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As a tip to anyone out there enjoying this AAR -- which should be someone more than the ones that post, since there are almost 800 page-views -- I can say that I will update it much more often if interest is shown. That is always a spark of motivation.

And as it is now -- before me writing this -- there are 39 posts of which I have written 23. Please, criticism is needed to develop anything at all.
 
Poor Birger...disillusioned by a successful crusade, although I guess he had some pretty idealistic notions of Crusading going in...imagine if the Pagans had really turned the tables on him and marched on Sweden!
 
Part II - Chapter X King Birger Eriksson of Stenkil

Chapter X

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After the initial joy over Birger being back two problems appeared. Or rather, one appeared and another made itself reminded of its existence.

For the first Birger, in his successful holy war in a cold and rainy country during the worst of the seasons had managed to contract illness, an illness with the symptoms of severe coughing and occasional stints of apparently thundering headaches. Secondly, Duke Inge, Birger’s uncle and the youngest brother of King Erik, had been killed in the defeat outside of Kajanaborg. His eldest son Birger had thus inherited the Duchy of Bergslagen but had to live with the knowledge that his father’s body would never be retrieved from the field of death where almost two-thousand other persons had entered their final rest. This grieved both him and Birger, although they knew that nothing could be done about it. It was decided that a grand sermon for Inge was to be hold a month and a half later, just before the start of Lent.

Upon his return to Eriksborg Birger had sent message to all the lords in the realm, and one by one they now started showing up. The plump count of Dal, the tall and wiry count Finn of Närke, the stout Duke Niels of Norrland, the rumoured sodomite Duke Tore of Östergötland, the silent and solemn Duke Birger of Bergslagen, seemingly his father incarnate, Bishop Olaf of Finland and a lot more; the kingdom had grown a lot.

In Bishop Olaf’s company was as usual his three advisors and three monks. Among these was Brother Finn once again to be found – now as newly appointed Prior of the monastery at Åbo. He felt excited being in his homeland again, and as they had ridden past fields, rivers, hills and hamlets he had felt as if he had just been away for days. He smiled inwardly at the thought, and decided to take every moment to his heart.

He had only been at Eriksborg once before, and it was different from last time as he let his gaze sweep over what was called the Grand Hall. The castle, or the fort as foreigners from continental Europe were likely to call it, battled a constant odour of dampness, and despite the roaring fires at two places in the hall it was still cold. It was clear that the old residence of the kings of Stenkilsätten was in severe need of reparation and renovation, or maybe even full reconstruction. It was however widely known that King Birger had as intent to have the castle being made more proper and respectful.

In mid-February the last noble, Duke Niels, arrived and thus the assembly gathered in the Great Hall. The usual wooden table was not big enough and thus two more long-tables in rustic oak were put together with the usual. At the head end in a chair more ornate and bigger than the others sat King Birger and next to him in a chair not as ornate, but still more than the rest around the table, his jarl, Stenkil. It was regarded as a fact that Stenkil had just as much influence on the kingdom as Birger had, both by being Birger’s most trusted man and by his politically well-suited mind.

Around the table was only place for the counts, dukes and some of the high-ranking nobles of the court. Among these were Orddot Tuure, an old and most likely not completely Christianized claimholder on the lands around Kemi Älv; Ubbe Färla, the current head of a, in Västergötland, powerful family; Håkon Stenkilsätten, the bastard brother of King Erik and Maciej Bodzeta, a Polish noble-man of very significant heritage whose parents had sought refuge in the Swedish court as their lands were raided by pagans twenty-five years earlier. Noble or not, Maciej had few talents if any, walked in an odd way and had a tendency to drool, much due to the fact that his parents were cousins. Finn considered it likely that Birger would stuff the crazy Pole away in a remote and desolate Finnish county just to get rid of him.

---

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Birger was very satisfied with the results of the assembly; it had all gone rather smoothly and no bigger debates over land were needed. It was a conscious choice of his not to give lands to any domestic counts or dukes in Finland – with the exception of Satakunta to Duke Birger, which was more in honour of his father than anything else – since if he did, he would directly promote the different noble-families around the kingdom and thus walk further away from the civilization that he strived for. And with this, everything – except for Satakunta – was given to men thus far without lands and titles of their own.

