Sisnando of Coimbra was a knight of mysterious origins. Originally nothing more than a peasant, he earned glory by fighting the moors. His name was originally Sisnando Davides, and according to the stories that survived to us, he was recruited into the army and became a general after years of fight. In 1064, after some hard fighting with the local moorish ruler, he took the lands around present-day Coimbra and made them his personal fiefdom, under the vassalage of Nuno of Portugal. Nuno was of more well known origin, being a descendant of Vimarano Peres, who took most of the Northern lands from the Moors in the IX century.
Nuno, however, did not have any successors to his throne. His only daughter was Loba, whom he married to Sisnando as a reward for his work, trusting that the future son of Loba would be a capable ruler. And so the days passed calmly, as the Moors in the south were either fighting between themsleves or dealing with other things rather than the small and independant Duchy of Porto in the North. In fact, most of the lands there were poor, and the population was too small to be ever valued as a rich war prize.
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In the county of Coimbra, life was going as it ever was since the end of Rome. Most of the population lived and worked on the fields. The majority of them produced food enough only to sustain themselves, while some were serfs on the royal properties of the Count. Some of the people were fishermen, but the vast majority of them was poor and illiterate. Even the count himself was poor to the standards of the rest of Iberia, and could not afford the expensive wars of the kingdoms on the East. No one ever bothered about the small and poor piece of land where Sisnando lived.
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Few people were present in the court of Sisnando. So few, that many positions the rich kings on the North considered important were vacant. Sisnando did not need them, as he had just a small property easy to manage. Nevertheless, in 1066, he received several messages from the pope, who was concerned about the lack of competent clergymen on the area, and Sisnando agreed to pay and host two of them.
In 1068, he received news of a miracle in the North. Elvira, the old wife of the Count of Braganza, was pregnant. The count had no heirs, so this would mean possibly hope that the County of Braganza wouldn't be inherited by some foreign prince. But the best news were given a few months later: his wife Loba was pregnant of a child, possibly the future heir to Coimbra and the Duchy of Porto.
The Count was enthusiastic. But apart from that, life went on normally. The count barely had any infrastructure in his lands, but even so, he made extravagant demands. He ordered the Ruling law to be changed to Salic Consaguinity, hoping that this would bring him a competent heir to the throne in future occasions. He would sit and wait, and look at the situation of the Moors to the South. Indeed, there was a war between Badajoz and Toledo for the control of a few devastated lands. The war, which has lasted for some time, significantly weakened Badajoz and her army. Sisnando soon saw it was his chance, with so few soldiers mobilized, and the lack of recruits to replenish them in the short period, Badajoz was a weak target even for a small county like Coimbra. And so he declared upon the Emir of Badajoz, who was completely surprised that the small county dared to defy him. But he was not mighty anymore, and faced a war in two fronts, not only against Coimbra and the Muslims on the East, but against the whole Duchy of Porto which had mobilized to help their vassals. Galicia also mobilized to help, and the ill duke Garcia was ready to send a significant amount of troops to crush Badajoz.
The fight was dangerous. Even if Badajoz did not have a large number of standing troops, their fortifications were formidable and the few soldiers of the Count of Coimbra weren't enough to end the siege in the appropriate time. Meanwhile the few soldiers who remained fighting for Badajoz fought bloody battles with the Duke of Porto and were completely defeated. Nuno of Portugal, who was old, feared for his life during the campaign, did what he could to make peace as fast as possible. But the Count of Coimbra always insisted in making war, and so he lost a huge amount of prestige, but was able to keep the war going.
Meanwhile, the Emir of Badajoz finally accepted a humiliating peace with Toledo in an attempt to secure his western holdings from the greedy armies of the Duchy of Porto. However, his attempts were futile, and so he watched the disloyal sheik of Lisboa fall from power. Lisboa was taken from the Moors, and now the Count of Coimbra made it part of his demesne. Evora fell to the Duke of Galicia, but he himself was ill and died while in campaign. His lands were inherited by the King of Castille, who proceeded with the war against Badajoz and besieged Mertola, while the Duke of Porto concentrated on destroying the last moorish armies in the East. In the end, most of the possessions of the Emir of Badajoz were in Christian hands.
