A nice stable period can be good sometimes - I know you said you would keep to Ireland, but will you go into Wales or Scotland at all?
The Mandate of Heaven - Interventionist Irish Isolationsists
- Thread starter Silverbow
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As for long-term holdings? No. I might meddle with who rules them though. Probably will.
Oh, and you'll see the first meddling soon (once I can post it), I think it'll be deliciously ironic.
You behaved wisely down there .....I can see the air of Levante blowing very strongly at the Emerald ISLAND 
Chapter 2.5
Early in the 1100s, the royal court of Ireland was struck by a plague of mortality. The chancellor Ryan Michael, the man who contributed the most to the unification of Ireland, was the first, dying at the age of 53 from natural causes. Then Flann, youngest of Loingsech's sons, ever forgotten due to his two greater brothers, died of illness at the age of 31, childless. And finally the queen mother and spymaster of Ireland, Ingegred Yngling died at the age of 60, of natural causes while studying technology in the shadows of the pyramids in Egypt.
Not all was woe however, as little Deidre grew up and married Harald, the third-born son of king Erik Ylving of Denmark, securing Ireland a mighty ally. An ally that asked the Irish to join his holy war for Estonia right away. Gabrán, deciding that he wanted to be remembered as an honorable ally (unlike his father, duke Loinsech 'Moral Support' na Carraige), obliged and raised all his and his vassals' levies and set sail to Estonia. He didn't have to fight at all, just lay a siege. And back at home, they started calling him Gabrán the Wise.
Gabrán's third-born daughter, Scáthach grew up into an excellent diplomat, and married the younger brother of king Sven of Sweden, Halsten. This meant another ally in the north, and another holy war to join, this time for Courland. This time, Gabrán actually got to finish a siege before it was over.
[SUB]He even had the na Carraige chin![/SUB]
Back at home, duke Donnchad the Merry of Leinster, Gabrán's staunch ally and man he greatly valued, died of old age and was succeeded by his son Domnall, and Gabrán's youngest daughter, Dubchoclaigh, grew up and married the fourth-born son of king Erik, strengthening the alliance with Denmark. Even more importantly, the younger son of Gabrán's, Flaithbertach, also grew up and married. His bride was the daughter of the emperor of Holy Rome, and even though she was a bit older, she brought with her a great alliance. A great alliance Gabrán was sure to put to use.
Gabrán looked across the Irish Sea, and saw a fractured Scotland and Wales, the dukes fighting among each other. He saw the Norse York and Cornwall. But he also saw England, ruled by the excommunicated impious king Godwine of Godwin. And Gabrán was a pious man himself, and friend of the pope...
[SUB]Hilarius FTW![/SUB]
And so the Irish armies set sail again. And this time, they didn't sail alone.
Gabrán's army landed in northern England, but was surprised by an English army sneakily landing from the sea and ended up decimated. The defeat, while bitter, helped Gabrán to understand the logistics of retreat better.
In Ireland, duke Domnall died and was succeeded by his underage son Donnchad II. Gabrán's armies retreated via ships to southern England, where they joined their allies and participated in the battle of Arundel, one that broke England's back. Soon after, vast areas of England were conquered by the Irish, Swedish and Imperial troops, and Godwine had no choice but to surrender his crown, on 7th of December 1116 A.D., a day that would forever live in fame.
This led to Gabrán being forever known as The Conqueror.
[SUB]Gabrán, at the day of his triumph.[/SUB]
While Gabrán never intended to keep the holdings gained in this war, he had a map of them made, just to stick it to the hated English.
And then he granted all the lands he just conquered to his younger son, Flaithbertach, making him a more powerful monarch than himself.
And the world at the day of conquest of England:
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Fantastic! I like the idea of giving away the kingdom - it seems to fit your kind, humble ruler well
I wiated for this ! Well done you honoured your promise about title giving ,with this tactic Irish blood will be spread amongst the whoole world( a masked world conquest )
)
While the idea of putting an Irishman on the throne of England is exhilarating, I do worry that it might lead to enormous trouble later on, though. When your king does, Flaithbertach will inherit a claim, too, right? If he holds on to his throne, he or his sons might want to snatch Ireland from your eldest son.Fantastic! I like the idea of giving away the kingdom - it seems to fit your kind, humble ruler well
As Ireland, it's never a good idea to give England a claim on your lands...
