He's a genius so you could've had worse. Let's hope he's educated be someone cruel enough for the job.
Cruel Britannia ruled the waves
- Thread starter Silverbow
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How did Morgan's heir change? Was it due to elective monarchy, or high crown authority barring her 'foreign' son from the throne?
I'm surprised you agreed to Papal Investiture. What a nuisance of the Pope to take the trip to ol' Blighty to harass you in your twilight hours. If only you had paid him off, you could avoid seeing him again for the rest of the life of your monarch, which wasn't very long unfortunately.
Excellent work, Morgan. I look forward to what the genius kid will bring and who his first victim will be =)
I'm surprised you agreed to Papal Investiture. What a nuisance of the Pope to take the trip to ol' Blighty to harass you in your twilight hours. If only you had paid him off, you could avoid seeing him again for the rest of the life of your monarch, which wasn't very long unfortunately.
Excellent work, Morgan. I look forward to what the genius kid will bring and who his first victim will be =)
I'm afraid you'll get to see one of the most boring regencies ever. The 'knock your regent off the battlements' event didn't pop up either.
Yeah I wish I kept that in mind when I chose the tutor. But at least one can still act cruel even when looking perfectly nice on the outside.
Yeah it was tanistry, a.k.a. Celtic elective.
I actually prefer papal investiture - it may cost me a bit on taxes in some cases, but it also removes the hefty -30 malus to papal relations. Excommunications suck.
I wish one could plot as a child, the di Treviso scumbag would get his just desserts.
Chapter 9
Little Guimarc'h didn't inherit his great-grandmother's penchant for intrigue. In fact, he was quite blunt and honest.
[SUB]A sign of things to come.[/SUB]
Of course, he had a bunch of vassals who didn't like him too much, so he spent all his inheritance on gifts, and awarded all honorary titles. This proved to be a wise decision. As for the people who held the strings behind the throne?
[SUB]The heir, the regent and the tutor.[/SUB]
Guimarc'h inherited not only gold and two crowns, but also a war. A war that was mere formality, really. His father Jehan was granted the county of Connacht.
[SUB]Also note the levies and navy of England.[/SUB]
For some reason, the dukes of England were not very keen on conspiring against Guimarc'h. Wales was another matter, but on the other hand, the dukes of Wales were quite irrelevant and powerless.
[SUB]The threat from factions never surpassed 20ish %.[/SUB]
In 1121 A.D., the duchy of Connacht was usurped and granted to Jehan le Fay. Mere weeks after, the northern half of Ireland was united under Guimarc'h's rule.
[SUB]Could form Kingdom of Ireland now... had I the piety.[/SUB]
Guimarc'h's uncle Bran died in 1125 A.D., and his father Jehan was voted the new heir. Duke Niall of Ulster got excommunicated, but Guimarc'h orchestrated his return to the pope's graces, making the most powerful of the Irish lords grateful.
And on 1st of May of 1126 A.D., Guimarc'h I, King of England and Wales, came of age and married.
[SUB]Epic diplomat, hiding his cruel streak behind the facade of a great and amicable man.[/SUB]
Guimarc'h was extremely popular - all his vassals liked him.
[SUB]These are the haters.[/SUB]
And with the British Isles divided between Guimarc'h and king Macbeth III of Scotland, Guimarc'h set his first scheme into motion.
[SUB]Feels appropriate.[/SUB]
This is a rollicking good read! (and helpful for relative n00bs like myself to learn the tricks of the trade...)
Chapter 10
In France, the le Fays slowly made their way to the crown.
[SUB]Well, eventually.[/SUB]
Macbeth III didn't have many courtiers, and thus forming an effective plot was hard.
[SUB]Especially with such drunken blabbermouths.[/SUB]
Guimarc'h's firstborn was a daughter.
[SUB]Not a genius.[/SUB]
The pope called the second crusade for Jerusalem.
[SUB]Guimarc'h joined.[/SUB]
The armies of England gathered and boarded their ships. It was time to fight for the Holy Land.
[SUB]Crusader trait and maybe a crown the creation of which will give us 5000 prestige and 2000 piety? Sold![/SUB]
Adelheid accompanied Guimarc'h on the crusade, and gave birth to their second daughter aboard a galley.