But while in campaign, suddenly the wise king of Castille had an outburst of bravery and ordered an assault on the Moorish fortifications in Mertola. The assault failed miserably, and the king was wounded. He died shortly after, leaving the crown to his only child, who was very young. Meanwhile, the Duchy of Porto took all the moorish lands to the East leaving Badajoz with only a small piece of land, which was taken by the Castillians.
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In March 29, 1069, Loba gave birth to a son. João de Coimbra was now the heir of the Duchy of Porto, and had a great future to enjoy. However Sisnando was disapointed, as he expected that Evora and Mertola would fall to his troops, not to those of Castille. With his road to expansion blocked by them and Sevilla on the South, he had nothing to think about planning the future of his dinasty and improving the infrastructure of the conquered lands. Several laws were written establishing a new balance of power on the South, giving the Middle Class and the Nobles more power and sinificantly reducing the power of the peasants. While these reforms had diverse reactions, the count expected the Portuguese merchant class and Nobles could establish themselves in the conquered lands in an effort to turn them into the cultural majority. At this time, most of Iberia was populated by people talking diverse languages, and especially on the South, many of them indentified themselves with their old arab rulers' culture.
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While in campaign, the Count of Coimbra catched an ilness. It soon turned to be pneumonia, but the Count could recover surprisingly fast. Although this had a great effect over his health.
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Meanwhile, Loba had another child. Nuno, as he was called, turned out to be the successor to the throne under the new laws of the realm. But, even showing to have a great future and brilliant skills, he died of an illness when he was only six years old.
Loba would have two other children, one of them was chosen to be the successor of the Count of Coimbra. But now he realized the mistake of changing his law too early. He now had different heirs both to the County of Coimbra and the Duchy of Porto, according to the different ruling laws of the later. But the Count of Coimbra could not change anything now, and so he decided that things would stay so.
The wife of the old woman who currently held the Duchy of Porto died, and he arranged another one. She was from the distant lands of the East, but could never give a direct heir to Nuno. They had two children, one of them, a male heir, died at a young age. Soon, the wife of the Duke was tired of him, and became depressed with her fate in these distant lands. She remembered the forests of Russia, and missed them, but there was nothing that could take her back to her lands.
The fate of Portugal was now decisively changed.
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Most of these times would never be remembered hadn't been for the work of a few historians. One of them, João de Gomes da Silva, wrote the "Chronica Portucalense", the first report about the portuguese lands. It contains many of the customs of the portuguese people, as well as most of the stories about Sisnando the Coimbra. At that time, even the great kingdoms of Europe had few capable writers and historians, and this increased the prestige of the Count of Coimbra and made him, and the Duchy of Porto, famous to all Europe, but especially to the iberian kings.
Finally, in 1082, Sisnando de Coimbra died. Sancho, in theory his strongest child, inherited the lands. But João, who was the oldest son of the family, felt indignated with his fate of not having the right to inherit the lands of Coimbra. He certainly had visions of grandeur to the iberian holdings of his father. Being 13 years old, he read the great classical writings and admired them. But he was particularly fascinated with the foundation of Rome, and how Romulus killed his brother Remus in a bloody dispute. Sancho, his brother, was very young. One night, João came to his bedroom and strangled him.
Loba, who had already lost a son, cried for the whole next day, mourning for the lost of her dear child. Sancho was buried with all the honors they could provide. João, despite being know by all as the sole responsible for the murder, was spared from any punishment and became the Count of Coimbra. Soon, he would inherit the lands of the Duke of Porto and become the only ruler of all the lands of Portugal.
) with the Improvement Packs made by the generous guys at the Beta Patch forums. They made lots of improvements like adding several new cultures, changing some kingdoms and overall improving the game. So, here are the main game settings:
