Taking his regal name from King William the Conqueror, the fabled Norman man of conquest, King William V the Great was known as the most powerful man in western Europe, simultaneously holding the thrones for England, France, Aquitaine, Gallica, Portugal, and Cyprus. While a man of no outstanding talent in any one particular field, he was fantastically well liked by all of those under him, and despite the sprawling nature of his realm, was easily able to hold it together, even early on in his career. Surrounded by disintegrating political states and alliances, William forged an immense empire through conquests of Spain, southern Scotland and parts of Norway and Sweden, the breadth of his dominance being said to be directly responsible for English dominance of the globe and technological superiority in the ensuing Enlightenment.
It is often asked: How could one man hold such power? Rome, it seemed, had scarcely fallen, and yet here was another sprawling empire - a decentralized one, to be sure, but an empire - that spread like wildfire through civilized and barbarous folk alike. The groundwork for William's rise lay in the events that happened shortly after the Norman conquest of England. William the Conqueror's successors were often faced with constant civil wars and succession crisis, and yet none were ever successfully deposed. Starting with the illustrious King Robert the Great, the family had a ferocious reputation for defending its titles and its members at all costs, ensuring its dominance. Though the family line went through one Frenchman and one Polish King, all were renowned as true pillars of England, and all kept an iron grip upon their kingdoms.
The true secret, however, comes during King Robert the Great's rule. During it, King Arnulf I, the French king at the time, was battling several of his vassals as England sat quietly, tired after an independence war fought with Cornwall. King Robert's son, Turold of France - the son of Robert and Emma Capet, a frenchwoman - happened to be in the care of a duke who was rather disaffected with Arnulf, and decided to throw his hat in with the general rebellions occurring in France at the time. Seeing an opportunity in Turold, the Dukes of France fighting against Arnulf quickly rallied around him as their claimant, even though he was half English and the son of the ruler of England - truly, indeed, anyone would have been better than Arnulf in their eyes. England quickly caught news of this rebel movement, with Robert seeing a golden opportunity. If his son could be placed upon the throne of France, even for a time, England had a chance to reclaim at least some of their Norman homeland.
What happened next was beyond anyone's wildest dreams - not Robert's, not Turold's, and certainly not Arnulf's.
The historical record is somewhat unclear as to who, exactly, planted the bomb that killed Arnulf. Most likely, their name has been lost to history, but due to the chaotic situation in France at the time, it seems logical that King Robert would have had no trouble finding many people within Arnulf's court that were willing to help him in his plot, including his spymaster, the Duchess of Anjou. Whatever the case, at least eleven separate historical sources write about how Arnulf had scarcely sat down to dinner when a sudden explosion occurred under his dinner table, killing him and several others that had been around him at the time.
The loyalists in France quickly crowned two new kings in succession, both of whom are widely considered figureheads - neither lasted more than six months before Turold was placed upon the throne by the rebels. Unfortunately, at this point, a year after taking the throne, Turold seemed to have come down with some form of disease, rendering him incapable, and he died shortly thereafter in bed, comatose. With no children of Turold's own to inherit, King Robert took the throne of France.
Despite many Frankish nobles attempting to overthrow Robert and elect a new king of France, Robert stood firm and put each rebellion down, and managed to rule peacefully over France afterwards until the end of his reign. Each of his successors had to face an instant succession crisis as they took the throne, as each time France attempted to pull away and elect its own king, but no matter how young or old when they took the throne, all the sons of de Normandie managed to defend the title. Thus is how the family of Normandy managed to control both England and France, and thus setting the stage for William V's later dominance.
