying to God that my daughter at least outlives me. I was growing tired of this life and asked Him if He was sure that I was still the best choice to be His Sword, and soon I heard that my friend Fortun had passed unto the Lord as well; the new Iskandariyan Doge was Eneko of the d'Avalos dynasty.
The Christmas feast in 1123 was a cold affair, with so much of the court still in mourning. I spent much of my time brooding, and was in the midst of apologizing to Cecile for not taking better of her and our sons or ever being there when they died when my vision cleared and I saw instead of her dear face a somewhat baffled and awkward courtier. I was becoming absent-minded in my growing age as I neared my 64th birthday, but I was not yet a drooling imbecile. As I looked around the hall there were few who met my eyes, but one of Manfred's friends was picking his nose right there in court! "When you're quite finished, Oldrich? Some of us would prefer to eat the food and you're putting us off our appetite." Oldrich flushed and I received a round of laughter from my courtiers. I hadn't lost their respect yet, even if as a blade I was beginning to lose my temper. I still tried to keep up my training, to be sure, but I was no longer the peerless warrior I was in the Jerusalem and Misrian Crusades and I was beginning to struggle against the more formidable of my champions. Perhaps I was more useful to the Kingdom in being a commander than in simply being a swordsman, for in that I still had few equals.
Really, niece?
The Twin Kingdoms were enjoying another spell of peace in 1124 when a rider came pounding into the courtyard at the Tower of David in the colours of Edessa. Though we had shared correspondence in memory of my son, this was not another letter filled with memories; rather my niece was intent on pressing a shared relative's claim to the Principality of Antioch itself and was calling me to join her. The memories of the three-year war against France were still fresh in my mind and I was reluctant to commit to a similar bloodbath; yet it was true that Antioch was no longer an ally of ours and while Bourguigne was no longer my daughter-in-law, she was still my niece. Blood called to blood, and while I was reluctant to call up the levies of the Twin Kingdoms, I led my reconstituted Household Knights over the border north into the Principality, two thousand strong. At first we were virtually unopposed, sweeping up the occasional scattered levy and beginning to siege Antioch itself. That was when the bulk of the Norman Duke's forces arrived from Sicily and began to march toward us, over six thousand.
I led my contingent to rendezvous with the equal number of levies from Edessa at Harim. I had the blood dream again that night, and in the morning stood ready on the field of battle. We knew there was a fresh body of levies coming up from Jerusalem, but they would not be here for weeks. I thought about Gravensteen, the enemy coming that outnumbered us three to two and re-dressed our lines appropriately. When the enemy came to us we had all the advantages of terrain. Our left was firmly wedged in a chokepoint to make it harder to use the enemy's numbers against them. Our right was directed to give ground and delay engaging for as long as possible, and in the center? I led the largest contingent of our knights, and when the enemy finally began to close in I led them in one glorious reckless charge down the slope. The enemy outnumbered us near two to one - at first. But nothing could stop the weight of our charge; we rode them into the ground, then swept left and right, breaking each of the enemy's wings in turn. All in all we laid out over five thousand dead soldiers of Antioch on the field that day; when the last ragged hundreds fled, the Edessans pursued them alone for I no longer had the heart for it.
The Battle of Harim
Sending my levies home, I brought my household back to the siege of Antioch itself. Over three months the defenders weakened steadily, until one night my perimeter guards took the Duke of Antioch himself attempting to flee through our lines. He was Cecile's nephew, and had her beautiful green eyes. My niece asked me to hand him over to her, but I knew that at least my knights could be trusted to keep him alive without any unfortunate 'accidents' removing the rival to Comte Richard's claim. With him under lock and key the war was all but over and by the end of the year we were returning home with the thanks of Edessa and the new Duke of Antioch. Things returned to peace and prosperity in the Twin Kingdoms, until in 1127 my daughter came to me one morning with a shy smile on her face and her hand on her belly to tell me she was with child. I called a feast in celebration, and all but eight of my vassals were only too happy to join me. In the midst of this I received another call to arms from my son's widow, casting a pall over the proceedings.
