Crusader Kings II AAR - The Crimson Dragon of Britain - Hiatus

[ccllnply]

I've been silently reading away without posting for the last three chapters.

Well that Crusade turned out to be a farce. The Moslems could of easily been driven out of Italy and Sicily if the Italian lord had of just joined together and sent a few thousand men each. They missed out big time. What are the chances of another Sælræd coming down with an army to Sicily?

[Latin Knight]

Sorry for the disappearance! Let's check fanmail

Holy crap the muslims in Italy? Wow that is pretty insane. And even worse the crusade failed! Is Rome under threat?

Yeah, after the new patch the Muslims easily defeat the regional power, that is Apulia. And that Crusade almost succeeded, but the goddamn Caliphate sends 20K doomstacks everytime, and it gets tiring to face them. When i, the player, gave up fighting, the Crusade was lost for good.

I've been silently reading away without posting for the last three chapters.

Well that Crusade turned out to be a farce. The Moslems could of easily been driven out of Italy and Sicily if the Italian lord had of just joined together and sent a few thousand men each. They missed out big time. What are the chances of another Sælræd coming down with an army to Sicily?

I wouldn't say "easily be driven out", the Caliphate is a formidable superpower from the early game . The main participants of the Crusade were England (me), Scotland and some small lords, against a nation that extends from North Africa to Mesopotamia and Arabia.

What are the chances of another Sælræd coming down... well, we'll see. Without spoilering anything, but I promise this won't be the last time we'll talk about Sicily.

[Latin Knight]

Update, at last. This one is another rather self-contained chapter, it explains the lack of in-game screenshots.

Sælræd Thoræd Mathrafal

Chapter 17 - The Sack of Roma

King Sælræd II - 1250 A.D.

One contemporary historian of the era famously remarked that Christ and his saints must be slumbering, for they did not hear the plight of the faithful. In Iberia, almost the entire peninsula had been overrun by the Moors. In the Far East, the realm of Sakartvelo (Georgia) was destroyed, and only Rhōmania resisted. Now, it was the very capital of the world, Roma, which was under threat, as the dreaded moon-spangled banners of the Saracens loomed in the remains of the old Via Apia which led to Capua.

Notwithstanding the menace presented by the desert warlords, the event that undermined the Pope’s power came from within the Mura Aurealiane, from the Romans themselves.

A politico-social revolution, led by a charismatic orator named Nicola di Anagni – known simply as the Tribune, after the ancient Roman title of the representative of the Plebeian class.

Now, this Nicola, sometimes nicknamed “Cola” by the nostalgic poets, was such an extraordinary and conspicuous figure in History that it’s frustrating to verify how little we know about him.

For this chronicle, suffice to know that he was a very learned man, who studied profoundly the ancient writers, from Homer to Tacitus. His legendary speeches, recalling the flowing eloquence of Cicero, the fervent passion of Tiberius Gracchus and the peerless genius of Quintilianus, inspired men and women alike to follow him in his grand project of restoring the long-lost glory of Roma.

As the patrician nobility hurriedly escaped the city, fearing persecution by the plebs, a new, politically relevant, Senate was formed by the senior citizens, reuniting in the Capitoline Hill. An urban militia had long since been established in the molds of the independent communes like Genova and Siena, and now they chose to serve the cause of the newly declared Res Publica.

A set of codified laws were passed by the enthusiastic legislative body, and they proclaimed to be restoring the ancient Roman constitution. Nicola, despite preaching the republican ideals, being such a charismatic leader, was quickly invested with an accumulation of political power that went well beyond the various honorific titles bestowed upon his person – Pater Patriae, Patricius, and others. To call him a despot or autocrat, however, would be unfair, because his rule was characterized by a synergic cooperation with the Senate – which de facto represented the various classes of the urban and rural population, and was not a properly aristocratic entity. In his own manner, Nicola despised the thought of despotism, and demanded to be referred only as “Tribunus”, and preferred to be remembered as a new Cicero, instead of a new Caesar, as people deemed him.

Pope Lando II tried to make a cautious assessment of the situation, and negotiated with the revolutionaries. Every vestige of temporal power he exerted would be officially extinguished, and he’d resume his former role, merely spiritual stance, as the Bishop of Roma. He’d have no place, however, in the administrative or political affairs of the new order.

Pope Lando II decided to run away from the city when his entire bodyguard defected to the republican cause. Nicola staged a successful bloodless coup, gifting Roma to its populace. Now it would not be known as a mere city, but rather, as a communa.

