William the Conqueror (Gameplay/Mild Narrative)

[Colruth]

I know, not the most original of AAR, but since every playthrough is different beyond the first few years, we shall see how this one goes.

Also, I am going to restrain myself within a certain frame of action through the setting of objectives based on the Steam Achievements.

So, needless to say this will be played in Ironman mode, on Very Hard difficulty. We'll start at the Stamford Bridge bookmark as William the Conqueror (obviously).

I have filtered a list of Achievements that are possible to be completed with that start. I've divided them into two categories: Objectives and Possible.

Objectives are basically a list of Achievements that I Will focus on, one at a time. So there will always be a Main Objective, which will be the current goal guiding my decisions, and the other objectives put into a Secondary Objectives. The Main Objective can change if a Secondary Objective becomes closer to completion without ruining the current main one too much. By example, I am not going to Assassinate a vassal bishop that likes the pope better if, by doing so, I risk to anger my other vassals, throwing me into civil war when I was a few counties away from claiming the crown of England. Still, if the danger of rebellion isn't close at all, I will assassinate that bishop. Guess he drew the short straw.

There will always be only 1 main objective

The Possible ones are all those achievements that are technically possible in such a playthrough, but are hardly worth focusing on, either because they will complete by themselves (Survivor), that I have little to no control on its completion (Three Popes), or that the initial situation isn't allowing it whatsoever (Those requiring a woman ruler or a foothold in Jerusalem). However, if the prerequisite situation arises, those Possible Achievements will become secondary objectives or maybe main ones depending on how it is going.

Those Achievements that are not present were either already completed in other games, or are impossible to achieve with the chosen start. There is no specific order within each group.

So here's the list, selected for the start of the game.

Main Objective:
Keeping it in the Family

Secondary Objectives:
A Pope of My own
The Black Bishop


Possible
All Three Popes
Survivor
Dwarf Fortress
Empressive
Black Widow
Crusader King
Prester John
Protector of the Holy Places
Legacy of Rome
S.P.Q.R
Merchant Prince

Completed
On English Neck a Norman Yoke
Turbulent Priest
Crusader
Keeping it in the Family (In my Zoroastrian AAR, which is dead now)
Paragon of Virtue (Zoroastrian too)


On a final note, the title says Gameplay/Mild Narration. Basically it will be gameplay written as if reading a book, but I'm not going to be that strict on my way or writing. There will probably be a lot of screenshots with accompanying comments and explanations.

 

[Colruth]

On English Neck a Norman Yoke: Achieved

14,468 Normen already raised, with 180 ships waiting in the port. William orders the drafted men to return home for a last goodbye to their wives and children. Meanwhile, gifts of gold and honorary titles are sent to the Counts loyal to William, requiring more troops in return. The men are then called back, totally 15,134 men. They gather in Rouen and embark toward England.

As the ships are travelling toward Suffolk, where a small army is gathering according to the spies, William sends a missive to his half-brother, Duke of Zeeland, requiring assistance. Ordo will accept the invitation and meet William in Suffolk.

Meanwhile in France, the King declares war to the Holy Roman Empire over Gent while, at home, a Faction is slowly building to demand an Elective Monarchy. The King will quickly lose that war, misreably and this defeat will inspire the Faction to push their demands, to which the King will agree.

The troops land in Suffolk, crushing the small gathering army of 1236 englishmen, losing no more than 90. A siege is then prepared on Ely, but the main english army shows up inland and William orders a pursuit, the reports indicating a much smaller force than his, but heading straight for his brother's small army besieging Middlesex.

The armies will meet outside London in a decisive battle that will mark the turn of the war. William will lose 3054 good men, but the english army will be crushed, losing 9301 men in that battle. The Warscore turning to 66% in William's favor.

William orders the pursuit of the escaping english forces. They catch them at St-Albans, losing 33 and killing 1391. Warscore: 74%. Other minor battles will follow at Cambridge (-33/-708/82%) and Bury (-224/-1449/82%) with some Norwegian troops. William will then be unopposed, besieging Ipswich, Ely, Bury (where a full on assault will be called) and Colchester.

Just as William is besieging Colchester, knowing that this will be the final one before he gets the crown he sought, news from France arrive, informing William that the Faction for Elective Monarchy have pressed demands and that the Regent have granted it. William informs the messenger that he votes for himself, even though he knows no one else will.

