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Hi everyone,
For those who follow us on our social Media, you might have noticed several mini-activities among our other posts:
The thread is open, so you can engage in here to answer the riddles, questions and chat about the history of the events, characters and places we're sharing.
Please, keep it constructive, fun and on-topic to welcome everyone whether they are history gurus or simple players looking for a few stories
This thread will be updated with our latest mini-activities.
The passed mini-activites are logged further below.
Social Media Crusader Kings III, #CK3:
️ Where Are We?
Guess The Character?
Did You Know?
.
For those who follow us on our social Media, you might have noticed several mini-activities among our other posts:
- Where Are We? involving cartography;
- Did You Know? about history in the Middle Ages;
- Guess the Character?, to challenge your knowledge about medieval characters!
- Life of a Monarch, also posted in the CK2 Forums during the Monarch's Journey.
The thread is open, so you can engage in here to answer the riddles, questions and chat about the history of the events, characters and places we're sharing.
Please, keep it constructive, fun and on-topic to welcome everyone whether they are history gurus or simple players looking for a few stories
This thread will be updated with our latest mini-activities.
The passed mini-activites are logged further below.
Social Media Crusader Kings III, #CK3:
- Sardinia: Logudoro, Gallura, Arborea, Cagliari and Tortoli
- "South Germany" - Bavaria
- North-Western Bohemia
- Normandy & English Channel
- "Spain" - Murcia
- Burma
- Wadan, Azukki, Amatlus - Shinqiti
- Jåhkåmåhkke & Oulu
- Tamilakam & Lambakanna
- Wessex
- Faroe Islands
- Kanem-Bornu
- Denmark
- Mogyër Confederation
- Tuscany
- Saladin was the first Muslim King to unite all Kingdoms of Islam around the Holy Land under one flag.
He was the first Muslim King to unite every Kingdoms of Islam under one flag.
Under his command, the Holy Land was recaptured at the Battle of Hattin on July 4, 1187, which in turn launched the third Crusade! - Eleanor of Aquitaine, born in 1122, was queen consort of France and later of England and also duchess of Aquitaine in her own right. As the heir of the House of Poitiers, rulers in southwestern France, she was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in western Europe during the High Middle Ages.
- "My soldiers are as numerous as forests, and their women could form a large unit within the army. I want to feed them with juicy meat, let them live in beautiful yurts, and let them pasture their livestock on rich soil." - Genghis Khan // Genghis Khan, April 16 1162 – August 18 1227, was the founder and first Great Khan and Emperor of the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous empire in history after his death.
- For over three generations, I reigned over a region of India as a ruthless and clever ruler. While I was compassionate, kind and benevolent with my subjects, my enemies couldn't say the same. - The Kashmir valley was ruled by Queen Didda during (958)979-1003 – a daughter of Simha Raja, who was then the king of Lohara dynasty. After her husband’s death she first acted as queen regent succeeded by his son, grandson’s and later achieved absolute power. Her desire for administration and tactics were implored with ruthless executions.
- In my life of conquests, I used to be an adventurer and I held three crowns. Then, I took a stab in the back. – Sancho II was greedy for conquests. While he succeeded in holding the three crowns of Castile, Galicia and León, he was rapidly assassinated by Vellido Dolfos which left the title of "Emperor of all Spain" to his brother Alfonso.
- All the previous queens had practiced Celibacy, but I married "he" who "couldn't understand before", and thus lost my lands... all of this because of a snake! – Daurama is remembered as the Queen grandmother of the Hausa Empire. The Hausa Kingdom was a collection of states started by the Hausa people, situated between the Niger River and Lake Chad (modern day northern Nigeria). It lay between the Western Sudanic kingdoms of Ancient Ghana and Mali and the Eastern Sudanic kingdoms of Kanem-Bornu. Their people started cultivating grains, which led to a denser peasant population and they had a common language, laws & customs which set the region of Kano for a bright future.The Hausa oral history is reflected in the Bayajidda legend, which describes the adventures of Bayajidda killing the snake in the well of Daura. As a reward for killing the snake, the Queen of Daura, Daurama, promised him half of her kingdom. But Bayajida cleverly refused and instead asked for her hand in marriage. She felt indebted to him and agreed.
According to the legend, the hero had a child with the queen, Bawo.