The Tribune sent emissaries to the neighboring settlements and the greatest fiefs of the Peninsula: Firenze, Milano, Ravenna, Genova and others, using as pretext the necessity of forming an “Italian League” to protect Italia from the infidel in Salerno. His diplomacy, however, sought to assure the independence of the new civic regime, and forge an alliance against the inevitable retaliation of the reactionary elements.

In this side of the Alps, the Pope had few allies, so he soon enough sought help from the Gallic and Germanic principalities. As he found refuge in the court of Milano, he also sent letters and emissaries pleading the Römisches Kaiser, who exerted de jure control over Roma, to come with an army and reinstall him in the Holy See.

The Kaiser, however, wouldn’t come. The dreaded Tartars from the so-called Golden Horde advanced along the Danube, spreading terror and destruction just like the Magyar invaders from Pannonia had done three centuries earlier. The current Kaiser, Ordulf II failed to live to the memory of his great predecessor, Otto I, and, even after mustering a vast army of Saxons, Bavarians, Danes and Dutch, had meager success against the Steppe horde. Ordulf II proudly proclaimed to have conquered Polska from the heathen aggressors, but swift detachments of Asian horsemen roamed freely through this part of the continent, avoiding Imperial forces to raid as far as Wien (Vienna).

The King of the Franks, as well, wouldn’t hurry to help. The contemporaneous generations of Frankish princes would spend less time in Gaul than in Iberia. In those years, the Frankish monarch succeeded in galvanizing an unstable alliance among the native aristocracy to attack the Moors and expand his domains in España. He was too busy in Granada to care about Italia.

It was when the Pope remembered of Sælræd the Red, which he styled officially “Rex Britanniae” (instead of the more common appellation “Rex Angliæ”). The young king had a few years earlier travelled all the way from Albion to answer the Crusade call, he might come again if His Holiness so demanded.

At the time, Sælræd was warring in the continent. The young duke in Vlaanderen cut relations with the Englisc crown and approached the nominal overlord in Paris to extinguish the Saxon influence in his fief. Sælræd immediately formed an army and invaded the duchy to install a more reliable pretender as the ruler.

He was besieging Lidje (Liège) when the Papal delegation met him. They explained that His Holiness had been deposed by a vile conspiracy led by the Antichrist himself. This vile demon had enthralled the gentle citizens of Roma by means of dark spells, and led them against the rightful successor of St. Peter, in an unholy mission to abolish the True Faith to restore the ancient pagan cults.

Indeed, as King Sælræd II learned later, it was not improbable that Nicola di Anagni relied on supernatural assistance, for his militia of citizens and peasants routed a formidable force of veteran Lombard soldiers and knights at the Porta Salaria, and almost slew the Pope himself, a stone was hurled at him and killed his horse.

After this shameful defeat, instead of mustering an even larger army to avenge their honor, the Lombard lords cowered, and made lip service of their support to the Papal cause.

In such a precarious position, the Pope had no choice but to unhappily accepting King Sælræd’s conditions assistance. Yes, there were conditions that utterly astonished the Bishop of Roma. Apparently, the distant Saxon prince had some kind of agenda relating to the Papacy, for he demanded that various Cymry, Irish and Englisc bishops be installed in Roma as cardinals. He sought to flood the Holy College of Cardinals with barbarian foreign priests from some islands in the end of world!

It was not a stretch of imagination to presuppose what was Sælræd’s purpose: he wanted a British man seating in the Throne of St. Peter. This implicit goal became explicit some weeks later, when the Pope in Milano was informed that the army of Albion marched through Langres – and that the so-called Antipope Pius II (Coelestinus II’s successor) was to be formally proclaimed Lando’s successor as the legitimate Pope.
Despite his rage, Lando II was powerless to refuse. For now, he’d be content with wielding the royal British army to win back his throne, later he’d negotiate a more favorable compromise.

Having wintered in Lousana (Lausanne), as soon as the Alps became passable again in March 1250 A.D., a composite army of nine thousand Saxon, Irish, Welsh and Flemish veterans crossed the greatest mountain range in Europe, arriving in Aosta. After eleven years, King Sælræd II again set his feet in the land of Italia.

From Aosta, they followed south to Asti, Lissandria (Alessandria) and reached Genova, from whence they started to follow the remnants of the ancient Via Cassia. In Pisa, the royal army was received by His Holiness, Pope Lando II.

King Sælræd humbled himself before the head of Christendom, and proclaimed that he’d gladly raise his sword against the enemies of the Faith. In his proclamations, he required a favor of the Holy Father: that his own father, King Thoræd I the Crusader, be officially canonized a saint. Indeed, in Englaland, he was already considered such, but Sælræd desired that his father be remembered in the annals of the Roman Catholic canon, together with the Apostles and other holy figures such as saints Bǣda and Cuthbert.

His request was gladly accepted by the Pope, and together they marched south. The standards featuring the crimson dragon upon a white field – the royal motif – fluttered in the wind side by side with the banner representing the Papacy, featuring the two keys of St. Peter.

At first, they thought it would be a simple matter of marching to Roma and storming this metropolis would finish the affair. They were surprised, however, by the staunch resistance of the neighboring cities, which had been set ablaze by the flames of revolution, and now preferred to resist and preserve their new-found civic freedoms, or die trying.

The British army patiently besieged Orvieto, a formidable stronghold sitting upon a flat volcanic plateau.

Starving the populace would take months, perhaps years, and undermining the walls wouldn’t feasible. So, Sælræd had his engineers construct trebuchets and battering rams. They destroyed the walls and overwhelmed the militia after a bloody struggle.

Infuriated by the resistance which cost so many good men, King Sælræd left the soldiers to brutally plunder the hilltop commune. The barbarous atrocities would also serve to coerce the other allied city-states of Roma into surrendering without resistance. Small towns such as Bagnorea (Bagnoregio), Graffignano and Montefiascone defected to the Papal faction as soon as the British host was glimpsed in the horizon. Better to be a vassal city than an independent ruin, so they thought.

Great Viterbo disagreed, and their free citizens led by a certain Consul Fabrizio, believed Fortuna would favor them against the northern barbarians. Their resolve didn’t soften even as the columns of smoke darkening the horizon evidenced the devastation of neighboring regions. Fortuna, however, chose the side of the barbarians. Some traitorous elements opened the gates to the besiegers during the night, opportunity which was not missed by the royal army. Viterbo, after its heroic resistance, shared Orvieto’s fate.

The Pope urged him to advance against Civita Castellana, but was shamelessly ignored, and King Sælræd’s army skirted Lake Bracciano, due the Eternal City. They changed the path when the information came that the republican communes’ militias had assembled in a coalition army in Riano. Far from a battle, this was a skirmish, in which the defending coalition wanted to make an assessment of the invading force. Instead of marching directly to Roma, after this clash, King Sælræd lured to Tivoli, where the defending forces assembled an army of eighteen thousand freemen and cavalry.

The Latin army was vanquished beyond any possibility of recovery, and most of their scattered remains were captured.

King Sælræd II laid siege to the capital of the world. Its glory had long been lost, in these days was a sad shadowy ruin of the old days, and its populace was but a meager fraction of the epoch in which it was the most populous settlement in the globe, the sprawling city had been reduced to isles of inhabited buildings interspersed among ruins, vegetation and pastures. The Campus Martius was an extensive swamp, whose miserable inhabitants lived in slums infested with malaria. The Roman Forum, the very heart of Romanitas, was now a grazing pasture, and bovine manure was accumulated at the feet of color-faded statues and victory arches of past eons. The ancient baths were shared by homeless children and prostitutes, while, in the famed Palatine and Esquiline Hills, the privileged nobility still lived, until their expulsion by the revolutionaries, in their lavish domus and the priests preached in the immense basilicas.

t was still one of the largest settlements the Saxon warlord would besiege, and the vast circuit of walls made impossible to completely encircle it. He was forced to divide his army in big regiments, to overlook the gates and block access routes: Viae Prænestina, Tiburtina, Nomentana, Salaria, Flaminia and the Campus Neronis, overlooked by the Vatican hill.

The siege was hard-fought. Even after they managed to overcome the outer defenses presented by the Mura Aureliane, the British armies were surprised to verify that those gargantuan ancient monuments had been converted into true fortresses by the feuding aristocratic families, defenses which were now garrisoned by the communal militia.

The Mausoleo di Adriano by the Tiber was the personal castle of the Pope; the Teatro di Marcello was converted into a fort by the Pierleoni family, while the Colosseo was the stronghold of the Frangipani noblemen; the Isola Tiberina was encircled by walls and bridge access was impeded by barricades; Turf and wooden stockades were erected around the Terme di Diocleziano;

It was an interesting contrast: these building’s derelict condition was all but evident, but they had been transformed into formidable citadels that would put to shame many fortifications Sælræd had seen in other parts of Italia or in the British Isles.