On the 6th of October 1068, the gates of Colchester opens and the King of England is dragged out. William puts him behind bars after he abdicates the crown to him. William, now known as the Conqueror, is now King of England, which is an Elective Monarchy with Medium Authority.

However, the King of Norway is not going home that easily. William still has 10115 men against his 6856, but the King of Norway has allies in Denmark (3352), Sweden (1828), Soregar (1376) and Kiev (2814). Derby and Leicaster have also surrendered. William orders the march toward Leicaster...

New Objective: Win against Norway.

 

[Colruth]

This is what you call interesting developments...

Norwegian Invasion

As the crown is claimed, we have a Norwegian Invasion that was going quite well (-35%) for them, and a Duke of Hereford that is now collecting the votes to get the crown away from the Conqueror.

William orders the remaining troops of 12,722 men to march toward Leicaster, to lift some sieges and get rid of the Norwegian Invasion. But before leaving for the battlefield, he gathers his loyal courtesans to get the Duke of Hereford dealt with. He will be killed before the army even reaches Leicaster. Unfortunately, the court was sloppy and everyone knows how the new King plays. Oh well...

The fight starts at the battle of Cambridge where William crushes a first Norway army (-919/-3880/-20%). However, meanwhile, Norway sieges Chester (-23%). William retaliates by finishing off the cowards who fled the battle at Cambridge, catching them at Nottingham (-15/-953/-18%).

The Norwegian Army continues, besieging Haton (-22%). Meanwhile, Leicaster is freed (-18%), before William finally sends his army towards the remaining Norwegian army. They meet at Chester, where William brings home a decisive victory (-945/-4168/-2%).

Somehow Norway manages to siege Macclesfield (-9%), but it is the beginning of the end for them. The remaining troops from Chester meets again at Chester (-297/-2323/3%), bringing the tide of the war into William's camp for the first time. Chester, Halton and Macclesfield are then freed (18%).

A small army of Swedish troops besieges Ipswich (14%), but William continues to free the english heartland, anihilating the enemy army at Chesterfield (-78/-1308/19%), and freeing Derby, Chesterfield, Burton and Nottingham (38%). The troops are then sent toward Ipswich, while implementing new tactics (Military Organisation 2). Ipswich is freed (42%).

William, bored by such an easy invasion, and the arrival of new ridiculous armies sent by the enemy, loses his sense of Bravery, but still keeps crushing his enemy at Walthom (-359/-1481/43%) before going back to Normandy to stop a deceitful enemy trying to take Lillebone (-160/-1159/52%).

From there nothing interesting will happen, the Norwegian Invasion finally called off on May 3rd 1072. Now Exalted Among Men, William orders a Grand Tournament to celebrate and sets on amassing gold for the royal coffers (Amass Wealth Ambition).

The Duke of Bedford, the former King, is then freed as a sign of peace, though an attempt to revoke his title for Bedford is attempted (Intrigue to revoke it, I press the claim, he says it will be war, I say fine! ...and then nothing happens).

Expecting to head into a time of reconstruction, William doesn't know that the next step in his conquest will bring him back home, but that is for another chapter.

 

[Colruth]

Back to France

William receives a missive from the Duke of Aquitaine informing him that he is about to press claims against his liege, to install a new King on the throne of France: William the Conqueror...

After much considerations and reading his fair share of spy reports, William realizes that his unexpected friend from Aquitaine stands no chance. His army is slightly smaller, but the king of France is sitting on a small fortune and can call half a dozen of other kings to defend him. But the prospect cannot be ignored and thus... William offers the Duke to join his war, which he accepts gladly.

Ignoring the levies of England, which for the most part are mostly empty from a very long war, William decides to rely on the remnants of the army he raised for his Invasion (3590 were left) bolstered by his levies from Normandy. Coupled with the army of Aquitaine and soon the King of Léon, the succession war will take a while, but will always fall on William's side.

On December 26th 1076, William the Conqueror becomes King of France and England. However, in the last few years of war, the Dukes in England have been restless. His son was never able to get enough votes to be the heir, no matter how many William ordered killed (5 were assassinated within 2 years). Now with the crown of France secured, William decides to switch his primary title to France and destroy the elective crown of England.

