Damn, you should have written an AAR, I'm loving this story. Mottos, however small may their contribution be, definitely help in making these stories.
I wish I had. But it still makes a good story.
I went into his reign figuring he wouldn't accomplish much. In fact, I expected him to die before he reached 16, and there were two attempts on his life, once as an infant, and once as a young child. I never knew who was behind it, but the most likely culprit was his father's younger brother, who was next in line. But he made it through his childhood, got a good education trait (education also worked differently then; I think I had only Sword of Islam and Legacy of Rome. In fact, I'm sure that was it. It was early on in my playing days, and Sunset Invasion hadn't come out yet) and was King of Ireland just a few years later, King of Scotland and Wales before he was 50, and added England and Empire of Britannia just after his 80th birthday. He was wounded in battle at the age of 83, and I finally pulled him from personally leading his armies at 85, after almost 70 years of personally leading his troops in every major campaign. He never grew infirm or incapable, dying peacefully one night at 89, leaving the Empire to his six year-old great great grandson.
There were times when I thought he might never die. And again, this was before you had artifacts or lifestyles that could improve your health. Even with those health improvements though, I've never had a non-immortal character live past 82. And even my immortal character never approached 87 years of rule. (MASSIVE long reign bonus in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and chunks of England.)
The only thing he never did was Crusade. He was kinda busy building an Empire from the ground up.