Though the Hausa states shared the same lineage, language and culture, the states were characterized by fierce rivalries with each other with each state seeking supremacy over the others. They constantly waged war on each other and would often work with invaders to the detriment of their sister states, hindering their collective strength. - I grew up as a military leader and led a campaign against Norway as a Jarl. Defeated many times, I never thought that one day... I would be king. – Because of his relationship to Canute the Great Svend was a pretender to the throne of Denmark from his early years. When king Harthacanute died in 1042, he claimed the Danish throne, but lost to Norway' s King Magnus I, who made Svend a jarl instead.He soon rebelled against Magnus and had the Danish nobles crown him king, but was defeated by Magnus and fled to Sweden. The war between Magnus and Sweyn lasted until 1045, when Harald Hardråde returned to Norway from exile. Harald and Sweyn joined forces and forced Magnus to share the throne with Harald.
In 1047 Magnus died, having stated on his deathbed that his kingdom would be divided up: Harald would get the throne of Norway, while Svend would be king of Denmark. Upon hearing of Magnus' death Sweyn said, "Now so help me God, I shall never yield Denmark."
One of the legacies of King Svend was a fundamental change in Danish society which had been based on whether a person was free or a bondsman. He is often considered to be Denmark's last Viking king as well as the first medieval one.
As a king, he built a strong foundation for royal power through cooperation with the church. He completed the final partition of Denmark into dioceses by corresponding directly with the pope. During his reign hundreds of small wooden churches were built throughout the kingdom. Svend sought to create a Nordic Archbishopric under Danish rule, a feat which his son Eric I accomplished.
- The siege & sack of Constantinople occurred on April 12 1204, it marked the culmination of the 4th Crusade. Crusader armies looted & destroyed parts of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. Baldwin I of Flanders was crowned emperor of Constantinople.
- Joan of Arc received beatification by the Roman Catholic Church on April 19 1909. Nick-named "the maid of Orleans", she broke the siege of Orleans in 1430 dressed in a suit of armour. Joan helped led the army to Rheims where King Charles VII was crowned, but she was later captured and executed.
- On April 23, 1014, High-King Brian Boru of Ireland defeated the Viking forces at the Battle of Clontarf, freeing Ireland from Vikings control.
It lasted from sunrise to sunset, killing around 7k-10k. Although Brian's forces were victorious, he died in the battle, along with his son Murchad and his grandson Toirdelbach.
- On April 29, 1522, Charles V named Frans van Holly inquisitor-general of Netherlands. Nobody expects the Papal Inquisition! Charles V became the Duke of Burgundy in 1506, King of Castile & Aragon through his mother in 1516, then the Habsburg crown in 1519. He was elected Holy Roman Emperor the same year and in 1530 was crowned by the Pope. You might recognise Charles V easily, for he had a deformed lower jaw, a characteristic of many of the Habsburgs.
- On the 6th of May 878, King Alfred the Great defeated the Viking army of Æthelstan at the battle of Battle of Edington. He prevented a total Viking conquest of England and reached an agreement whereby 'Danelaw' was established in northern England and the rest of Wessex and its dependencies retained independence. In addition to his military successes, Alfred championed education, and insisted that schooling be done in English rather than Latin, and greatly improved his kingdom's legal and military structure. He was respected by his subjects for having improved their quality of life and for being a level-headed and merciful ruler.
- 11th of May 1189, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa & 100,000 crusaders depart from Regensburg for the Third Crusade which lasted between 1189–1192. It was an attempt by the three most powerful states of Western Christianity (England, France & the HRE) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187
- On May. 23 1059, Henri I crowned his son Philip I the Amorous King of France. His reign was extraordinarily long for the time: 48 years! Under his reign, the monarchy began a modest recovery from the low it reached in the reign of his father and he added to the royal demesne the Vexin and Bourges.
- On 29 May 1453, Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, falls to the Turks under Muhammad II after 53 days of siege, leading to the end of the Byzantine Empire. Constantinople's fortifications were overcome with the use of gunpowder from very large cannons and bombards.
- After Charlemagne's death, the Carolingian royal authority began to decline due to the constant invasions of the Vikings, civil wars and strife with vassals. In 923, June 15, was fought the Battle of Soissons : King Robert I of France is killed and King Charles the Simple is arrested by the supporters of Duke Rudolph of Burgundy. Rudolph, Duke of Burgundy, succeeded Robert as ruler of West Francia.
- 28 June 1098 - The Battle of the strategic city of Antioch started on 20 October 1097 during the First Crusade. Many characters from the Muslim-held city and the Christian crusaders fought here before the great Byzantine walls surrounding the city, a formidable obstacle, but the leaders of the crusade felt compelled to besiege and capture Antioch anyway.
- King Louis IX of France was a zealous Christian man who reigned with an iron hand in matters of religion. It comes as no surprise then that he decided his role as a Christian outweighed his role as King of France and he embarked on the Seventh Crusade.
The crusade was a six-year disaster. At the Battle of Al Mansurah, his army was destroyed, and at the following Battle of Fariskur, he himself was captured by the Egyptians in July 3, 1250. After a month of captivity he was ransomed for 400,000 dinars and allowed to leave, provided the French gave up all their claims in Egypt.