[SUB]I actually named her Morgan. Dunno why the game wanted me to have two identically named daughters...[/SUB]
The Fatimids were no pushovers, and kept crushing the crusader armies with an immense horde of Mamluks.
[SUB]Evasion via boat![/SUB]
Guimarc'h avoided direct confrontation and conquered several Fatimid provinces. At one point, he saw a large army from Thuringia fighting a huge army of Fatimids, and ordered his ten thousand men to join them. Alas, while the numbers were equal, the Christians were soundly defeated.
Meanwhile back home, a claim on the revolting Gotland was obtained.
[SUB]Please stay in revolt until the crusade is over...[/SUB]
Never a man to admit defeat, Guimarc'h sailed back to England, re-raised the levies and hired the decimated Knights Templar. And then, he returned to Levant, and in two battles, turned the tide of the war.
[SUB]Fatimid blood soaks the sands of Levant.[/SUB]
The victories on the field of battle were followed by more personal ones.
[SUB]A genius son! And a wimp.[/SUB]
It was Guimarc'h strategical genius that won the crusade - he occupied counties all over the place, stretching the Fatimid forces thin and forcing them to run madly across the desert chasing the pope while he sniped the weakly protected castles with assaults from the sea.
[SUB]Death of a thousand cuts.[/SUB]
Back in Albion, an attempt at Macbeth's life failed.
[SUB]We'll get him eventually.[/SUB]
And in 1133 A.D., the Kingdom of Jerusalem was born.
[SUB]The piety. The piety! Ireland, here we come![/SUB]
But what will Guimarc'h do with the Holy Land?
[SUB]Ain't no island...[/SUB]
Well under your own rules you can't keep it. But you could grant it to the pope or some other holy figure for a kings ransom in Piety...
Perhaps give the whole thing to one of the crusading orders - if they can field so many troops with just a barony, how much more could they get with a whole kingdom!
Also, the free piety gain sounds nice. Use the piety to create the Kingdom of Ireland, claim all of it, and you should have enough provinces to form Empire of Britannia.
Also, the free piety gain sounds nice. Use the piety to create the Kingdom of Ireland, claim all of it, and you should have enough provinces to form Empire of Britannia.
Chapter 11
Guimarc'h contemplated his options. A republic in Levant? Wouldn't survive, with no allies. Same with granting the lands to the Pope of the crusading knightly orders. The le Fays also had no single unmarried male member - otherwise such a man would be married off into alliance with the HRE or Byzantine Empire and given the crown of Jerusalem. So Guimarc'h divided the lands among his friends from the crusade and his court chaplain.
[SUB]Two of them family by marriage.[/SUB]
And duke Fragan Mathrafal, whose wife was the heir to the throne of France, was crowned the King of Jerusalem.
[SUB]With 4 allies, one of them France, the kingdom might survive.[/SUB]
Guimarc'h then attempted to claim Gotland, but the treacherous island republic surrendered to the Swedish king once they saw the sails of the English fleet.
[SUB]Cunning, preferring prison to exile.[/SUB]
And once he saved up some money - he spent most of it creating the duchies in Jerusalem - Guimarc'h had the pope crown him as the King of Ireland.
[SUB]Rex Hiberniae.[/SUB]
As the King of Ireland, Guimarc'h had some swift ways of reuniting the island.
[SUB]Scotland boasted an army that was less than 1/4th of England's. It hardly could have ended up any different...[/SUB]
Studying all the Celtic histories (written by Romans), Guimarc'h came up with the idea of an Empire of Britannia. Of course, he would need lands in Scotland proper to declare himself an emperor. The studies led to him be known as a scholar... and then the Scottish crown changed hands again.
[SUB]More like heads.[/SUB]
With Ireland united completely, Guimarc'h turned his gaze north.
[SUB]What a mess.[/SUB]
It was around these days when his third daughter was born...
[SUB]3rd genius child.[/SUB]
...and his father set the path for the first inroads into Scotland.
[SUB]Barely counts as Scotland.[/SUB]
The situation in Scotland made the Isle of Man easy prey.
[SUB]But then, what ain't easy prey in Scotland?[/SUB]
Of course, that meant the Duchy of Isles could potentially be grabbed if a claimant was granted Man. There was just one obstacle - duke Dugald.