It seemed she had somehow gained a claim to another county in Flanders and was seeking our aid in wresting it from King Louis in some kind of retribution for his own attack on her years before. While I was wiling to go to war to defend my family's claims, an offensive war against the Kingdom of France was surely no part of God's Plan, and so I refused her. I gather that without my aid the war was a desultory one, with neither Louis nor Bouguigne feeling they had the resources to send a strong expeditionary force over the seas. There was some small fighting around Tripoli, but with the birth of my grandson Andre I found myself increasingly content with my life; yet, I still tried to remember my role as the Sword of God. I was old and tired, but I wasn't done yet.
If we attack someone, it will be the infidel - not our brothers
Blanche's marriage to Manfred seemed to have opened the door to the Germanic states; the Holy Roman Emperor and his son each sought a union from among my courtiers, and after confirming it would not complicate my vassals' inheritances I signed off on the weddings. Perhaps the Germans favoured those of Jerusalem because of our isolation from the corruption and schemes of the outside world? We were godly folk here, for the most part. I remained mindful of our own security however, and in 1128 I was finally in the right position to invite the Knights Templar to become vassals of Christ's Kingdom. While they had yet to endanger our security, the Knights Plot had made me very aware of the potential risks of having independent military orders operating within the Twin Kingdoms. While I had their respect for now, who could say whether that would last as I grew older - or when, please God, my daughter ruled after me? Better to have them owe their allegiance to Christ's Earthly Throne, particularly as it would oblige them to come at Jerusalem's call more readily.
For the most part this was accepted graciously by Grandmaster Valdemar and his Order owing to my well known piety and zeal as a crusader, yet there were those who looked at our uneasy detente with Dimasq and Qinnasrin with dismay, looked at our wars with Antioch, Flanders and France with horror. Those who called for a renewed Holy War against the unbeliever and argued that if I persisted in my pacifism toward the enemies of Christ, then surely my own fires had gone out and I must abdicate in favor of a more active crusader. As it happened I agreed with them - God's Sword would not rust away in its sheathe - and in late 1128 I led the armies of the Twin Kingdoms into Damascus while her Beylerbey warred against its rival. To my surprise the Sultan Barkiarok took a direct hand this time, summarily ordering the Beylerbeys to mend their differences and they did so. Before my household were more than a week across the border we found ourselves at war with Damascus, Qinnasrin, the Ortokids, the Sultanate of Rum and the immense forces of the Great Turk. It appeared we had a fight on our hands.
The Battle of Jaramana
The first great battle of the war was at Jaramana, where fifty four hundred Damascene veterans from the Dimasq-Qinnasrin war engaged fifty two hundred of our own levies in the sands north of Damascus itself. Yet this was not like the other wars, fought on a shoestring against overwhelming odds; we had reinforcements coming, rapidly, and by the time both armies were fully engaged we had the upper hand by some three thousand men, primarily household knights. The battle was immense and entirely one-sided; we broke the enemy army and spilled many of their blood upon the sands. The second army to arrive in the Duchy of Damascus was made up of their former foes from the Beylerbik of Qinnasrin, stooping upon one of our smaller armies as it desperately attempted to maneuver away from them. However once more my household and personal levies followed me on a rapid ride northwards and we were able to relieve them before they were overrun, and they were able to reestablish their siege lines at Belinas. In that battle my old enemy's son (Alp Arslan) fell, though his son (also called Arp Arslan) promptly rejoined the war with the ragged remnants of his armies.