---

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It was late August before Håkon arrived at the newly-built fort, Östmark, in which he would reside for the rest of his life. He could not help but having a small grin flashing when he rode in on the courtyard, finally having achieved what he had dreamt of all his life – his own title and his own land, and respect for his person no matter what mother he might have had. After the passing away of Erik, and the arrival of new, young forces at the court, he had been without any permanent post after having been shuffled from steward, to spymaster, to marshal. But now, finally, he was – almost entirely – his own lord. Now he could die in peace after having created his own dynasty here, in Karelia.

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Despite Birger being his eldest friend as well as king, Stenkil could not completely agree upon his politics. Even if Birger’s belief and zeal had taken a severe blow in the aftermath of the horrors of the presumed holy war he was still devoted to God and the spreading of His word, and of this reason he had just expanded the power of the church in Finland by creating the first real Archbishopric of the kingdom. There was no question that it would work as an extension of the royal arm into Finland, but as Stenkil thought, this was only to be upheld as long as the Archbishop stayed loyal.

He did not doubt the loyalty of Archbishop Olaf though – he was a man of honour that could be trusted, and him being the son of the widely respected old jarl Halsten of Stenkil did only make his reputation better.

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Birger Ingesson of Bergslagen stood on the rampart, looking out over the plains stretching towards the gleaming lake in the distance. Three horses came riding at high speed and on their backs were three young boys, shouting with the wonderful feeling of the wind dragging ones hair backwards in a playful gesture. On the middle horse sat a rather short boy with chestnut-brown hair and eyes glittering with happiness as he looked up towards his father on the rampart. Birger smiled behind the beard and raised his hand in a greeting.

His inheritance of the duchy had come very abruptly for him, and he still mourned his father whom he had been very close with. And now, as he watched his son and his friends ride around on the field with loud laughs he wondered if he was doing the right thing.

He is just a child… But child or not, he needs to be accustomed to the real world sooner or later, and as long as I am in charge it will be the former rather than the latter.

At the assembly in Eriksborg he had been dealt the county of Satakunta – according to people who knew, it was a rather vast area of forest and a few lakes, but along the coast were many possibilities for cities to grow. And since he had to send someone, Birger considered it better to be his eldest son rather than someone to whom he was not related.

Erik would grow to be a strong ruler, that much Duke Birger knew. But sending his son over the sea and then only see him occasionally during the following years was something that, despite its necessity, he could not look forward to.



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*Subscribes*
 
Fulcrumvale said:
*Subscribes*
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Me too. Once I figure out how to, anyway :)

Been reading this for a week or so - ever since I discovered that there was a CK expansion, which re-awakened my interest in the forums! Looking forward to the next chapter already!
 
Fulcrumvale said:
*Subscribes*
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OxfordNik said:
Me too. Once I figure out how to, anyway :)

Been reading this for a week or so - ever since I discovered that there was a CK expansion, which re-awakened my interest in the forums! Looking forward to the next chapter already!
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OxfordNik, as you have posted in the thread I believe you're automatically subscribed now. :)

Nice to have you both onboard.
 
Alfred Packer said:
Another great update...I like seeing how the King really divided the spoils (you know, I just noticed something...does Birger look something like Drago from Rambo4?)
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Good Lord. You're right!

I now got the sudden urge to re-name him King Dolph...
 
Good stuff
 
Just read up on this one -- looks good so far!
Probably the first CK AAR in a long time to not make a joke on the Stenkilsätten last name... I can 't help but read something else whenever I see it!


I like how you change the CoA to reflect the new holdings. That's one of the things I always am tempted to do in my own game, but am too lazy to :D

Oh and by the way -- you seem to be playing with Veldmaarschalk's mod (Norse culture, and Kingdom of the Balts). I haven't identified all graphics mods though ;)
 
jordarkelf said:
Just read up on this one -- looks good so far!
Probably the first CK AAR in a long time to not make a joke on the Stenkilsätten last name... I can 't help but read something else whenever I see it!


I like how you change the CoA to reflect the new holdings. That's one of the things I always am tempted to do in my own game, but am too lazy to :D

Oh and by the way -- you seem to be playing with Veldmaarschalk's mod (Norse culture, and Kingdom of the Balts). I haven't identified all graphics mods though ;)
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Yes I do, and thank you for your appreciation! The main reason I do that with the CoA is that I, since I'm living in Sweden, feel that I can mend my knowledge of that time in history -- not as much as I'd wish to have, sadly -- into small details like that.

Sadly, though, I believe that this one is officially abandoned now. The Lotharingia one -- which I hope you'll enjoy as much -- takes all the time I have in between homework and commuting as of now. :)

Once again, thank you though!
 
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