William V himself took the throne at the age of 6, after the previous king, Mihajlo, a Polishman who had married into the family, died of illness at the age of 57. William V was Mihajlo's only son, even though he was born fairly late in the kingship. As such, he was, like all other members of his family, faced with all manner of threats, before he was even legally capable of controlling his own kingdom. Though many of his caretakers used him for his own ends - some even attempting, seemingly, to kill him, he survived, establishing a reputation as a precocious and intelligent youngster. The nobles of lower France, predictably, were displeased with this regardless, and attempted to break away and establish their own kingdom only a year after he took the throne. With the realm in a weak situation, William's regent had no choice but to let a good deal of Aquitaine go, though this quickly resulted in the neighboring Moors invading the isolated nobles and taking over their realms. William took the throne in the middle of a French succession war that happened later, and quickly took a central role in putting it down, even though he had little direct part in the fighting. At the same time, he used Mihajlo's vast estate to start bribing, cajoling and threatening other vassals into line, often allowing them to rebel and then putting them down with mercenaries hired from his seemingly endless stores of wealth, which Mihajlo had stored for this very reason.
With the realm secured, as William took further control of his vassals, he married Asta Ulvsdatter, a Norwegian woman, mostly for the alliance it would pose, but there was no love in their relationship and this was very commonly known. Ulvsdatter was a hunchback, and possessed of a great deal of lust. Though they produced children, male and female, they spent a great deal of time away from each other, with Ulvsdatter often reading through every manuscript she could find that involved romance. It is often suspected that she spent a great deal of time laying with peasant men, and the church heavily frowned upon her. William, too, was tempted - one well-publicised event was his affair with Duchess Adelaide of Gloucester, a conniving woman who held the majority of what had used to be Wales. Though he was often at odds with her over various schemes and plots he kept discovering, it seems that the two spent a great deal of time together. The affair came to light when Isabella Drengot, a girl, was born to the Duchess of Adelaide, and the Duchess attempted to get William to admit he was the father, despite William vigorously denouncing the idea that he would ever sire a bastard, male or female. While this placed a strain on his relationship with the Duchess, it seems the two remained lovers, and William still gave Isabella a position of favor within his own court - it was all but common knowledge that she was, indeed, his child.
At the same time, William was attempting to expand into Spain, but despite many crusades being called, it seems the Christian armies were able to make little progress. Despite England and France having a great deal of soldiers thrown into the mix, the armies of the moors seemed insurmountable. England had only been able to cling on to a tiny stretch of the Portuguese coast, often fighting constant skirmishes just to keep a hold of that. The stalemate continued until a very significant pair of events happened.
When Ulvsdatter died a natural death, William sought to marry Adelaide, but was unable to convince the church to allow the divorce between the Duchess and her husband, Clotaire d'Anjou, a Frenchman. It has been suspected that Clotaire was a homosexual - he certainly did not seem exceptionally interested in the Duchess, and the feeling seemed to have been mutual. Clotaire died in a suspicious accident at the age of 42, only a month after the death of William's wife. Adelaide and William married the next day. It is suspected that Clotaire's death was no accident, as both Adelaide and William were known for having exceptional spy networks. Nonetheless, the marriage was considered a blessed one - by that point, Adelaide was unable to bear children, and yet both she and William were very much in love.
Because of this, William had only two male heirs, and with his marriage to Adelaide, more were unlikely to be coming. He had six daughters, as well, and in each case, he had fathered them lovingly, despite the lack of attention from Ulvsdatter when she had been alive. William had prepared for the adolescence of both of his young princes, Randolph and Edward, for a long time coming, and he gave them both fiefs in the newly conquered Baja, as well as baronies he had had specifically constructed for them.
When the moors, led by Emire Adfuns the Wise, attempted to retake Baja, Edward happened to be in his castle at Grandola, and during the general mobilization that followed, a moorish raiding party seems to have attacked his army as it mustered. Though Edward fought valiantly, he was soon overwhelmed and captured by the moors, and dragged back to the Emir's palace dungeon to be used as leverage. Though William made every effort to secure his second son's safety, even after the brief war had ended inconclusively, he was unable to buy his freedom, and Edward died in the dungeons of the Emir.