The last of the Egyptian levies arrived and we were able to put all of the old Duchy of Damascus under siege, working day and night to reduce their defenses while castle after castle began to fall. I had been forced once more to borrow funds from the Jewry, though the treasure we took from victorious siege and ransom alike was sufficient to service the Kingdom's interest repayments. That was when Rum's great host arrived upon the scene, fresh from fighting the Greeks for Ankara. Near seven thousand men strong it was a dire threat for our northernmost army including the household, which it outnumbered twofold. This time we were rescued in turn by the full weight of both holy orders along with a thousand levies from Acre. Though we held hard, we were in serious danger of being winnowed down by the massed archery of Rum - that changed when we managed to get in close to them, but we were still at risk of being overrun when Grandmaster Valdemar's massed lances struck them from the west. The Battle of Dumayr was close at several stages, but it ended in a decisive victory that would destroy Rum's host until they had a chance to recruit a new one. It was time for the Emperor of the Greeks to be opportunistic, and he immediately declared war against them for the Duchy of Trebizond. The Rum would have their hands full for the foreseeable future.
The Battle of Dumayr, against Rum
While several small forces belonging to the Great Turk threaded their way through the great desert east of Dimasq, in each case the Damascene end of the caravan trails was held by a stronger force from the Twin Kingdoms. This was a war on the doorstep of Outremer, and following years of peace our levies were filled with strong young men eager to show themselves worthy of the deeds of their fathers before them. It was touching in a way; my reputation was finally proving good for something, as men lined up to serve in the crusading armies of the Old Crusader. With the might of the Twin Kingdom levies, Household Knights and Holy Orders deployed to the Beylerbik of Dimasq we were able to crush each Sunni army as it appeared without breaking our siege lines.
In time the fabulous wealth, Damask and fabled Damascene Steel of Damascus were ours, and the Beylerbey yielded the richest third of his territory. I returned to Jerusalem from campaign on 11 January 1130. I was becoming increasingly absent-minded and from time to time found that I lost track of my words in mid conversation. I gave each of the new counties to a talented young Frankish man of prospects - as well as a barony for my son-in-law just outside of Damascus itself that would give Blanche's husband a chance to rule without taking her too far from Jerusalem where I could protect her. Sadly conspiracies were beginning to thrive within my court, as the first generation of Crusaders were dying all across the Twin Kingdoms and a newer less moral generation was rising in its place. I asked my councilors, but it seemed I couldn't revoke their titles for that. The Great Turk and I seemed to be the last of our generation; I still had a couple of years on him, but the infidel clearly didn't feel as old as I. When I spoke to his emissary he reported the Sultan still had four wives, all of them under the age of twenty.
On 26 December 1131 we received another call to arms from my son's widow. It seemed the French king was casting avaricious eyes upon the land of my birth once more, and so I rode to war again six days before my 72nd birthday. Would I survive to see the end of it, or leave my daughter with a legacy of shattering war?
Louis was up to his old tricks again
Well, I won't put forging an alliance with king of France past Ortokids. This family was famous for their ability to adapt to any surroundings, one does not simply survive Fatimids, Seljuks, Crusaders, Saladin, Mongols and Timur.
Lovely cliffhanger!
Aw, poor Godfrey. At least he honours his kin by assisting them whenever he can despite their... somewhat unreasonable requests.
Aw, poor Godfrey. At least he honours his kin by assisting them whenever he can despite their... somewhat unreasonable requests.
An epic post! Truly gutted to see Edouard die in such unfortunate circumstances
This story just keeps getting better and better
This story just keeps getting better and better
Many thanks my friends - and glad you're enjoying this story as much as I am. Godefroy is a good and honourable man, and I enjoy being him even when he starts to despair of human nature.
IX: Primus Inter Pares
Act well your part, for there all the honour lies.
-Alexander Pope
Louis VI, King of Franks
Ten years after the end of the last war with the French and Louis was an older, sadder man. He was still dancing to the tune of his ambitious wife and her family, still straining his overtaxed treasury to the limit. Since 1121 he had gone even deeper in debt to the French Jewry and was faced with only two choices if he wanted to balance his budget in the midst of crippling interest payments. He could have pared his costs back to the bare bone and earn his way back to solvency over a second decade of fiscal responsibility, and to my mind that would have been a wiser choice; the alternative was to seize the wealth he needed from the independent counties in Flanders and the Spanish border or the divided duchy of Britanny. It may have been a riskier plan given the increased costs involved, but it also had the advantage that it would help him to regain the prestige lost in his earlier defeat. Goaded on by his wife and her brother the Duc d'Orleans he sent his diplomat to make a devil's bargain with the Ortokid Beylerbeylik and the two of them declared war upon his nemesis, Comtesse Bourguigne of Edessa.