Nevertheless, Sælræd had not marched all the way from Britain to give up now. His forces, now assembled inside the walls, assailed the urban fortresses, all while they plundered the defenseless homes, farmsteads, temples and basilicas, and even looted treasures from the ancient catacombs and cemeteries.

Pope Lando II was appalled by the frenzied holocaust, and tears came to his eyes when he witnessed his beloved home city being torched and looted. In vain he pleaded King Sælræd to restrain his troops, but the Red Dragon (as the Italians called him) had lost his patience – and perhaps his humanity – and decided to exact his revenge for the casualties of war against the Romans. Thus, he proved to be a savage, no better than Alareiks the Goth or Genseric the Vandal. For the sixth time in its recorded history, the Eternal City was sacked by a foreign invader.

When Nicola di Anagni finally was slain during the siege of the Mausoleo di Adriano, the resistance was absolutely quenched. The Senate was dissolved and the Pope was restored as the sovereign lord of the city. As means of preserving the peace, he chose not to revoke the republican constitution outright, and maintained some civic legislation in vigor. Nicola's corpse was cremated and his ashes were thrown in the Tiber, so that his prospective burial place did not become a martyr shrine.

King Sælræd II the Crusader and the paramount British noblemen, to the mortification of the Roman populace, were cumulated with a series of significant titles and honors: summus Senator, serenissimus Patricius, glorissimus Consul and Iudex Palatinus.

A full third of the army would remain in Roma, under leadership of his trusted general Sigeric, who was granted the offices of magister militum and sacri palatii vestararius, for the express purpose of preserving peace in these turbulent times, and of protecting the Holy See from the Moslems in the southern peninsula.

Pope Lando II failed to secure any favorable compromise with the autocratic King as he intended at first, and, as the new Cardinals from Britain and Éire assumed their chairs in the College, in his regret, he even imagined that perhaps it would have been better if he remained a Pope in exile, and he’d have avoided so much suffering and destruction.

His remorse would be short-lived, however. Seven months after he was restored in the Throne of St. Peter, long after Sælræd had left Roma with two thirds of the original host, Pope Lando II died, while eating his favorite delicacy: oysters and lampreys. The cause of death is to this day a mystery, but contemporary historians had no doubt he had been murdered as result of a conspiracy by the recently established British clique in the College of Cardinals.

The Roman citizenry were discomposed as they witnessed the ascension of a foreign Pope, as per the agreement between the former Vicar of Christ and the Englisc monarch, but were powerless to resist the truculence of the occupying British forces.

Former Saxon Antipope Pius II, hailing from Llandaff in the edge of the world, now sat in the Throne of St. Peter as the legitimate successor of the holy apostle.

Notes:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This chapter was inspired by the histories of the Commune of Rome and of Cola di Rienzo, a very interesting historical persona, contemporaneous of Petrarch, if i'm not mistaken. In these two episodes, the Pope and the aristocracy were expelled from the city, and a communal regime inspired in the Roman republican ideals was established, the first one being fairly long-lived for its convenient alliance with the Holy Roman Emperor. Both episodes fascinate me, so i decided to put something similar in the narrative.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commune_of_Rome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cola_di_Rienzo

The in-game explanation: the readers will surely remember that King Godwin I created an Antipope, and at the time i explained that the only way to get rid of one of them is to press his claim to the Papacy and establish him in Rome. The very existance of an Antipope is a modifier that reduces the "Moral Authority" of the Catholic Church. At 1250, in this chapter, it was lower than 20%, meaning heresies sprung up everywhere, and are impossible to be get ridden of. So i declared war against the Pope, conquered the Papacy and installed Pius II, the Saxon pope, so Moral Authority can rise again.

I felt i couldn't explain this in narrative, so decided to transform the war against the Pope in a war against Rome itself , and took inspiration from the Commune of Rome.

[Chirurgeon]

Great update! Although I have to admit I have never eaten a Lamprey! Yet another suspicious death? You must have done some research on the state of Rome in the Middle ages. A very good description.

[Lord of Cats]

Awesome! Simply awesome. Another very well written chapter. Reads like a good history book and I love how you incorporate other images beside the in-game ones to help with your narrative. Excellent! +rep to this superb AAR sir . Keep on writing!

[ccllnply]

Holy crap! Absolutely incredible chapter! I loved it! And now I think I'm in love with Sælræd II because of it! I appreciated it even more when I read the gameplay notes.