Well, I hope they'll get along. England isn't strong enough to take Ireland, not the way it is right now, with one third of it being Norway. With a merc company or two I can take it in the field by myself, and I have allies aplenty. The only truly worrying thing is that Flaithbertach is married to the Kaiser's daughter and thus allied to him as well.
And Willum, France has independence wars trouble, with Bourbon growing into the large blob to the south of it.
Chapter 2.6
Gabrán figured that putting his son on the throne of England could mean trouble, but even he was surprised when he had to come to his son's aid to quell a revolt mere months after he crowned him.
During the war, he received request for aid from King Sven of Sweden expanding into Novgorod, and no sooner have the Irish armies conquered Kent than they sailed east to conquer Novgorod.
At the domestic front, Gabrán finished with castle villages and walls in his holdings, and started founding new cities in his demesne wherever possible. The coin they would generate would come in handy, and would eventually fund military improvements in Gabrán's castles, and afterwards even the founding of new cities in southern Ireland, which was not directly owned by Gabrán.
Right after the war in Novgorod ended, with Irish troops providing the lion's share of successful sieges, Sven needed assistance again, this time against the rebellious duke Wanko of Uppland. The rebellion was a major one, and was only turned back after years of fighting by the Irish and English allies of Sweden. The Swedish armies got crushed by Uppland's rebels time after time, and without their allies they'd be doomed.
Back at home, Gilla-Pátraic, the elder son of Gabrán, died of illness, childless. This meant that Flaithbertach was poised to unite the thrones of England and Ireland again, eventually. Though Flaithbertach swore that should such thing happen, he'd relinquish the throne of England to a relative.
[SUB]Inheritance problem solved. Sort of.[/SUB]
The Irish troops have barely disembarked back in Ireland, and Sven sent another missive - Wanko rebelled yet again. Gabrán sighed and raised his levies again, and set sail for Sweden. Weakened by the previous uprising, Uppland stood no chance.
As the troops sailed back to Ireland, a ship intercepted the fleet off the coast of Scotland, bearing a message from Flaithbertach. Apparently the duke of Bedford, son of the former English king Godwine, didn't take too kindly to Flaithbertach's proclamation that he'd rather rule Ireland than England. The Irish fleet changed its course from Galway to Bristol, and crushed the rebel army. Gabrán's bravery in the battle was especially remarked upon.
Even his enemies saw his greatness now, and he was proclaimed a true paragon of knighthood. And while the rebellion still had to be quelled completely, he saw that another war that he'd have to join was underway.
[SUB]A true Christian knight simply has to join the crusade.[/SUB]
The rebellion of Bedford was over a few weeks later, and Gabrán joined the crusade. The Irish boarded their ships in Bristol and sailed to Jerusalem.
Back home, Iseult couldn't handle all the time with Gabrán at war and died. Gabrán mourned all the way from Bristol to Sicily, where he fell in love with and married Umfreda d'Hauteville.
Gabrán, humble no more, decided to try to win the crusade. He captured several provinces, but it wasn't enough for the pope to grant him the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which went to the king Philippe II of France.
The Kaiser requested Gabrán's aid in Holy Rome's war for Fes, but he also ended the war before Gabrán could get there from Palestine.
Back home, Gabrán's grandson Deheuwant, son of his youngest daughter, came of age. He first married Seará, a Komi pagan, but she died a few weeks later of some illness she caught back in the frozen wastelands of her homeland. So Deheuwant married again, this time to Aelflaed of Godwin, a distant relative of the deposed English king. It was widely believed that one day, Deheuwant would sit on the English throne.
[SUB]Being a redhead is nearly as important qualification in a bride as being a genius is.[/SUB]
Flaithbertach had two daughters, twins. When they came of age, Gabrán invited them to his court, hoping to marry them matrilineally before Fliathbertach would make a blunder in that regard. Only Caitlín accepted the invitation, though eventually both ended up being married matrilineally. Flaithbertach was a smart man, after all.
Gabrán's children caused him both joy and grief over the next few years. Joy, for he had another son and daughter. Grief, for little Deirdre died. And some grief also came from the fact that little Dub-Dil seemed a bit of dull mind.