Now a 49 years old, William decides to settle a little bit and, unless events prevents it, plans on spending the last of his years to secure a stable kingdom for his son and heir. The large duchies of England will have to be dismantled for this, and, perhaps, House Capet, now entrenched in Orléans and with only 3 living members left, might disappear altogether.

 

[Colruth]

I will try to get more screenshots to make the posts more appealing. Also I'll cut down on the number of battles reported, sticking to the major ones. Beyond that, any comment, input, suggestions about what to report, feel free to speak out.

 

[tnick0225]

Well I've read through it so far, and its interesting screenshots would help a ton especially since it feels more like a gameplay AAR. When I play with the intention of writing an AAR I take tons and tons and tons of screenshots. Every battle every siege just about every pop up. It takes a lot though. Every time I sit and play one of my AAR games I end up with several hundred pictures in a few hours. Sometimes only encompassing 10 to 20 years in game.

But then you can choose which are relevant and which aren't that much better. And it also cuts down on having to report the warscores and how many people died and such because the screenshot will take care of all that information.

Other than that a lot of readers love seeing the character screen, and the portrait, I get asked a lot in my AARs to post the portrait of my ruler every now and then so they can see how he's changed over the years.

And well maps, maps maps and more maps. Readers do love their maps

Other than that as far as the latest update, William the Conqueror King of France? And destroyed the Crown he fought so long and hard for!! Interesting indeed, and nice job so far, don't get discouraged by lack of comments, they'll come if you stick to it

 

[Colruth]

Yeah, screenshots are taken now..some...I just keep forgetting, I get wrapped up in the events and just click next to move on and make my decisions..its after an event that Im like..that would have been interesting...but no ss anymore...Im getting better at it though.

As for the crown...yeah, lol. He was gonna lose it anyway with Elective..those englishmen really dont like the norman. This being said, Im about 20 years later, William finally died at 83 years old..and I managed to reforge the english crown into French laws (Agnatic Primo), so no problem. The problem now is his son is a total inept piece of crap...so the realm is about to fall apart...but we'll see that in the next chapter

 

[Colruth]

The Clean-up and the end of the Conqueror

This section will not have many screenshots, I started by the end of this period to take them systematically, so expect them starting next chapter.

Now King of France, with the lands of Aquitaine and England mostly under his thumb, but without a crown to call their own, William sets out to stabilize the realm. With only 6 holdings to call his own, spread across Normandy and England, with half of them being mere baronies, the situation had to change if he wanted the troops to sustain any possible rebellion once his invasion force would fade away. Using the now flowing gold that came from all across his realm, he started working on building a retinue of his own, the Knights of Normandy (Retinue made exclusively of Knight squads).

Using those and the remaining of his invasion forces, he set out to revoke all the counties that he could within Normandy, using the court not to anger more vassals than already were (Those frenchmen don't like him either, even though he did not really 'invade' them, they see him as a conqueror... even the Duke of Aquitaine who put him there in the first place. Makes no sense, but whatever).

Mortain would be first, then Évreux, both held by a single count with a single county, nothing that William would be scared of. Once his Retinue was complete, he also created the Duchy of Valois, that would stay with the crown along its neighboring Normandy for as long as the French crown was in the family. Valois because it is both neighboring Normandy so makes for a large and easily defended royal land, but because it also holds Paris.

Paris would be next to be merged within the crown. Meanwhile the small baronies of Normandy would be given to his son and heir, who would also become Duke of Berry and Burgundy, the Duchies in between (Anjou, Orléans and Champagne already held by loyal vassals).

However, uniting Normandy and Valois would not be that easy. Vexin, the last county of Normandy to merge is held by a count who's a vassal to the Duke of Orléans. Amiens and Vermandois being in the same situation, William would have to retract vassalage on 3 counties before revoking them one by one from the Duke of Orléans. Being one of his few unconditional vassal (+100 without any granted land bonus), William figured they could keep them for the time being, until the next duke was not that friendly. Who knows maybe they'd become criminals at which point he can take them without angering anyone.

The other part of stabilizing the realm was to weaken some of the dukes that were way too powerful before he came to power. Aquitaine was fine for now, even though holding 50 of the 273 holdings in the realm. The Duke put William on the crown and his heir was a young girl who could not bring him problems for a while even if she inherited tomorrow. The Dukes of Hereford (and Lancaster) as well as the Duke of York (and Northumberland) had to be cut down, at least, to 1 single Duchy. They were sworn enemies of the crown since William conquered England, not to mention that he had half their family assassinated.