Inspired me to some fan "art"

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

King Sælræd II and the Pope surveying the field in front of Rome

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Chirurgeon]

Holy crap! Absolutely incredible chapter! I loved it! And now I think I'm in love with Sælræd II because of it! I appreciated it even more when I read the gameplay notes.

Inspired me to some fan "art"

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

King Sælræd II and the Pope surveying the field in front of Rome

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

very nice sir!

[Latin Knight]

Great update! Although I have to admit I have never eaten a Lamprey! Yet another suspicious death? You must have done some research on the state of Rome in the Middle ages. A very good description.

I read about some (English) king that supposedly died while eating lampreys, his favorite food, i didn't want to use the term "food poisoning", that's kinda of a double entendre.

The research about Rome i did in my previous AAR, actually, which featured some scenes set in the Eternal City. It always fascinated me how this once great city became a decadent ruin in the Middle Ages, and those people would look to great monuments and don't even know what was their purpose or what they meant

Awesome! Simply awesome. Another very well written chapter. Reads like a good history book and I love how you incorporate other images beside the in-game ones to help with your narrative. Excellent! +rep to this superb AAR sir . Keep on writing!

Thanks! I put a great effort in finding those non-game pictures, because i think CK2, being a strategy game, lacks much to represent the more "local" events, like showcasing a city or a landscape. TW or M&B games, in comparison, are much easier, as you can take screenshots from the fields, the interiors, the cities, characters, and, especially, battles!

Holy crap! Absolutely incredible chapter! I loved it! And now I think I'm in love with Sælræd II because of it! I appreciated it even more when I read the gameplay notes.

Inspired me to some fan "art"

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

King Sælræd II and the Pope surveying the field in front of Rome

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Wow, that's simply amazing! I wholeheartedly thank you for this image, in fact, i promise i'll use it soon enough in the story, if i may.

Sælræd II is surely one of the greatest characters i played in this campaign. He had an awesome collection of traits, was a long-lived King, had a lot of male children, and... well, i can't tell more without spoilering, but i promise he'll seriously impact in the story, or even more, in the game's entire History.

[ccllnply]

Thanks! I put a great effort in finding those non-game pictures, because i think CK2, being a strategy game, lacks much to represent the more "local" events, like showcasing a city or a landscape. TW or M&B games, in comparison, are much easier, as you can take screenshots from the fields, the interiors, the cities, characters, and, especially, battles!

True that, I often wish CK2 was more like that. I love it for what it is and I'd take it over any Total War game everytime but I wish it did portray the "local" events like you say. That said the event messages and such sent the tone so much better than those of Mount & Blade I feel.

very nice sir!

Wow, that's simply amazing! I wholeheartedly thank you for this image, in fact, i promise i'll use it soon enough in the story, if i may.

Nothing more than a screenshot taken from an old save of M&B I had, no effort at all. I just felt like doing it

Sælræd II is surely one of the greatest characters i played in this campaign. He had an awesome collection of traits, was a long-lived King, had a lot of male children, and... well, i can't tell more without spoilering, but i promise he'll seriously impact in the story, or even more, in the game's entire History.

Well in the last chapter he took me in. I love that he seems dutiful and deeply religious and yet refuses to let the Pope intimidate him. Plus placing his own cardinals in Rome was a move of genius!

[Latin Knight]

Sælræd Thorædson Mathrafal

Chapter 18: The Silent Realms

King Sælræd II - 1257 A.D.

Since he was but a small child, Queen Bethoc told Sælræd stories about her beloved lands of Alba and Éire. She often travelled to the emerald island in the company of her own mother (Sælræd’s maternal grandmother), and became enamored of silent and beautiful realms, as she called the highlands of western Caledonia and the northeastern expanses of Hibernia.

She vividly described the landscapes with such a heartfelt sentiment that Sælræd, as he closed his eyes, could genuinely imagine himself strolling through the peaceful and verdant grasslands, the quiet, windy valleys, and scaling the high-reaching mountains to touch the heavens with his fingers. Solemn grey clouds at the abode of the world are pierced by thin columns of light above the indigo-colored lakes, and reveal antediluvian Celtic ruins in the secluded groves, and the Queen mother would whisper in her son’s ears that, to this day, beings of myth were still hiding in these sacred grounds, and their otherworldly melancholic songs could be heard by those of good heart.