[SUB]The superstitious people at the court blamed her name for that.[/SUB]
Another duke tried to claim England, this time duke Osulf of Somerset. The Irish armies barely broke sweat crushing him.
Meanwhile in Sicily, Umfreda's brother became the king and faced double holy war from the African Muslims. So the Irish sailed again, with Umfreda pregnant. Before they arrived in her homeland, she gave birth to another daughter.
The war in Sicily lasted for over two years, all thanks to the Kaiser's incompetence. He committed whole legions of knights to the cause, but forgot about ships...
[SUB]So the Irish had to win the war single-handedly again.[/SUB]
Flaithbertach waged a de jure war over independent Cumberland (held by duke of Lothian), with which Gabrán helped again. Then he helped Sven with a pointless war against the excommunicated Prussian duke. And he had another daughter.
Gabrán was in his mid-seventies when a truly major war hit.
And at 75, with the war with Norway successfully underway, Gabrán's poor physique finally caught up to him.
Lasting so long through so many wars with 'poor physique'?
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Sidenote: I'm ashamed, but I did load once, actually, since when Gabrán died I made a mistake during the giveaway of England, and was stuck with a leftover county in de jure Scotland that I couldn't get rid of. So I loaded, Gabrán lived for two more years and I had extra war with Norway, but otherwise nothing major happened.
o:sad:
Well, I guess it as sort of worth giving England away
Nice update - shame about Gabrán dying, although, in those days I guess you were asking for it at 77
Nice update - shame about Gabrán dying, although, in those days I guess you were asking for it at 77
Now it is time to reple the Norsemen and delegate the Kingdom to someone else preferably someone with not a strong claim on Ireland
Giving away England to your son is a kingly gesture indeed. I'm excited about what this will mean for future relations though.
Your updates come fast, and are fun to read. Thanks!
edit: And in the time it took me to read this, you updated again!
Your updates come fast, and are fun to read. Thanks!
edit: And in the time it took me to read this, you updated again!
Sure it was an illness? My experience with giving kingdoms to younger sons is, that they tend to murder their older brothers who have not yet been empowered by becoming kings themselves.
King vs courtier: king succeeds in murdering the courtier 99 our of 100 cases.
Keep an eye out for those patterns... elder brothers dieing as young courtiers, after their younger brothers have received kingdoms... I do not think this strategy of landing younger brothers before elder ones is a good strategy at all. Unless you deliberately want your oldest sons to die.
Thanks for reading guys. I played a bit ahead yesterday, so expect another writeup or two later tonight. Stuff's gonna happen, but so is boredom. And the most boring war-filled reign I ever had.
Pretty sure the game would claim 'accident' if it was actual murder, and not explicitly state illness as the reason. As for the granting land to sons, I'm planning to move onto more distant relatives like younger brothers, cousins, nephews etc. It's annoying to inherit something like bloody England all of sudden.Sure it was an illness? My experience with giving kingdoms to younger sons is, that they tend to murder their older brothers who have not yet been empowered by becoming kings themselves.
King vs courtier: king succeeds in murdering the courtier 99 our of 100 cases.
Keep an eye out for those patterns... elder brothers dieing as young courtiers, after their younger brothers have received kingdoms... I do not think this strategy of landing younger brothers before elder ones is a good strategy at all. Unless you deliberately want your oldest sons to die.
Wanko by name and clearly a Wanko by nature.
Impressive stuff, England bested already and the throne given to a son. I like that, especially with the future conflict it would well provide between yourself and the now English based branch of your family.
I'm interested to see what the results are for you... whether the fifth brother will go through all the hassle of murdering all his four elder brothers once he is king
That being said, nephews ought to be okay. I used to groom distant branches of the Ua Ruairc family explicitly for the purpose of having related but not too related people for land grants, back when I played my Ireland campaign. It saved my butt when younger brothers within the main line chose to exterminate their elder brothers (i.e. my guys) in order to get all my primogeniture titles, and then get crushed by the Saracens (also following a naively generous granting of Spanish land to younger brothers). Through the primary title, I elective-flopped into a really distant branch - a branch that had been founded by a matri-married sister of the 1066 count Áed of Breifne 160 years, 160 years before the point where I was at in the game. That was fun! The main line soon lost their last lands in Scotland and Spain, and fled to my court where I turned the men all into bishops, and married the women off to Siberia.