1 of the last move of William would be to revoke the Duchy of Hereford, without anyone from the court to support him. As always, the Duke would revolt (Seriously, that so called 5% chance is more like 99% in my experience), while the rest of the court would start conspiring against whom they started to see as a Tyrant (Was about time, I eradicated the Capet and assassinated or exiled every single claimant that wasn't family). William would win the rebellion and revoke as many titles as he could from the Duke of Hereford, leaving him with Lancaster and a single county within. Hereford, much like Campagne in France, would be turned into an Archbishopric.

However this battle in England took away William's attention from France and as he returned he found out that a big chunk of Aquitaine, the whole Duchy of Toulouse, had slipped from France to the Holy Roman Empire through inheritance. Without the crown of Aquitaine, he didn't even have any claims on those lands and so he set out to forge the crown of Aquitaine on the 17th of November 1090. England would follow on the 14th of October 1094, all 3 crowns now being bassed through purely Agnatic Primogeniture laws.

Finally, before his death, Cumberland, the last county of historical England still under Scottish rule, would be annexed while Scotland was in a civil war (I joined it as Scotland's ally but never sent a single troop, instead picking on his rebels...) Same would happen to Rennes, this time through a claim of a count in Anjou.

A few weeks before his death, the Pope would call the first Crusade for Jerusalem. William would barely have the time to inform the Pope of his intention to join, before he died in his bed.

William the Conqueror of England and France dies a natural death at the age of 73, leaving the realms to his son Robert III.


At the time of his death the historical realms of England and France are fully united, with half of Aquitaine and chunks of Flanders, Scotland and Britanny. However, Robert III is not, at first glance, his father, though he carries the stain of the conqueror in the eye of his vassals. He will join the Crusade as well, but probably only in name as his troops are required home to put down inevitable rebellions. But that will be the story of the next chapter.

A few maps to finish...

Independant Realms as per January 11th, 1101

Scotland isn't really that broken, they are fighting a succession law. That will have consequences for me, for bad or worse, because I have an alliance with the current King. If he loses, I lose an ally but I then can expand freely. In terms of allies, I have about 20, but the relevant ones are the Basileus and the Kaiser. Basileus is great, but not that important, he's no threat, but the Kaiser I'll keep an ally as much as I can. He has twice my army at his worse times, and we hold each other's de jure land (He has Toulouse, I have Flanders). I'm pretty sure that without this alliance, I'm toast.

And now Direct Vassals, just to show how important it is for me to deal with this....


York is the one holding all the north of England, except one county held by my heir. But the most threatening one in terms of size is Aquitaine. Yes, that is a Duchy, encompassing every single county of Aquitaine except Toulouse. Not sure why he isn't going independant yet, he could then be King and I wouldn't have a single claim on it.

Anyway, here we go. If anyone wants any specific map or ledger chart, let me know. Off to Robert and his mess now...

 

[Colruth]

The Duke of Anjou

Most Factions have been dealt with peacefully, mostly by transferring some direct counts to friendly Dukes and Archbishops. One dangerous faction is left that wants to place Robert's uncle on the throne, but they seem unwilling to make a move.

Robert's first move to stabilize the realm will be to attack the Duke of Anjou who already hates him anyway (-76). But first, let's take a look at Robert II, his succession line and his brother and heir.



As I said, total inept. The main issue is that William could hold 8 titles, while Robert can only hold 5. That shrunk the royal realms to Normandy (except Vexin) and Paris. Furthermore, most of his traits are hated by most of his vassals, add to this the Foreign Conqueror tag that some of the vassals gives him... it explains why half the vassals hates him.

Now, remember the succession laws are purely Agnatic Primogeniture. Robert has 4 kids...4 daughters. No son. And now that his wife is 43, it is unlikely he'll get any legitimate heir. That makes his brother the most likely to inherit. That or his son. So here's the brother...