The disaster of this crusade did not dim his hopes of taking back the holy land - instead he launched another crusade in 1267. Shortly after landing at Carthage however dysentery broke out in the camp and Louis himself died of the disease in 1270.
- On July 6 of 1189, Richard the Lionheart is crowned King of England, upon the death of King Henry II. He was a great military leader and warrior. By the age of 16, Richard had taken command of his own army, putting down rebellions in Poitou against his father.
- The Battle of Grunwald, on the 15th of July 1410, was one of the Medieval Europe's largest battles during the Poland-Lithuanian Teutonic War. It was a decisive moment for Europe and one of the most significant in Polish and Lithuanian history. Although the Teutonic leadership was destroyed in the battle, they withstood a castle siege and did not lose significant territories at the resulting peace deal.
Nevertheless their defeat caused an irreversible decline as they struggled to pay debts and recover their power, while the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth became the dominant nation in Central and Eastern Europe.
- 20 July 1304 - Wars of Scottish Independence: Fall of Stirling Castle - King Edward I of England takes the last rebel stronghold of the war.
After the defeat of William Wallace's Scots army at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298, it took Edward I six years to gain full control of Scotland. The last stronghold of resistance to English rule was Stirling Castle.
Armed with twelve siege engines, the English laid siege to the castle in April 1304. For four months the castle was bombarded by lead balls, Greek fire, stone balls, and even some sort of gunpowder mixture.
Impatient with the lack of progress, Edward ordered his chief engineer, Master James of St. George, to begin work on a new, more massive engine called Warwolf (a trebuchet).
The castle's garrison of 30, led by William Oliphant, eventually were allowed to surrender on 24 July after Edward had previously refused to accept surrender until the Warwolf had been tested.
Despite previous threats, Edward spared all the Scots in the garrison and executed only one Englishman who had previously given over the castle to the Scots.
- 27 July 1214 - 1st battle of Bouvines - King Philip II of France vs Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV & King John of England; as a result John lost Normandy & his other possessions in France (hence his nickname John "Lackland")
John's treatment of his barons, led to several plots against him by the powerful landholders in England. Eventually John and the rebellious nobles signed the famous Magna Carta document in 1215, which limited John's royal authority, imposed protection for the baron's from illegal imprisonment and safety for the Church's landholdings. Neither side complied with the terms, and the First Barons' War broke out shortly after.
John died during the rebellion. He is remembered popularly as a petty and spiteful king with a reputation for cruelty, though other historians have also noted he was an able king who helped reform royal administration. The Magna Carta, though largely ineffective in its time, became a much vaunted document of liberty and freedom from tyranny, and was reissued by successive monarchs. It is seen today as an important step in the constitutional development of the United Kingdom.
- 6 August 1189 - Richard the Lionheart is crowned King of England, upon the death of King Henry II. He reigned for ten years from 1189 to 1199.
- 14 August 1281 - In 1274 the Mongol Empire under Kublai Khan launched the first invasion of Japan. Eight years before, Kublai had sent a letter to the Japanese emperor (who in the letter he called the "King of Japan"), threatening the use of force unless Japan submitted.
The Japanese did not respond. So it was that five years later the Mongol empire (specifically the Yuan dynasty in China and Korean soldiers form the tributary state of Goryeo) launched an amphibious attack on Japan. The Mongols were however repulsed in their first invasion, and, upon being forced back to their ships, were sunk by a large typhoon. Another invasion occurred in 1281. Prior to this Kublai Khan had sent emissaries from the Yuan dynasty to Japan to negotiate but the Japanese had them beheaded. Again the Mongols were defeated by stiff resistance and their retreating ships sunk by a typhoon.
- 19 August 1274 - Edward I is crowned King of England at Westminster Abbey after returning from the Ninth Crusade. Edward was known for his temperamental personality and intimidating presence (6'2" size / 1m88) and despite periods of unpopularity was respected by his subjects as the embodiment of a medieval king and a man of faith.
Edward was participating in the failed Ninth Crusade when he was told that his father, Henry III, had died and that he was now King of England. He took two years to return to his land, being crowned on August 19, 1274. After launching many administrative and legal reforms, Edward was involved with war in Scotland, and he fought against William Wallace and Robert the Bruce. Though he was largely victorious in the war, and had Wallace brutally executed, the war continued after his death. His conquest of Wales was completed in 1283 after a rebellion in the territory.
- 26 August 1346 Battle of Crécy, in northern France; Edward III's English longbows defeat Philip VI's army. Cannons are used for first time in battle. Edward III is know for his military success and for restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II.