In 1246 A.D., King Sælræd II went to Éire for the second time in his life: the first occasion was in his coronation, but he stayed there less than a month; now, he intended to stay longer, to wage war.

By this time, he was the father of three children by his Castillan wife Eslonza, two boys, Godwin and Eadmund, and a daughter with a peculiar Spanish-inspired name, Færnanda.

After parading before the cities and castles, and tightening the leash of the local independent-minded aristocracy that patiently waited for mere signs of weakness from the Saxon and Welsh overlords to rise in rebellion, King Sælræd II marched north.

For now, he was content with launching mere punitive expeditions – first against the remaining independent Irish princedoms in the central and northwestern parts of the island, whose grim soldiers barbarously raided the more civilized fiefs under the auspices of the Saxon monarchy – and, later, against the Scots in Ulaidh (Ulster), who had become too arrogant and impertinent.

The Kings of Alba, after Thoræd I and Sælræd II departed on Crusade, saw fit to advance deep inside Englisc territory, using as pretext the supposed de jure claims over various fiefs in Éire, Nordanhymbria and Cumbraland. Their true motive, besides the genuine desire for riches and better lands than their God-forsaken wastes, was to avenge the unforgotten humiliations imposed by Cadwgan II and Godwin I.

With this in mind, King Sælræd II refortified the Irish and northern Saxon holdings, and strengthened the border regions with garrisons of veterans. The overly partial historical commenters affirmed that this campaign resulted in the conquest of the earldom of Bréifne, after he crushed native warbands in the battle of Béal Átha hÉis (Ballyhaise) and even Tír Eoghain (Tyrone). We cannot assess the truth of these claims, but it’s more probable that, at the time, the so-called campaign was small-scale conflict, with skirmishes and raids.

He sailed to Gallobha and made quick forays into Scottish territory. His men and the Picts themselves knew these were mere raids, but Sælræd confided to his closest advisors that he was personally inspecting the realm of Scotland, the forces at the disposal of the Crown of Alba and affirmed that, in the future, he intended to wage a full-scale war, bent on “finishing what his ancestors’ had started” – conquering Éire and giving a new meaning to his title of Ard Rí.

Barely five years after he returned from his fortunate expedition in Roma, in 1257 A.D., Sælræd II decided the time was ripe for his war in northern Éire. At the time, he was 34 years old, and his eldest son, Godwin ætheling was almost coming of age, and already accompanied his father in his expeditions.

The timing couldn’t have been better: the Scots faced a full-scale rebellion led by the native Irish warlords, which had risen in a coalition against the tyranny of the foreign conquerors. At the time, the Saxon/Welsh dominion of the remaining two-thirds of the island was almost absolute. These Irish peoples living beyond the Anglo-Scottish border established by the Iron King Godwin I, 70 years before, had finally been tamed, and now were used to the so-called foreign rule – in fact, the Welsh and Saxon aristocracy had intermingled with the local Irish nobility and adopted many of its local customs and manners, that one could say they had become more Irish than the Irish themselves!
This certainly explained why this revolution in the Scottish side of Éire, which spread like a wildfire in the northern regions, didn’t produce more than small ripples in the opposing side. The Saxon governors easily quenched some feeble rebellions and that was it.

King Sælræd II with a large composite force of the veterans from his wars in the continent invaded Airgíalla (Oriel) by sea. He besieged and captured the great fortress of Dún Pádraig (Downpatrick), which was held by the Scots – indeed, the only vestiges of de facto Pictish rule were in the coastal forts, but the native clans of the hinterland had all defected to Rí Donnchann (King Duncan), the leader of the rebellion.

He was a cultured and charismatic Hiberno-Scottish nobleman, the annals of King Sælræd II’s reign affirm he was the Earl of Úlhaid, but some other sources claim he was in fact a minor aristocrat who, using the convenient excuse of freeing the Irish people from the tyranny of the foreigners, induced them to join him – to secretly further his own purpose of becoming the sole King in Éire.

At principle, his amazing victories against the demoralized Scottish occupation forces seemed to prove that God was on Donnchann’s side. He reduced the Scottish dominion to patches of land overseen by the impregnable strongholds of Carraigfhearghais (Carrickfergus), Baile an Chaistil (Ballycastle) and the port city of Béal Feirste (Belfast).

However, by the time Sælræd II besieged Ard Mhacha (Armagh), Rí Donnchann’s forces were meager. Despite all his charisma and the common purpose of the Irish warchiefs of expelling the foreigners, all of this was overcome by the ancestral hatred among the native clans, which made further cooperation impossible. As suddenly as he had risen to become the true King of Ulhaid and Tír Chonaill (Tyrconnell), he saw himself defeated, not by the bravery of the Scottish armies, but by the internal disputes of his own hosts.