Much better, but still not awesome. I guess William gets you used to being a living god. Anyway Richard is currently fighting to annex Flanders to his realm. Not a bad thing. Robert also has a claim on Flanders, but its useless to take it, I'd have to give it to someone else. So we're going to Anjou to press a claim on Maine. The hopes is that the Duke of Anjou refused and that I can arrest him and strip away more than just Maine. We'll see, but here's the Duke in question.


Pretty good commander, that battlemaster trait is awesome, but he has to go. Luckily I still have the commanders from the time of William at my service. Robert would have looked a spoiled brat on the battlefield facing this guy.

 

[Colruth]

Maine, Nantes and the Duke of York

As we are recalling the Knights who are still chilling out in England after the battle for Cumberland, the Duke of Lancaster, still in our dungeons, requests better treatment... needless to say he was sent to the Oubliettes. Those englishmen still have a hard time understanding how the de Normandie deal with them. If he could just die on his own...

And then someone else has something to beg for...


dear Basileus... dear brother-in-law. If you can't compel a single chief to do as you ask, do you really think I'm going to send men to that slaughter? You are Emperor, I am a mere king, remember? Deal with your things. We still Accept to join, not going to take the drop in prestige... but he can wait for the men to arrive.

But it seems that even the Almighty hates Robert III...


Unfortunately for dear Robert, it might be the best news France have gotten in a while... if only he'd die from it. Maybe I should stop wishing people's death...

Anyway, back to Anjou...



Guh, can't you rebel like everyone else? Oh well, ... Maine goes to Richard, he needs counties to support his duchies anyway and Maine is our neighbour in Normandy, better off in the heir's hands.

And so we go for Nantes, seems like some backward count has a claim there. As we raise the royal levies to meet with the Knights, we get knews from Rome... good news.



Unlikely to be elected without funds, which he won't get...I have better things to deal with for the time being. This being said, he isn't the first of our bishops to reach the College...



Not sure how they all end up there without any funds, but I'll take it. Anyway, back to Nantes.



The siege of Nantes commences, but for some reason Robert figures that being Arbitrary is not the best way to lead. Too little, too late, but we'll take it.


And now the kid from York, also known as the Duke, decides, now that I am known for my sense of justice and fairness (lot is lost in translation between France and England it seems)...he will ask me to free the Duke of Lancaster who sits in the Oubliette dreaming about cutting my throat... yeah sure... You know, I'll be gentle, you want to see your friend? Have fun!

One less problem to bother with...

And now a peasant revolt in Poitiers...


Didn't really choose the best place in the kingdom to show discontent. The siege of Nantes can wait a bit... I could use the reputation of crushing revolts right now...


One battle, didn't even try to run. Or did they? Doesn't matter, they are feeding the birds now. Back to Nantes shall we...


All is well...but then we get news from northern England...


What the... seems like Britanny called an ally somewhere in Scotland and I was never informed. Oh well, the main troops will stay in Nantes and finish the job, vassal levies will gather in Rouen and head to England, catching britannic troops sieging Cornwall, crush them and head north from there... but they'll never reach their destination...


Nantes is added to France on the 19th of July 1103. We now have another count with a claim on Cornouailles, but with a 10 years truce, it will have to wait. Anyway, there's plenty of stuff to do internally. With the Dukes of York and Lancaster behind bars, the court will gladly help us dismantle them a bit. However, in more pressing matters, there is a succession issue in Aquitaine... more details to come...

 

[Colruth]

The Duchy of Aquitaine
In 1092 there was a succession crisis in Aquitaine. William was the new king of France and the crown of Aquitaine did not exist yet. The Duchess had 3 kids, but the problem was that her husband was the King of Léon. Upon her death, all the titles of Aquitaine, Gascogne and Poitou would transfer to her son, who happened to be the heir of Léon as well. Once the King died, Aquitaine would slip to Léon. William could not accept that and in his habit he had her 3 children killed. Leaving her with no direct heir, the succession was secure for a time.




Now a worse problem arises. The duchess is still in place and without any children, her heir ends up being...


Yes...the mother Kaiserin. She's 83 and will die most likely within a few years, but her son, the current Kaiser is infirm.

The best way to deal with this would be to kill the Kaiserin. Next in line in Aquitaine is Anès de Poitou, daughter of the forker duke of Aquitaine, who married into House de Savoie. Her children have no claim whatsoever at the moment and she most likely won't have any other kids (she's in her 60's). However, I do not have enough court support to get her killed with low risk of getting caught. I'd need to go with a paid assassination...for which I really don't have the funds, especially if it requires multiple attempts..at which point I'll probably be discovered, leading to the Kaiser being pissed off... which I can't afford.