I had a strong feeling of deja vu when I received my niece's call to arms. She knew how I felt about our last war against the French, and to give her credit she had tried to avoid calling me up; yet her relative had lost control of Antioch once more, and in time she felt she had no choice. I thought long and hard about my response, but in the end I was no more willing to allow Louis' avarice to cost my family the home of my childhood than I had been ten years ago. I may be older but I was still fell-handed on the battlefield and what ferocity had faded from me had been replaced with added wit. There would not be another Gravensteen, to sap the strength of the Defenders of the Holy Sepulchre while the infidels gathered - though Dimasq and Qinnasrin were warring once more, I knew how quickly that could change and vowed to end this ridiculous business as quickly as I could and called up all the levies of the Twin Kingdoms. France could wait, I had business in Tripoli and Edessa.
Occupation of French Tripoli
Even before the Misrian levies arrived the armies of Jerusalem had swept over French Tripoli, the veterans of the first war leading the younger men in their contingents to favoured campsites in the various siege lines they had served in before. Nine hundred French soldiers were initially spotted by our scouts returning from Edessa to defend Tripoli, but when they saw some twelve thousand men of the Kingdom lining up against them they fled. Leaving seven thousand Jerusalem levies in the siege lines and with directions given for the Misrian levies to join one siege or another as they arrived, I led the remaining five thousand north to deal with the Beylerbeylik and free the embattled holdings of Edessa. We now heard that my niece was suffering from a renewed outbreak of treason as Armenian rebels were attacking her castle in Bira as well.
Our first engagement with the Ortokids was at Cressum where as was usual in my armies we suffered somewhat from the initial archery and skirmishing, but the enemies' fates were sealed the moment we managed to get to grips with them. Once more I plunged headlong into the heart of the enemy army with my household knights about me, cutting down infidel without number. With their center rent asunder, we were quickly able to defeat each separated wing in turn, driving our broken foe eastwards while we had liberated all the occupied holdings in Edessa; none of the garrisons were large enough or doughty enough to stand for long once we surrounded them and demanded their surrender. My warchest was dwindling, but I knew it would hold long enough as the various French strongholds in Tripoli were on the verge of falling. If God willed it, we would soon be funding our war from the very treasure of our enemy, or at least his holdings in the Levant. I brought the Armenian rebels to battle outside of Bira and crushed them utterly, having their leader executed on the battlefield among the bodies of those fool enough to follow him. A new wave of infidels had crossed the Edessan border by then, and we caught the Ortokid general trying to gather a body to oppose us at Carbanum. Once more we rode the enemy's center into the ground and then wheeled to destroy him in detail. The Ortokids were beaten and chastened by November 1132 and soon surrendered to my gratified niece.
A reversal for the Ortokids, who soon sued for peace
I returned to a Tripoli that was already near ours; Louis had managed to sway the Danes to ally against us with the demise of his Islamic allies and they land a small force of four hundred north of us. They didn't seem overly interested in challenging the thousands of men we had reducing the last French-held citadels - at least, not without the three thousand Frenchmen who soon joined them. The allied force moved south and began to siege the Kingdom garrisons in the north of Tripoli. When word reached us on the coast I led an army north to intercept them, and we saw to them in a heated afternoon's fighting beneath the walls of Trapesae. French bones ten years old still under-laid the field in places, and perhaps they served to sap the courage of our foes for they soon fell before us. That night I received word that my longtime councilor and loyal friend Mayor Onfroy of Jaffa had gone unto the Lord and reflected on the irony that I, ever in the forefront of battle, still lived while so many of my friends and family lay dead.