The British army under King Sælræd II advanced unstoppably, like a storm of fire and steel, all the way from the eastern littoral to Ómaigh, from whence he turned north and assailed one of oldest settlements of the island, the walled city of Daire Calgaich (Derry).

Rí Donnchann only had enough warbands at his disposal to keep the insignificant Scottish garrisons at bay in their castles. He decided that, for the time being, it was better to try to arrange a favorable compromise with the invading Saxons. So he courageously went to Daire, with but a handful of soldiers, bowed before King Sælræd, offered him gifts and swore fealty to him. He gave fundamental information concerning the situation of the Scottish dominion in the island, and, for his good services to the Crown, he was happily rewarded with a cell in the dungeons, where he waited for the day of his execution in Daire’s town square. Sælræd II never forgot his mother’s words as she told him an old Scottish proverb: “An enemy you forgive is an enemy you’ll have to fight a second time”.

So this is how King Sælræd II came to take advantage of the civil war in Éire and, after a blitz campaign that lasted less than a year, established himself as the de facto monarch of almost the entire island. The Scottish forces in the coastal forts were too pathetic to present an immediate threat to his conquests, so he ignored them for the time being.

The restless natives concerned him more: now that they had tasted freedom again under Donnchann, they firmly opposed Sælræd’s armies. Just like when they faced King Cadwgan I, many decades earlier, they couldn’t present a united defensive block, and were subjugated one by one. Indeed, the guerrilla warfare brought many casualties to the occupying British forces, but this only served to harden the Red Dragon’s resolve to smash the uprising.

Only in 1262 A.D. the King of the Scots, old Uillam I, had managed to muster the armies from his homeland and sailed to Éire, bent on reconquering his lost territories and defeating the Saxons. However, God decreed that Uillam’s time had come, and a sea storm wrecked the royal flagship, and the King of Alba fell to the dark depths of the cold northern ocean.

His generals chose to abandon the campaign and returned home, and the war was delayed for a few more years. For there would be war, indeed. King Sælræd II’s conquest of Ulhaid is reckoned by History as the first phase of a larger conflict with the Kingdom of Alba. The second phase, a full-scale war with the northern realm, would happen soon enough.

*****

In 1264 A.D., Queen mother Bethoc, his beloved mother, died. For the second and last time in his life, Sælræd cried. He had barely known his father, as he was yet a child when he departed to Sicilia in the Crusade, never to return. But his mother, she had been with him since his earliest moments in this world: she embraced he in the cold nights sang for him in the mornings and her stern words taught him how to rule and how to be a King loved by his people.

The tears had dried out, and the holy funeral rites had been observed, when King Sælræd called forth the lawyers and genealogists. He was an ambitious warlord, who desired to be remembered for even greater feats than the conquest of Éire. He now hungrily stared north, coveting the realm that neighbored his own. Sælræd was convinced that the Island the Britain had no room for two Kings, and desired the other "silent realm" his mother told him about. However, he needed a lineage claim to justify and legitimize his war of conquest.

He was a Mathrafal, for this was his father’s dynasty, and he also descended from the Godwine dynasty, which itself had a lineage that went all the way back to the House of Westseaxna. His mother was Bethoc a Muirebe (Moray), which meant he also had the royal lineage of the Pictish Kings: his grandfather was King Goidhfreagh (Godfrey I) and Raibeart I the Crusader was his great-grandfather.

Due to being from the maternal lineage, his claim to the Crown of Alba was weak, but it didn’t concern him, for, after King Uillam’s death, his only surviving heir, and now the King of Scots, Criostóir I (Christopher), was a child of 12 years.

King Uillam was a usurper, but a strange kind of usurper in his regard. His predecessor was Raibeart II a Muirebe (Sælræd II’s uncle) who had no male children. His eldest daughter Orabilia was supposed to rule on her own right, as Queen-regnant, but the most powerful lord of Scotland, Earl Uillam of Gobharaidh (Gowrie), threatened civil war after he married the late king’s third daughter, Caitrìona. Orabilia stepped from the throne in favor of her brother-in-law. The interesting fact was that Uillam was from the Donnchadh (Dunkeld) dynasty, which ruled Alba in the epoch of Harald Hardrada’s invasion – and had been deposed by the Muirebe.