He transformed the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe; his reign also saw vital developments in legislation and government, in particular the evolution of the English parliament.
He is one of only six British monarchs to have ruled England or its successor kingdoms for more than fifty years.
- 2 September 1192 - Sultan Saladin & King Richard the Lionheart of England sign the Treaty of Jaffa over Jerusalem, ending the Third Crusade. Christians were granted freedom to make pilgrimages to the holy places.
- On the 19th of September 1356, Edward of Woodstock, the Black Prince of Wales defeated the French at the Battle of Poitiers, and capture the French King, John II, during the Hundred Years' War. His father later made him Prince of Gascony and Aquitaine in France.
- 24 September 1066 - The Norwegians led by King Harald Hardrada, aided by Harold's brother Tostig, invaded northern England but were defeated at Stamford Bridge by the king of England, Harold Godwinson. Harald's death brought an end to the Viking Age.
Three days later, William, Duke of Normandy, landed in Sussex and waited for Harold's troops to march South. On October 14, the famous Battle of Hastings occurred, and Harold was killed in battle with his weakened army who fought a battle recently and marched from the north to the south of England as fast as they could.
The Norwegian King Harald Hardrada was trapped. Worse, his Byzantine coat of mail, so strong that it had never been pierced, was left with his ships and his reinforcements.
He called his chainmail Emma. An affectionate name perhaps, strange to modern ears but it was an old one, a name with meaning: universal, all-encompassing. Emma had protected the giant king for many of his fifty years, from neck to thigh, and nothing was her equal. But it was a hot day, and he had no idea the English were so near. The Earl Tostig had told him it would take the English weeks to get this far north.
Now, though, his claim to the English throne was in ruin. And so, unprotected and outnumbered, pinned against the river, Hardrada fought desperately to reform his men into a shield wall. Perhaps sensing the inevitable, he led a mad charge, his black raven standard streaming above him. His Dane Axe sang as he hewed his way through the English ranks. Perhaps he thought he could carry the day singlehanded, bloody the English tide the way he had ravaged and despoiled a hundred shores.
But wearing only his blue tunic, far from Emma’s embrace, the great Varangian was exposed. We all know the history that followed.
King Harald of Norway was struck by an arrow, pierced through his neck. He fell choking on his own blood. His men refused quarter and shared their brave king’s fate. Only a fraction of his ships returned to Norway, under oath to never return to English shores. And so, ended the Viking Age.
- 28 SDeptember 1066 - William invaded with around 7,000-12,000 men, and constructed a castle in the area of Hastings. This is where the famous Battle of Hastings would happen, on October 14, 1066. King Harold was killed and William marched on London, eventually receiving the capitulation of the English barons and Harold's uncrowned successor Edgar Aetheling.
William was crowned on 25 December 1066 and reigned until 1087. The conquest introduced the Norman language to England.
- 8 October 1480 - A bit outside of CK3's time: On October the 8th of 1480, the forces of Akhmat Khan of the Great Horde & Ivan III Grand Prince of all Rus, fought on the Ugra river.
The two forces met at the Ugra River, a tributary of the Volga River, within reach of Moscow. Ahmed, who had made an alliance with King Casimir of Poland waited for his ally before making an attack. However he waited for weeks in vain, King Casimir, beset by his own internal troubles never came.
The Great Horde was defeated, ending their hold over the Russian princes forever.
It is likely the firearms of the Russians were a major favour in their success in repulsing these advances. Mongol forces relied on archery, not firearms, which they were at ease with on or off horseback. Infamous for their skill, a Mongolian archer was reputedly able to hit a target 200m away.
The first reference to Russian use of firearms appears to be in the Sofiiskii vremennik chronicle during the 1382 defense of Moscow from Tokhtamysh's Golden Horde, one hundred years earlier. Although it does not appear that the Horde used firearms, they did employ gunpowder weapons, flaming arrows, and explosive bombs. However these were usually tools for besieging a town, not a river.
- 14 october 1322 - After their great victory at Bannockburn, the Scots regularly raided into England without resistance. Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeated King Edward II of England at the battle of Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's independence.
- 23 october 1157 - The Battle of Grathe Heath ends the civil war in Denmark. King Sweyn III is killed during the battle, after he betrayed Canute (killed) and Valdemar (fled, wounded) during a reconciling feast. People flocked to Valdemar's banner when Sweyn's treachery was revealed and then occured the Battle of Grathe Heath. The battle was short, but vicious. Sweyn failed to locate Valdemar's main force, and was suddenly attacked with such force that he fled his army. He blundered into the swampy areas at one end of the Hauge Lake, and lost his weapons and armour. Shortly afterwards, he was captured and killed with an axe, according to tradition, by angry peasants.
- 30 october 637 - Soon...
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