We began to march south, but before we could make many days' distance down the coast an immense Danish host landed in our immediate vicinity. We were hugely outnumbered, but I knew the quality of my men and also the state of theirs after such a long journey at sea. Indeed when we engaged them on the shore at Harene their horses were still so sickly and weak that their knights and light horse fought as infantry. Once more I led the flower of Jerusalem's knighthood deep into the heart of the enemy lines, hewing them down and breaking their will to fight. At one stage I recognized a younger man across the field and bellowed out a challenge as I bore down on him. He took one look at me, recognized my heraldry and fled to the great amusement of my men. With a small band of my men around me I charged after him, slaying four of his personal guard before at last the cur turned. We crossed blades once, thrice and I stove in his helm with a mighty swing, slaying him where he stood. The battle had been going increasingly against them, and with the death of their King the Danes were only too quick to surrender and seize the opportunity to leave the war. We had lost some eight hundred valiant souls for over eightfold that number of fallen Danes. The legend of Outremer carried far beyond France after that day's work, and the new King would prove less susceptible to Louis' blandishments in the days ahead.
Battle of Harene against a mighty Danish host
Still, the French King was not yet ready to give up on Tripoli; Boulogne may be what he went to war for, but he could hardly regain his lost prestige while yielding the greater measure of his ground to those who warred against him. He landed another four thousand men in Antioch and we marched briskly northwards to deal with him. As ever I remained in the forefront of the fight and at Artasium we smashed the French center, wiping them out to a man. In my prayers that evening I felt a gentle pressure upon my shoulder that told me the time was right, and I led some five thousand men to rendezvous with the fleets of the Kingdom at occupied Tripoli. We embarked upon fifty five vessels, bound for the west to end this ludicrous slaughter of our Christian brothers once and for all.
While I was abroad the unbelievers who remained in Christ's Kingdom decided that this was their opportunity to revolt while all Christ's armies were beyond my borders. They chose as their leader a firebrand preacher named Adil and before any of my nobles got word of it there were over three thousand Sunni under arms in Darom. The Holy Orders had been left out of the fighting so far as a last reserve in case the Great Turk decided to assail the Holy Land while we left it so lightly defended. Happily Grandmaster Valdemar decided to take matters into his own hands and roused both Orders against the infidel revolt. They beat Adil's Men at Darom, then pursued them and broke them at La Forbie. By the time I heard of the revolt it was already over - but I was occupied with my own affairs as my army and I landed at Marseilles, grimly entertained by the shock of the local French officials when we hove to. While the Pope had become increasingly cool toward us in the years since Cardinal Guischard was first named as Preferati, our collegial officials in Rome had been all too willing to forward my message to our counts in Northern Italy, calling up their levies to join us just over the French border.
I rendezvous with my Italian levies
Once we were ashore we rendezvoused with our Italian levies and rode north through France filled with grim intent. None of the local lords dared to march against our strength and rumour had Louis so broke that he could no longer afford ships, attempting to lead an army against us through Anatolia. We freed a Templar citadel that had been seized by Louis whilst we were busy in Tripoli and at last arrived in a place I had not seen since I was a child; Paris. The Lord Mayor and I parleyed outside its walls and after I affirmed that my business was only with the King and his ill deeds he agreed to provide my army with food and drink so we need not forage and despoil the countryside. With that arranged we took the King's seat under siege and stormed it in one whirlwind week, taking with us Louis' scheming wife, son and daughters. We freed Boulogne once again and the veteran soldiers made their re-acquaintance with some of the merrier women of those parts. This was hardly God's war, so I felt no need to encourage them to quell any of their baser natures. With the fall of the last French holding in Tripoli, King Louis surrendered to my niece as he did once before and we took ship for Jaffa.
This war was a disaster for Louis. Once he had paid all the necessary reparations to Edessa, he was hundreds of gold in debt, and owed the local moneylenders eighty gold a month in simple interest payments alone. With his enforced separation from his wife, Louis had lost some of his sense, much of his drive and all of the respect his nobles had for him. It would be a long time if ever before he was able to ransom any of his family from me, and with any luck their presence in Jerusalem would keep him from any more ambitions in my niece's direction - still more so as before we had even returned to the Mediterranean he had been dethroned and replaced by Beneset, the one-time Duc d'Poitiers. For the greed of one man and his scheming wife, the Capetian dynasty no longer sat the throne of France.