Upon hearing the news of his second son's death, William is said to have flown into a rage, upending his own dining table and hacking it to pieces in the company of his stunned daughters and several of his vassals. Shaking with rage and breathing heavily, he turned to those present, and loudly declared "Spain is mine! All of it!"
With that bold proclamation, the English Reconquista began.
In the ensuing 30 years of warfare, William progressively and sequentially took every Moor-held castle, city and settlement in the Iberian peninsula through a constant expenditure of money and manpower, enlisting the aid of every existing holy order, from the Teutonics onwards, to do so. Each time the moors would broker a peace, William would immediately break it, and they soon realized that this war was to the extermination of the Moorish presence in Spain. Though many battles were fought, William often at the head of them, the Moors conceded territory only when they were unable to keep it any longer. No captives taken by William's army survived - all Moors captured, noble or not, were executed without a second thought. With the Pope's aid, Sicily also joined the war, managing to gain territory upon the eastern coast, but William was the one responsible for almost all of the ground taken. William had little interest in the conquered territory, and often gave it to his courtiers without a second thought, creating many new duchies and kingdoms out of the moorish-held lands. Though Emire Adfuns managed to escape, his empire was destroyed, and he was reduced to shambles, soon dying after the Abbadid Emirate was destroyed.
William survived until the age of 76, one of the longest-lived people to ever exist before the advent of modern medicine. He outlived the Duchess of Adelaide, despite her being ten years younger than him, and despite continuing with his work of removing the Moorish presence in Spain, after her death he fell into a deep depression. He swore a vow of celibacy after her death, and maintained it for the last five years of his life, never remarrying. He died just as the last pocket of Moorish resistance was being taken care of at Astorga. His daughters were often quoted as saying that it was naught but rage alone that had kept him going for that long, and that the true cause of his death was not old age, but depression.
England's ascendant star continued onwards long after his death. With most of Spain, all of France, and all of England at his command, as well as Cyprus, parts of Norway and other scattered holdings falling under his family's jurisdiction, William V undoubtedly earned the title of "the Great", and is remembered to this day as one of history's greatest kings and conquerors. The man himself was of questionable personal competence, yet he was a master of delegation, and the strength of his will was nearly palpable, or so others would say. His mark would linger on Europe right up until the present day, for the kingdom he forged never broke, and the empire that would eventually become Centrus was created...
It is often asked: How could one man hold such power? Rome, it seemed, had scarcely fallen, and yet here was another sprawling empire - a decentralized one, to be sure, but an empire - that spread like wildfire through civilized and barbarous folk alike. The groundwork for William's rise lay in the events that happened shortly after the Norman conquest of England. William the Conqueror's successors were often faced with constant civil wars and succession crisis, and yet none were ever successfully deposed. Starting with the illustrious King Robert the Great, the family had a ferocious reputation for defending its titles and its members at all costs, ensuring its dominance. Though the family line went through one Frenchman and one Polish King, all were renowned as true pillars of England, and all kept an iron grip upon their kingdoms.
The true secret, however, comes during King Robert the Great's rule. During it, King Arnulf I, the French king at the time, was battling several of his vassals as England sat quietly, tired after an independence war fought with Cornwall. King Robert's son, Turold of France - the son of Robert and Emma Capet, a frenchwoman - happened to be in the care of a duke who was rather disaffected with Arnulf, and decided to throw his hat in with the general rebellions occurring in France at the time. Seeing an opportunity in Turold, the Dukes of France fighting against Arnulf quickly rallied around him as their claimant, even though he was half English and the son of the ruler of England - truly, indeed, anyone would have been better than Arnulf in their eyes. England quickly caught news of this rebel movement, with Robert seeing a golden opportunity. If his son could be placed upon the throne of France, even for a time, England had a chance to reclaim at least some of their Norman homeland.
What happened next was beyond anyone's wildest dreams - not Robert's, not Turold's, and certainly not Arnulf's.