Unfortunately for the recently restored Donnchadh kingship, after barely one generation of rule, their power would be contested by the Red Dragon of Englaland.

In April 1264 A.D. a Saxon embassy arrived in the Scottish capital of Scoine, with a formal declaration of war from King Sælræd II, who claimed the Crown of Alba.

Notes:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

This was just a preparatory chapter - that's why he's kinda short. I had to war with Scotland to claim those territories in the north of Ireland, but they were currently rebelling against the liege, so, even after defeating the King of Scotland, i had to make a second war against the independent duke of Ulster to press my claims in the counties.

Next chapter will be one a fundamental turning point in the story, wait for it.

[Chirurgeon]

A united Isles! So do you appoint governors in each county to govern or do you have to micromanage?

[Lord of Cats]

Way! *gets into a comfortable chair and starts reading* A very good chapter! I always expected some Med. 2 screenies to appear eventually. Very well done battle! I am getting the impression you are still continuing this AAR? Please do! We want more!

[Gandalfus]

Medieval 2?

[Latin Knight]

A united Isles! So do you appoint governors in each county to govern or do you have to micromanage?

Well, i rarely have to appoint people, as the titles are transfered without my intervention (by inheritance in case of nobles and investiture in the case of bishops). I certainly do not have to micromanage, i only play the Mathrafal characters.

Way! *gets into a comfortable chair and starts reading* A very good chapter! I always expected some Med. 2 screenies to appear eventually. Very well done battle! I am getting the impression you are still continuing this AAR? Please do! We want more!

Thanks! Indeed, now that i think about it, it was just a matter of time before i failed to resist to put this Med 2 screens. And yes, i'm continuing this AAR, don't worry. We still have some more 200 in-game years to go

Medieval 2?

Yes, i'll now try to represent the most important battles of significant wars with Medieval 2 screenshots (mainly SS 6.4). Or have you btw missed the spoilered box that says "Battle of Tyninghame" in the last update? I'll always put the battles inside spoilers so they won't consume much space

[Gandalfus]

Ohhhh. Sorry, I'll have to find that

[Latin Knight]

Second Interlude

We're exactly 200 years since the start of the campaign - 1266 A.D., starting in 1066 A.D., with Duke Bleddyn of Gwynedd. Let's see how the world has changed in this century.

"Independent Realms" mapmode:

The first obvious change, for those following the story, is the complete unification of the British Isles under one sovereign. In the continent, we've witnessed the steady advance of France inside the Iberian Peninsula, the blue blob stretching from Normandy to Granada. The Polish territory in Aragón has already been lost to the Muslims. In fact, Poland itself is being shared by the HRE and the Golden Horde, which has consumed the entirety of Russia, but now has collapsed under its own weight. The Byzantine Empire has lost Armenia to the infidel, but expanded to annex all of the Caucasus. The Muslim world itself seems to be in complete disorder, with the strongest power being the Mongol Ilkhanate.

Now, the "Religious" mapmode:

The obvious difference is the explosive expansion of Tengriism, the blue color, which represents the advance of the Mongols, which profess this Asian paganism. The various colored patches inside the white mass are the Catholic heresies (Lollardism, Catharism, etc.) which rose about due to the low moral authority of the Church (my fault, because i kept that Antipope by, remember? ). The Muslim world is fairly homogeneous, desperately trying to resist the advance of the Mongols.

[Radzeer]

It's a shame that I have been so sloppy with comments, but excellent work, my friend! I think you brought out as much as possible from a CKII AAR. Engaging and creative, plus a careful selection through the maze of campaign info. Really good stuff!

Read more here.

[Latin Knight]

It's a shame that I have been so sloppy with comments, but excellent work, my friend! I think you brought out as much as possible from a CKII AAR. Engaging and creative, plus a careful selection through the maze of campaign info. Really good stuff!

Read more here.

Yes, i wish people would comment more often, but that's ok.

Words now can't express how thankful i am for the review, the compliments and the kind words, my friend. I put a lot of effort in this AAR, now its going much slower than i'd like because RL stuff and work are draining all my time (and sanity, perhaps ). This review was completely unexpected, and, coming from someone i respect so much as you, Radzeer, is simply amazing!

[Gandalfus]

Same, this AAR is brilliant!

[Rex Anglorvm]

I've read this over the last couple of days, I can remember playing the original CK and how annoying it was to find you lost territory due to the natural ending of a paternal line

This is a great read - well done

Rep +