Beneset, King of Franks
We returned to Outremer in September 1134, not having measurably shortened the war from its predecessor yet with the lands that were Christ's in immeasurably better condition along with their levies. I celebrated victory shortly before Christmas that year and only one of my vassals refused to attend. I had my eye on him as he was now the only unrepentant infidel among my vassals. Tragically Cardinal Guischard had died while we were in France his age and grief at the slaughter of Christian against Christian depressing him and stealing away his will to live. Cardinal Bohemond was an able replacement however and was send to speak to my errant Count about the glories of Christ; soon we would be as one, a land unified by fervent belief in the one whose Kingdom this was.
A special moment for me was, having spoken to my daughter, receiving her consent in my teaching my grandson the sword as I did both his uncles before him. The lad already had a clear singing voice which he employed to great effect in the singing of hymns at mass, and a keen eye as to the placement and movement of feet in swordplay. We spent hours practicing the basic movements, first empty-handed and then employing a slender wooden rod in place of a sword. Yet by his seventh birthday his skills were mounting rapidly, and he bade fair to become a greater swordsman than I; not, perhaps, in my lifetime but when his arms grow into what his mind, hands and footing tells them. He accompanied me on a great hunt in September 1135 as we dealt with a lion that had been plaguing farmers in Naplus and was turning into quite an accomplished rider as well! My birthday celebrations the next year were happy ones; I had been growing absent minded, but I was still capable of warding the Twin Kingdoms and I was rediscovering the joy in my life.
A messenger from the Lord
I knelt beside my bed one night and prayed to the Lord. Was I a good man? Was I a disappointment to Christ, or was He pleased with my service? I hoped that He would give me a sign, if it was His will? As I slept, an Angel of God came to me and spoke to me of the mercy and wisdom of the Blessed Mother. He told me that though I was no longer content with my existence, neither was I wroth; I had learnt to exist in the space between, with the wisdom of my years balancing out the restlessness that plagued me in my youth. I had never strayed beyond the bounds of holy matrimony despite temptation even after death parted us and the Church would not have condemned me. I had respected and supported the Catholic Church in war and in peace, carried the sword and the cross into Jerusalem and Misr and acted my part with full honour and dignity. I was neither slothful or prideful, and I had nothing to be ashamed of for I was a pious man, pleasing in the eyes of the Lord.
I slipped into a deeper rest, at peace with the world.
Princeps Godefroy the Holy is dead - Long Live the Queen!
The King is Dead-God save the Queen!!
How sad to see him finally pass on but what a life and what a reign-surely to be sung and written about for centuries to come
The new Queen has a hard act to follow and I wonder what the Lords of Outremer will think of a woman on the throne....
How sad to see him finally pass on but what a life and what a reign-surely to be sung and written about for centuries to come
The new Queen has a hard act to follow and I wonder what the Lords of Outremer will think of a woman on the throne....
76! A titan of statecraft. Might you consider getting your daughter an epic nickname and changing the succession to full cognatic? Or are the de Boulognes of the opinion that the church is too close-knit with sexism for that to be legitimate?
Indeed! I'm going to miss him I think.
Well so far most of them hate her, so... it will be interesting to see what her reign is like. The most obvious difference was that the available levies I could call up went from 17 000 to 6 500 overnight :wacko:
We'll see how things pan out - I rarely have my characters deliberately aiming to earn themselves a nickname, it's more a product of what I'm trying to do. If she has the opportunity to she well might, though!
It isn't something that Godefroy would ever have done, but then you might say that Blanche de Boulogne has a vested interest...
A female ruler of Jerusalem, this will be interesting. I wish you good luck and now fully understand that comment you made on my AAR after reading this new chapter.