The other option would be to Revoke her titles, but I have no legal claims to do so without fabricating one which is unreliable on Duchies and costly as a King. she also holds 3 duchies, that means revoking 3 duchies without legal claims, considering everyone hates me already, I might as well beg for a civil war already.

The other option would be to let it go, but if the Holy Roman Empire grabs Aquitaine altogether, and if it doesn't break into civil war soon... I'll be surrounded by the Empire with no way to expand properly to eventually be able to challenge it.

I could also cross my fingers and hope that the Kaiserin and the Kaiser dies before the Duchess does. There's a good chance of that happening, the kaiserin being 83, the Kaiser being an infirm in his 60s and the Duchess being healthy in her 40s.

And for the record Im on low crown authority, so no way I can raise it to absolute to prevent title loss before that hits the ground. I guess I'll save the money and see what happens.

 

[Colruth]

Aquitaine and Robert's death

Things resolved themselves on their own. We tried to gather enough support to get the kaiserin killed and even an attempt was made, but it failed (though we stayed undiscovered). Still, a few weeks later she died of a natural death. Aquitaine is secured.



Things calm down for a little while. Even though we are trying to revoke counties from the dukes in our dungeons, no one wants to support us and we can't afford to do it on our own. So they keep their titles, for now. Our second daughter comes of age... and we bethrode her to the king of Galicia. The next daughter will follow a year later and will be sent to Croatia


Meanwhile, we order upgrades to the keep in Rouens, which will take about 2 years to complete, and we get news that the Crusade for Jerusalem, which lasted 7 years, finally failed. The fact that the Holy Roman Empire now has their own Pope might not have helped the support to the war.


Guess that is when Robert figured he could take a rest...


His wife and spymaster (Intrigue 23) would be named Regent, but a few days later his Chancellor would take the Regency...


And like any good Regent, he doesn't know what to do with so much gold...

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Anyway, it seems like that in the end, Richard was waiting to amass the gold he wanted to amass before dying...

 

[Colruth]

Oh wait..its Richard that had Amass Wealth before I got control of him..oh well.

 

[Colruth]

King Richard of France... and his Queen

Before presenting Richard, let's take a look at the maps of the kingdom when he inherits the crowns, on May 22nd 1107.


Nothing really changed, except 1 thing. The Holy Emperor installed his antipope in Rome... so he controls the Papacy now. This Empire is growing scary. It better break apart soon.

Now back home, the vassals map.


So Hereford/Lancaster is pretty much broken apart and York is still as big in England. The main problem is still Aquitaine, which got Nantes added to it. Berry is growing, which is good (Remember its the heir's land). Robert is as incompetent as Richard was so the royal land stays the same. As a side note, somehow Gloucester is growing in Flanders, at the expense of the HRE, but I have no idea how. I'm guessing succession, since the HRE never broke into civil war yet.

So, now let's take a look at Richard, his wife and his son.



Nothing special...actually sub-par, history will probably forget him, but after dealing with Robert..it's a good change. Vassals have less problem dealing with him, though he is still seen as a Conqueror... so stability isn't close. I'm pretty sure the people is more scared by the Queen anyway...


Ambitious wife that wants to steal our crown... fun. But we all know who takes the lead in bed anyway... Yep, she has the Strong trait... strange that they only got 3 kids. Speaking of kids.


Nothing very special yet, except one thing. He's Frankish. Probably the fault of a guardian since his father is Norman and his mother is Occitan, but when Richard inherited, the boy didn't have a guardian, so who knows. Anyway that change of culture is good news, hopefully it takes away the Foreign Conqueror tag.

But for now Richard is king. Well, Richard the First. Let's start with a Tournament now that the Crusade is over and let's see what fate brings us.

 

[Colruth]

Let's start things on friendly terms. Count Harold have received some Hedge Knights... let's cover the cost of a lavish feast.


And in May our Grand Tournament finally begins.

No one relevant will be wounded or killed, so we can call it a grand success, helping to bring the kingdoms together a little more.

Time to get to work. We have a claim on the county of Essex, so we revoke it from the Duke of Bedford, who is a good little boy unlike his ancestors.