The historical record is somewhat unclear as to who, exactly, planted the bomb that killed Arnulf. Most likely, their name has been lost to history, but due to the chaotic situation in France at the time, it seems logical that King Robert would have had no trouble finding many people within Arnulf's court that were willing to help him in his plot, including his spymaster, the Duchess of Anjou. Whatever the case, at least eleven separate historical sources write about how Arnulf had scarcely sat down to dinner when a sudden explosion occurred under his dinner table, killing him and several others that had been around him at the time.
The loyalists in France quickly crowned two new kings in succession, both of whom are widely considered figureheads - neither lasted more than six months before Turold was placed upon the throne by the rebels. Unfortunately, at this point, a year after taking the throne, Turold seemed to have come down with some form of disease, rendering him incapable, and he died shortly thereafter in bed, comatose. With no children of Turold's own to inherit, King Robert took the throne of France.
Despite many Frankish nobles attempting to overthrow Robert and elect a new king of France, Robert stood firm and put each rebellion down, and managed to rule peacefully over France afterwards until the end of his reign. Each of his successors had to face an instant succession crisis as they took the throne, as each time France attempted to pull away and elect its own king, but no matter how young or old when they took the throne, all the sons of de Normandie managed to defend the title. Thus is how the family of Normandy managed to control both England and France, and thus setting the stage for William V's later dominance.
William V himself took the throne at the age of 6, after the previous king, Mihajlo, a Polishman who had married into the family, died of illness at the age of 57. William V was Mihajlo's only son, even though he was born fairly late in the kingship. As such, he was, like all other members of his family, faced with all manner of threats, before he was even legally capable of controlling his own kingdom. Though many of his caretakers used him for his own ends - some even attempting, seemingly, to kill him, he survived, establishing a reputation as a precocious and intelligent youngster. The nobles of lower France, predictably, were displeased with this regardless, and attempted to break away and establish their own kingdom only a year after he took the throne. With the realm in a weak situation, William's regent had no choice but to let a good deal of Aquitaine go, though this quickly resulted in the neighboring Moors invading the isolated nobles and taking over their realms. William took the throne in the middle of a French succession war that happened later, and quickly took a central role in putting it down, even though he had little direct part in the fighting. At the same time, he used Mihajlo's vast estate to start bribing, cajoling and threatening other vassals into line, often allowing them to rebel and then putting them down with mercenaries hired from his seemingly endless stores of wealth, which Mihajlo had stored for this very reason.
With the realm secured, as William took further control of his vassals, he married Asta Ulvsdatter, a Norwegian woman, mostly for the alliance it would pose, but there was no love in their relationship and this was very commonly known. Ulvsdatter was a hunchback, and possessed of a great deal of lust. Though they produced children, male and female, they spent a great deal of time away from each other, with Ulvsdatter often reading through every manuscript she could find that involved romance. It is often suspected that she spent a great deal of time laying with peasant men, and the church heavily frowned upon her. William, too, was tempted - one well-publicised event was his affair with Duchess Adelaide of Gloucester, a conniving woman who held the majority of what had used to be Wales. Though he was often at odds with her over various schemes and plots he kept discovering, it seems that the two spent a great deal of time together. The affair came to light when Isabella Drengot, a girl, was born to the Duchess of Adelaide, and the Duchess attempted to get William to admit he was the father, despite William vigorously denouncing the idea that he would ever sire a bastard, male or female. While this placed a strain on his relationship with the Duchess, it seems the two remained lovers, and William still gave Isabella a position of favor within his own court - it was all but common knowledge that she was, indeed, his child.
At the same time, William was attempting to expand into Spain, but despite many crusades being called, it seems the Christian armies were able to make little progress. Despite England and France having a great deal of soldiers thrown into the mix, the armies of the moors seemed insurmountable. England had only been able to cling on to a tiny stretch of the Portuguese coast, often fighting constant skirmishes just to keep a hold of that. The stalemate continued until a very significant pair of events happened.