[SUB]And the le Fays know how to deal with obstacles.[/SUB]
A third son was born to Guimarc'h.
[SUB]Equalizing the score between geniuses and normals at 3.[/SUB]
With duke Dugald dead, his rebellion in Scotland ended. This, of course, made claiming the Duchy of Isles problematic.
[SUB]Too bad the Scottish kings weren't exactly popular.[/SUB]
And the conquest of Scotland continued unabated.
[SUB]Please note the humongous Scottish armies. That was about what they could field at this point.[/SUB]
But there was still a lot of Scotland to conquer. So various methods were employed to do so.
[SUB]Of both the violent and non-violent variety.[/SUB]
More murder and mayhem. You smothered a child you b... horrible person!
Can't be long now before the Empire of Britannia falls into your hands.
Can't be long now before the Empire of Britannia falls into your hands.
Chapter 12
Guimarc'h took the opportunity in Buchan right away.
[SUB]Is that the ancestor of Mitch Buchanan?[/SUB]
Buchan was indeed the final piece of the puzzle.
[SUB]For the Emperor![/SUB]
But something wasn't right...
[SUB]What in the nine hells is this gavelkind crap?![/SUB]
The succession laws being insane meant that Guimarc'h had to wait 10 years before attempting to fix them. So in the meanwhile, he busied himself by continuing the unification of Britannia.
[SUB]Double war![/SUB]
The fractured Scotland was in a hopeless position, and soon a Breton duke held Moray.
[SUB]Not much left of Scotland by now.[/SUB]
Of course, weak as it was, Scotland was still protected under the peace treaties.
[SUB]Too bad they're linked to the person of the ruler.[/SUB]
And the war machine kept turning...
[SUB]Duchy of Galloway completed.[/SUB]
Of course, aside from the constant war, things weren't completely still back in Middlesex. Duchess Bleuzenn of Oxford tried to seduce Guimarc'h.
[SUB]Hm, let's see. She's ugly and I have a beautiful wife... like hell I'm gonna cheat on her with that.[/SUB]
Guimarc'h's eldest daughter, Konstanza, came of age and married.
[SUB]More like mismarried...[/SUB]
And the le Fays came to power in France and requested Guimarc'h's aid.
[SUB]That's extreme even for a le Fay - three dead children and husband?[/SUB]
Thankfully, it was just wimpy Kabylia that was invading, and not the Dhunnunids.
[SUB]Poor Leon stuck in Aragon...[/SUB]
And Guimarc'h even had another son.
[SUB]A reward for turning down the ox-faced duchess of Oxford?[/SUB]
Meanwhile, Guimarc'h's father Jehan went on searching for ways to claim the rest of Britannia from the Norsemen.
[SUB]Still ways to go.[/SUB]
Guimarc'h even managed to wound himself when he fell off a horse, but thankfully all it led to was a scar.
[SUB]Emperor Badass.[/SUB]
Chapter 13
Morgan le Fay came of age and married.
[SUB]Alas, it wasn't Morgan the Quarreler risen from the dead.[/SUB]
In Scotland, there was another ruler change.
[SUB]Life expectancy on the throne of Scotland is approaching zero.[/SUB]
The Scottish royalty was kicked out of Atholl next.
[SUB]A Norseman?![/SUB]
Murder and war followed each other, of course.
[SUB]No Norsemen allowed![/SUB]
The duchy of Albany was the next to join Britannia.
[SUB]Slow but steady unites Britannia.[/SUB]
Not even a prison could stop Guimarc'h's schemes.
[SUB]To be, or not to be? Apparently this Macbeth chose the latter.[/SUB]
Guimarc'h didn't stop his conquest even when his son-in-law inherited the crown of Scotland, especially when said son-in-law was about to lose the crown to the Norse anyway.
[SUB]Too bad he wouldn't submit willingly.[/SUB]
Even old grouchy Buchanan of Teviotdale forgot about the whole Buchan business and bent his knee to Guimarc'h.
[SUB]Fear was the primary motivation. Well, and gold.[/SUB]
Scotland was almost done by now.