And after transferring him the county of Essex, let's make sure our son does not become a worthless ruler like our brother was.


Now time to head to Britanny. One of our count, vassal of Aquitaine, has a claim on Panthièvre. Let's make this happen.


Unfortunately, as we finish the siege of Monkontour and get ready to move to the next, we receive an ultimatum from the eternal band of english dukes...


And so we raise the levies, unwilling to let go of Panthièvre, and gather them in Rouen ready to head to England, but then their Eadgar dies...


These englishmen are really annoying...

Anyway, come November 21st 1109, Panthièvre is ours.


The english strikes back. I guess without a claimant to push they are just going to plot to fabricate their own claims.


Just go to jail... at this point I might as well name the cells after your House, at least you'll be closer to the father you never knew because he was held here all his life? Yeah...

But the usual inner struggles are about to end... something big will hit the Holy Roman Empire and decisions will have to be made...

 

[Colruth]

Back to Toulouse... and who knows what else

I am not sure what moment of senility hit the Kaiser... but he really does not understand the meaning of an anti-pope. He had an anti-pope for a while even though he was not excommunicated. Fair enough, someone has to show how powerful he is.

But then he places his anti-pope in Rome, making the Papacy his vassal. Makes all the sense in the world. That is when it gets weird.

He names another anti-pope. So now mister Kaiser controls the real Pope (who once was his fake pope but made the world agree that he was real) and now makes a new fake one to piss off his current real one...

No wonder half his realm decided to band together to free the Papacy...


And so we have Richard of France sitting in Britanny, minding his own business when he notices half of Burgundy break apart from the almighty Empire. Happens that his wife (who wears the pants, remember) have a claim on one of those counties that have broken apart temporarily. Richard being bored figures that hey... why not, the Kaiser will probably have better things to do than bother for a single county that hates him anyway... and so we head to Forez...

We first crush the ruling duke's forces... nothing to be proud about really...


But it seems we have underestimated the importance of that county for the Kaiser...


Still a defeat that feels like a victory. First the Imperial army doesn't count on the warscore, he just happens to be in the way. Second, we only sent our personal levies and Knights, not a single vassal man was lifted. And he lost more troops.

Still, for the time being, losing so many troops made some Dukes believe they had a chance...


Seriously... a bishop? I'm pretty sure those guys should be losing their claims. Oh well, if they want to keep their claim, they'll lose their life.

But first a mandatory peasant revolt...


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That's in Aquitaine, the Duchess certainly can deal with that. And she did. Good girl... now goes down the bishop.


Seriously...who's next? To be honest, glad it worked cause I was losing that war miserably. Anyway, back to Forez...


But the englishmen, once again, tries to ruin my fun...


So now that you can't fight the king you attack his heir? Pathetic, but wait a minute, weren't you in jail? Yes you are!
Let's play the Revokation game shall we...


He will basically lose all his titles, the counties given to my heir and the duchies distributed to the other counts in the region. I'm really thinking about putting Normans in charge in England though. Anyway, one english thorn in my side down the gutter.


... Orléans? What's your pr.... you know what?



And thank you by the way. I can finally take away the Duchy of Orléans, which was holding the counties in Normandy and Valois. Orléans to some count living in Orléans, and the counties in Normandy and Valois stays under my care. They will eventually be merged with the crown, but the Holy Roman Empire desires some attention for now.


Yep! It's been 4 years now and the Papal league is still fighting. They were losing for a little while, but then Franconia demanded Independance... dropping the Imperial army to a mere 7,000 men. The Papal League is winning and I can field twice that number. Let's take back what is ours...

 

[Colruth]

The War for Toulouse

The war for Toulouse didn't last long and was pretty much one sided. This being said, the Kaiser barely sent any troops to defend, probably focusing on Franconia's claim.




And on the 15th of December 1115, just in time for Christmas...

 

[unmerged(3523)]

Fun AAR, lots of stuff happening all the time, and pretty screenshots. Maybe I should put screenshots in my AAR.

 

[Colruth]

Rosello, Flanders and Britanny
With the Holy Roman Empire tackled for a bit and our other neighbors too small to be a threat, Richard, now know as the Wise, decided to continue reclaiming the missing lands of Aquitaine.