Chapter 3
Flaithbertach I, King of England and Ireland, had big shoes to fill. Impossible even. To even approach the renown of his father, Gabrán the Conqueror, Uniter of Ireland, Conqueror of England, Crusader and True Christian Knight, would be a glorious feat. Gabrán inherited two counties when he was put onto the throne, Flaithbertach had two kingdoms. And one war. Basically, one war and one kingdom too many.
[SUB]The war, at least, he was able to end right away.[/SUB]
With the Norse invasion defeated, Flaithbertach decided to do good on his promise from many years ago - when his elder brother Gilla-Pátraic died, he promised to abandon the crown of England once he inherited Ireland. That day came now.
Moving his court to the family seat at Connacht, he turned towards his nephew Deheuwant, who was the man chosen to become the future King of England by Gabrán himself, and passed all his holdings in England, and his English crown to him in a grand ceremony.
[SUB]A man more capable than himself.[/SUB]
Flaithberatch had three daughters - the elder two twins married matrilineally - and Ailénor Capet as his wife. Ailénor was still just 21, so there was hope for a male heir yet, though his current heir, princess Máiread, was more capable of being a ruler than he was himself.
[SUB]Either everyone around him was so capable, or he was simply sub-par. Hindsight favors the latter opinion.[/SUB]
Flaithbertach commemorated the splitting of the crowns with a major tournament - one where he embarrassed himself by feinting from the sight of a boar's blood.
News came from the holy land, reporting that the Kingdom of Jerusalem was short-lived.
Upon hearing this, the craven Flaithbertach grew weak in his knees and started shaking uncontrollably.
On the other hand, his general mood improved greatly when Ailénor bore him a son, Pilib.
Soon, a puzzling missive arrived from Deheuwant. Apparently he somehow managed to get dethroned, and was trying to take the throne back.
Carried towards battle on his throne, incapable of riding anymore, Flaithbertach came upon a horrible sight. The city of Torphichen, in lands that were supposed to be Deheuwant's, remained Irish. It was probably being built when Deheuwant assumed his throne, and no one informed the settlers of the change of their lieges once it was complete...
This went against everything Ireland stood for, an outpost on foreign soil. Flaithbertach knew he'd have to revoke it and grant it to the Pope to remove the blight. But first, he had a war to finish.
Flaithbertach's younger half-brother Murchad came of age in the turmoil, and married an Italian lowborn he fancied.
Deheuwant's war for England was a resounding success, thanks to the Irish armies, but he was still under assault from the Norse pretender. An assault well underway.
[SUB]So Flaithbertach jumped to his rescue.[/SUB]
Aife, another of Flaithbertach's daughters, was born around this time.
His dull-witted and unfortunately named half-sister Dub-dil came of age, and married the Kaiser himself. And so did Róis, another half-sister of his, who married a Hungarian prince.
Flaithbertach then revoked the city of Torphichen, angering his vassals, but found out he simply had to be at peace to pass it on to the pope. And meanwhile, back in Ireland, his infirmity-reduced skills caused all sorts of trouble to appear - robbers, smugglers and thieves were all running rampant in Ireland in what has come to be known as The Dark Years.
The war against the Norse ended in success, but not before Flaithbertach was pressed into a war to aid the Kaiser against a rebellion in Italy. And then simultaneously he had to aid Deheuwant in his war against the independent Yorkists for the county of York.
Flaithbertach, even infirm, was still strangely virile, and fathered twins, a boy and a girl.
The war for York was soon over, but the Kaiser's war was slower in progress. And Flaithbertach wasn't doing too well, becoming catatonic.
Ireland entered another war during the regency of Mayor Máél-Dúin, this time for Suffolk, from Norfolk. And then a war against the excommunicated Norse king. Flaithbertach's youngest half-sister and his third-born daughter both came of age, marrying princes of Rus and Hungary, respectively.
[SUB]Matrilineally, of course.[/SUB]
The rebellion in the Holy Roman Empire ended. And with the pointless excommunication war still raging on in Norway, Flaithbertach breathed his last - without getting rid of the cursed city of Torphichen. He has spent his reign mostly bedridden and barely moving, yet in constant wars. Wars that gained Ireland very little, beyond keeping the na Carraige house in power in England...
[SUB]Leaving 14-years old Pilib on the throne...[/SUB]