[SUB]Guimarc'h didn't even need the excuse of a fat Norse queen ruling Scotland as pretext to invade.[/SUB]
And in the midst of the wars, Guimarc'h's eldest son Jehan came of age.
[SUB]Another failure (cruelty-wise)...[/SUB]
The duchy of Lothian went to countess Mirren of Dunbar.
[SUB]Note the doomstack.[/SUB]
The Norse queen was promptly dethroned.
[SUB]Via a snake.[/SUB]
And her Yngling successor immediately faced Guimarc'h's wrath.
[SUB]Yngling in Scotland?[/SUB]
Alas, this wasn't enough to free the crown of Scotland from the Norseman's hands.
[SUB]Scotland in Finland...[/SUB]
Haldor Yngling was an extremely unpopular man, and as such he didn't stand a chance.
[SUB]Yep, his whole court joined to murder him.[/SUB]
Ronan, Guimarc'h's weakling son, married queen Oda of Lotharingia.
[SUB]Infiltration of HRE proceeds.[/SUB]
And Scotland ceased to exist.
[SUB]Lucky girl, at least she gets to live somewhere in exile.[/SUB]
Guimarc'h was now Emperor for over a decade. This meant he could change the laws... if his stupid vassals were at peace.
[SUB]Absolute authority, as usual, doesn't do jack squat.[/SUB]
And the plans for kicking the Norsemen out of Britannia kept getting more grandiose.
[SUB]Soon...[/SUB]
Hmm, the Norse are likely to be fresh to the fight. Better have a strong army on hand.
Chapter 14
Guimarc'h's favorite daughter, Sulgwenn, came of age.
[SUB]Way too good to be wasted in some patrilineal marriage.[/SUB]
There was also interesting news from the mainland - the Kingdom of Brittany was formed, and Normandy was still fiercely independent.
[SUB]I love it when the AI actually manages that. And it also seems to have got a new CoA.[/SUB]
Jehan brought more good news from the north. This time, he procured a claim on the whole duchy of Orkney.
[SUB]And put us into debt.[/SUB]
A war followed in the wake of the message.
[SUB]Give me the rest of Britain![/SUB]
While the armies sailed north, a wedding was held in Westminster.
[SUB]The basileos' sister.[/SUB]
The war with Norway ended inconclusively - as Orkney declared civil war. Guimarc'h sighed, re-raised the levies and quickly conquered the pathetic Orkney.
[SUB]Orkney got a Scottish ruler. As it should be.[/SUB]
Britannia proper was united. It was time to start looking across the seas to other islands that could join the maritime empire.
[SUB]Second-greatest power in the world.[/SUB]
Alas, Guimarc'h still couldn't change the succession laws, as his vassals were warring. Thankfully, he managed to solve this. In a true le Fay fashion.
[SUB]Stupid duke wouldn't move his armies to crush his rebel for some reason. For years.[/SUB]
Two other rebellions were squashed by the dukes of Orkney and Lancaster, and Guimarc'h was finally able to proceed with his grand plan.
[SUB]Step one, primogeniture in Empire of Britannia.[/SUB]
By this time, tanistry in the kingdoms has outlived its usefulness, as everyone wanted a distant relative on the thrones over Jehan. Not an incompetent man, but...
[SUB]That'd be baaad.[/SUB]
So Guimarc'h solved the problem in a quick and dirty way - as changing the laws in each kingdom would paradoxically annoy the dukes more than just destroying and re-creating the crowns.
[SUB]This happened in Wales and Ireland too.[/SUB]
And in a grand ceremony, the kingdoms were reborn as agnatic (yuck!) primogenitures.
[SUB]A net gain of one crown.[/SUB]
Surprisingly, the vassals took the whole mess in stride.
[SUB]-50 beats -120 for three extra succession law changes.[/SUB]
Guimarc'h's youngest son married the duchess of Brunswick.
[SUB]So eager to end their own dynasties...[/SUB]
And a few news from around the world...
[SUB]Major mess in Russia dominated by the orthodox kingdom of Volga Bulgaria, out of all things.[/SUB]
[SUB]Slovakia in Romania. Also, Croatia is all but dead.[/SUB]
[SUB]Jerusalem still alive and kicking, even if divided.[/SUB]