When Ulvsdatter died a natural death, William sought to marry Adelaide, but was unable to convince the church to allow the divorce between the Duchess and her husband, Clotaire d'Anjou, a Frenchman. It has been suspected that Clotaire was a homosexual - he certainly did not seem exceptionally interested in the Duchess, and the feeling seemed to have been mutual. Clotaire died in a suspicious accident at the age of 42, only a month after the death of William's wife. Adelaide and William married the next day. It is suspected that Clotaire's death was no accident, as both Adelaide and William were known for having exceptional spy networks. Nonetheless, the marriage was considered a blessed one - by that point, Adelaide was unable to bear children, and yet both she and William were very much in love.
Because of this, William had only two male heirs, and with his marriage to Adelaide, more were unlikely to be coming. He had six daughters, as well, and in each case, he had fathered them lovingly, despite the lack of attention from Ulvsdatter when she had been alive. William had prepared for the adolescence of both of his young princes, Randolph and Edward, for a long time coming, and he gave them both fiefs in the newly conquered Baja, as well as baronies he had had specifically constructed for them.
When the moors, led by Emire Adfuns the Wise, attempted to retake Baja, Edward happened to be in his castle at Grandola, and during the general mobilization that followed, a moorish raiding party seems to have attacked his army as it mustered. Though Edward fought valiantly, he was soon overwhelmed and captured by the moors, and dragged back to the Emir's palace dungeon to be used as leverage. Though William made every effort to secure his second son's safety, even after the brief war had ended inconclusively, he was unable to buy his freedom, and Edward died in the dungeons of the Emir.
Upon hearing the news of his second son's death, William is said to have flown into a rage, upending his own dining table and hacking it to pieces in the company of his stunned daughters and several of his vassals. Shaking with rage and breathing heavily, he turned to those present, and loudly declared "Spain is mine! All of it!"
With that bold proclamation, the English Reconquista began.
In the ensuing 30 years of warfare, William progressively and sequentially took every Moor-held castle, city and settlement in the Iberian peninsula through a constant expenditure of money and manpower, enlisting the aid of every existing holy order, from the Teutonics onwards, to do so. Each time the moors would broker a peace, William would immediately break it, and they soon realized that this war was to the extermination of the Moorish presence in Spain. Though many battles were fought, William often at the head of them, the Moors conceded territory only when they were unable to keep it any longer. No captives taken by William's army survived - all Moors captured, noble or not, were executed without a second thought. With the Pope's aid, Sicily also joined the war, managing to gain territory upon the eastern coast, but William was the one responsible for almost all of the ground taken. William had little interest in the conquered territory, and often gave it to his courtiers without a second thought, creating many new duchies and kingdoms out of the moorish-held lands. Though Emire Adfuns managed to escape, his empire was destroyed, and he was reduced to shambles, soon dying after the Abbadid Emirate was destroyed.
William survived until the age of 76, one of the longest-lived people to ever exist before the advent of modern medicine. He outlived the Duchess of Adelaide, despite her being ten years younger than him, and despite continuing with his work of removing the Moorish presence in Spain, after her death he fell into a deep depression. He swore a vow of celibacy after her death, and maintained it for the last five years of his life, never remarrying. He died just as the last pocket of Moorish resistance was being taken care of at Astorga. His daughters were often quoted as saying that it was naught but rage alone that had kept him going for that long, and that the true cause of his death was not old age, but depression.
England's ascendant star continued onwards long after his death. With most of Spain, all of France, and all of England at his command, as well as Cyprus, parts of Norway and other scattered holdings falling under his family's jurisdiction, William V undoubtedly earned the title of "the Great", and is remembered to this day as one of history's greatest kings and conquerors. The man himself was of questionable personal competence, yet he was a master of delegation, and the strength of his will was nearly palpable, or so others would say. His mark would linger on Europe right up until the present day, for the kingdom he forged never broke, and the empire that would eventually become Centrus was created...
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