Quite long, but rather uneventful war, even if Britanny decides to join to defend Barcelona.



Soon enough Richard receives a message from Above...


Meanwhile, the lords of Aquitaine finally accepts the rise in crown laws, after probably 5 years of vote.


And... let's not forget those annoying Dukes...this time in France... our son loses yet another title.


Oh well, he'll keep it for now, we'll just create the Duchy of Bourbon for our heir. We'll figure things out later.
We also get news from Rome that a new Holy Order have been set up, we'll probably need it if we are ever to set foot in Jerusalem one day.


Now that Rosello is secured, let's go back to our old habits shall we...


He was trying to Fabricate a Claim somewhere...or something. No idea, he just gave me a pretext to keep the cells warm.

Believe it or not, the Holy Roman Empire is still at war. So we noticed that Franconia had some land in Flanders...like the county we were missing. We were bored, so we went ahead and helped the Duke of Flanders finish his collection...



But...


About time. And a Strong one at it, so we got time, but we are not going to wait. Flanders can wait...all troops to Britanny. Actually the claim on Flanders will fail, as the HRE war will end... at least that one, the Papal League is still at it...



Somehow, the Duke of Britanny manages to make the Kaiser accept to join his war. In the end it won't have any effect, not a single man from the Empire will cross the French.



The Petty King of Britanny had plenty of weird allies, one of whom was the King of Aragon... and so he calls him to join and dear Sancho III accepts the invitation. He probably should have stayed home...


Probably the shortest allied support in history. But we shall not stop the humiliation there... a few days later one of our daughter turns 16... so... yeah...


May the war continue...


But, as the Breton are probably about to give up, time runs out of dear Richard the Wise...


And with the succession of his son king Richard II, thus the reign of the Norman kings, sons and grandsons of William the Conqueror end, for Richard II espoused the culture of the native Franks. This may herald a much more stable era for the kingdoms, but we shall see. Will Britanny be annexed as planned? And what will happen with the relationships with the HRE? Or, as civil war has kept spreading out in the Empire, what will happen of the Empire altogether?

 

[Colruth]

Richard II of France
Before looking at the family and the state of the kingdoms, let's finish the war for Britanny...


So, now that this is done, we can do the usual preliminaries Grand Tournament that no one will remember (nothing relevant occured) and a Pilgrimage... cause why not... all in the middle of a civil war that lasted the last 20 years to free it... how ironic.


Now let's take a look at the map...

Independant Realms


So you can see the extent of the civil war in the HRE...not that I will complain. Only 1 county missing from Toulouse, Gevaudan, but probably not for long, now that the truce Richard had doesn't follow with his son. Everything else is pretty normal...let's look at the inside of the Kingdoms.



The core change is that the Duchy of Berry lost Burgundy. It has Bourbon but there's no vassal linked to it right now. Of course there is Toulouse which has been annexed, but it pretty much kept its shape, with the exception of Gevaudan. Same goes for Britanny.

The Family...


King Richard II...nothing special, but at least he is Frankish, making things much easier. Queen Beorhtwynn on the other hand... Ambitious Elusive Shadow...we'll have to check our back. Also, the good thing is that once our mother dies, we will be adding two counties (Auvergne and Forez) to the heir's holdings. If they'd stop losing stuff to other hungry dukes. This being said, lets take a look at the Heir... and his brother.



So yeah, first things first... I screwed up. Or the game trolled me, no idea. When Richard inherited the crown, Drogo was the heir, so I transffered him the heir titles. 2 weeks later and his older brother by 12 years pops out of nowhere reminding everyone that he's actually the heir. So now, unless something weird happens, Berry and Bourbon are lost to the crown. Doesn't really matter though...

They both have a claim on the Holy Roman Empire... I am not going to push it yet though. They are merely cousins and the Queen is 33 years old, plenty of years for her to pop a son and pull the line away from those cousins. Granted, placing them on the Imperial throne ensures some kind of alliances, but it also transfers them a claim on my Kingdoms. No no no. So I'll wait, if one of these two guys inherit the crown, then I'll push if events permit, if not, too bad.

In the meantime, I need to find titles for this heir in case he sticks around. There is Flanders that Richard II has a claim on, but I need to find a county first. I guess I'll wait on the mother queen to die, or I can grab Gevaudan already. We shall see...